begginer ?'s

jak · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 12:29 am Post subject: begginer ?'s

I have played guitar for about 4 years and after wanting a drumset for a long time I finally got one a couple days ago but I have a few begginers questions.

1.When tuning the toms what does it exactly mean when they say 3rds or 5ths apart does it mean 3 notes apart or what.

2.What exactly are overtones is it that ringing noise in teh background.

3.What difference does having a nylon tip on your stick make, The only difference I noticed is my cymbols sounded louder and brighter but it could have just been my imagination.

4.My set came with el-cheapo plasticky heads what are some good heads for rock and heavy metal.

5. If I use a chromatic tuner will it pickup the pitch the drum is at.

6.What are some good lower priced cymbols The crash that came with my set is ok (for now) but I want to get a ride and splash.

7.Is a rimshot when you hit your stick on the rim of the drum.

8.When tuning my drums where should I start
top head or bottom
low med high tension
toms snare or bass

9.Is their any way to make the drums quieter but not be distorted or choked sounding.

10.I like the way corky laing and lars ulrich's set sounds how would I go about getting mine to sound close to theirs.

Thanks for any help you can give it is much needed and appreciated
Also is there any dvd or cdrom format lessons that you could recomend.

Animalien · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 12:51 am Post subject:

1. The top heads will be a 3rd below the bottom heads. Technically it's a minor 3rd difference. It's a musical term. Look at a piano, then think 3 piano keys from the note. For instance, if you hit the "C" on the piano, you would then hit "C#", "D", "Eb". That would be a minor 3rd above C.

2.In a way, yes. An overtone is another note that plays even though the drum head is not tuned to it. If you tuned the top head to "C" and the bottom to "Eb", those two would push out other notes.

3.Wood tips have a duller sound on drums. Nylon have a brighter sound. Different shape tips will pull different sounds, just like difference size sticks would make things louder or softer.

4.There are many different brands. You may want to go to your music store and talk to the drum pro about that.

5. A tuner could pick up the note, but most tuners need a second to figure out the note. So I would say "no" a tuner would just get confused.

6.Once again there are a lot of different preferances on this board. You may want to talk to your drum pro.

7. A rimshot is where you hit the drum with the stick AND hit the rim at the same time. It makes the snare "POP" and gives definition.

8.Top head first, then muffle the top head and tune the bottom. Muffle the bottom and retune the top. Muffle the top and retune the bottom. Then take the muffles off and test the drum. Repeat the retuning until you aare satasfied.

If you don't know what to tune to, just think about it in your head. Sing out a tom roll. That is what you want to hear.

9.Yes. You can get natural skin heads which sound more mellow than synthetic heads. You can also get oil skin heads which have a layer of oil inbetween two plys of the head.

10. Listen to their set and try to understand the drums. There are a lot of factors in that sound - one is that the sound engineer made those drums sound sweet. It could be that once you take the microphones off, the drum set sounds horrid.

Good luck. And most importantly, don't stress over sounds too much. Since you are new to this, it may be confusing. I highly suggest to culture your own sound. Like I said, sing out your drums. Those notes are what you want to hear.
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jak · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 9:58 am Post subject:

Thanks for all the aswers they helped a lot.

shaneohack · Posted: Fri Mar 19, 2004 11:21 pm Post subject:

Here's another tip. After you get your set sounding the way you want, have a friend come over and play it so you can get out in front of them and listen to the drums. What you hear back there can be alittle different from what everybody else will hear out front. As far as cymbals go. you have to decide sheet or cast cymbals. Sheet being cymbals that are cut out of one long sheet and cast being made one at a time. Sheets can be cheaper but tend to have a gong like sound. Your best bet is go to your local music store and hit some and get what sounds good to you. Very Happy

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jak · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 7:27 pm Post subject:

Well today I went to guitar center and they had 12" Wuhan chinas on sale for 10 BUCKS so I got one of them and I also found a used 10" Zildjian splash for 30 bucks I thought it sounded kinda cool so I got it too.

Anyone know a good song to play with my new cymbals

jak · Posted: Sat Mar 20, 2004 7:33 pm Post subject:

Well today I went to guitar center and they had 12" Wuhan chinas on sale for 10 BUCKS so I got one of them and I also found a used 10" Zildjian splash for 30 bucks I thought it sounded kinda cool so I got it too.

Anyone know a good song to play with my new cymbals