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Title: Brushes and Tuning Post by: eardrum on February 04, 2008, 12:07 AM Something dawned on me this week :o I've always been a bit frustrated when I pick up the brushes because I don't get much out of the toms when striking them. Listening to a song recently (don't remember which), I realized that the toms were tuned quite high. Now I've known that many jazz kit setups use toms tuned high but it just clicked that the toms sound better with brushes when tuned that way. I generally tune low since I mostly play rock/R&B.... so this is, according to my new theory, part of the reason the toms sound blah.. I'll have to experiment a bit with this but want to hear if you tune differently when using brushes.
So, for those of you playing brushes, is my theory correct? Title: Re: Brushes and Tuning Post by: donelk on February 04, 2008, 12:37 AM That's my thought as well. Toms that are high and ring.
Fun, isn't it! Title: Re: Brushes and Tuning Post by: boomka on February 04, 2008, 07:35 AM Something dawned on me this week :o I've always been a bit frustrated when I pick up the brushes because I don't get much out of the toms when striking them. Listening to a song recently (don't remember which), I realized that the toms were tuned quite high. Now I've known that many jazz kit setups use toms tuned high but it just clicked that the toms sound better with brushes when tuned that way. I generally tune low since I mostly play rock/R&B.... so this is, according to my new theory, part of the reason the toms sound blah.. I'll have to experiment a bit with this but want to hear if you tune differently when using brushes. So, for those of you playing brushes, is my theory correct? It's a matter of the brushes not generating enough force to cause a loose drumhead to vibrate a whole lot. In jazz contexts where I play a lot of brushes, I most certainly do tune higher. Title: Re: Brushes and Tuning Post by: Bart Elliott on February 04, 2008, 10:29 AM It's a matter of the brushes not generating enough force to cause a loose drumhead to vibrate a whole lot. In jazz contexts where I play a lot of brushes, I most certainly do tune higher. Or I would word it like this ... that there's not enough weight and force coming from the brush to move the air inside the drum once it strikes the drumhead. Jazz drum tunings are typically higher for all the reasons mentioned. Dynamic range, controlled sound, reaction time, etc. If the Tom head is tight, it takes less effort to get a full sound from the drum. You can tap the drum and get a full sound. If the drumhead were loose on the Tom, you'd have to lay into it more, more energy to move the skin to excite the air inside the drum to create the full sound. The air has to move enough to excite the resonant head ... if you want the full sound from a double-headed drum. The lower the tuning, the slower the vibration and air movement. Title: Re: Brushes and Tuning Post by: David Crigger on February 04, 2008, 10:46 AM Basically agreeing with Bart here - I play brushes with pop tom tunings (lower) a lot. You just have to snap more, be even more articulate, and really pull the sound out the drum. In other words, the brush isn't going to do ANY of the work for you.
David Title: Re: Brushes and Tuning Post by: drumnut1 on February 04, 2008, 12:53 PM I have been playing/recording with brushes here lately and so far, the only thing I have changed is going to Coated heads. I have tuned the way I always tune. Low.
Seems like it is working for me and the recordings have sounded pretty good too. I am sure however that Bart, David and Chris have all played with brushes way more than me. Just something I started doing again after many years of not even owning a set of brushes. I am having fun with them though. Nutty |