Drum Sound and Drum Tuning : Bridging Science and Creativity

Drum Sound and Drum Tuning assists drummers, sound engineers, and music students in learning critical skills related to drum sound and achieving an optimised and personalised drum kit set-up. The book covers the essential theories of percussion acoustics and develops this knowledge in order to facilitate creative approaches to drum tuning and professional-level recording and mixing of drums. All aspects of drumhead vibration, drumhead equalisation, and resonant drumhead coupling are de-mystified, alongside creative discussions relating to drumhead types, drum shell vibration, and tuning to musical intervals for different performance genres. The book develops drum sound theory and creative analysis into a detailed dissection of recording and production techniques specifically for drums, including discussions on studio technologies, room acoustics, microphone techniques, phase coherence, and mixing drums with advanced digital audio workstation (DAW) techniques and creative processing tools. Drum Sound and Drum Tuning includes many practical hands-on exercises that incorporate example tutorials with Logic Pro and iDrumTune Pro software, encouraging the reader to put theory into immediate creative practice and to develop their own listening skills in an informed and reflective manner. The book also documents primary interviews and opinion from some of the world's most celebrated drummers, music producers, and sound engineers, enabling the reader to connect the relevant theories with real-world context, whilst refining their own personalised approach to mastering drum sound. Drum Sound and Drum Tuning assists drummers, sound engineers and music students in learning critical skills related to drum sound and achieving an optimised and personalised drum kit setup. 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53 5.1 Harmonics and in-harmonic overtones 53 5.2 Musical intervals 56 5.3 Controlling overtones and intervals with the resonant drumhead 57 6 A holistic approach to drum tuning 61 6.1 Simplicity wins 61 6.2 Setting the fundamental pitch 64 6.3 Implementing lug tuning and resonant head tuning 65 6.4 Damping and decay times 66 7 The wonderful world of drumheads 70 7.1 Guitar strings on steroids! 71 7.2 The drumhead equation 73 7.3 Drumhead types and features 75 7.4 Resonant drumhead selection 78 7.5 Experience drumheads! 79 8 Timbre: the truth about drum shell vibration 81 8.1 Introducing timbre 81 8.2 Tuning fork example with mass loading 84 8.3 Drum shell vibration 85 8.4 Loading the drum shell 87 8.5 Bearing edges and precision manufacturing 90 8.6 Considering the drum shell vibration frequency when tuning 91 9 Tuning for different musical styles and genres 93 9.1 Creative objectives 94 9.2 Drum sizes for different music genres 95 9.3 Pitches and intervals on the kit 98 9.4 Tuning suggestions for different genres 101 9.5 Drumheads for different music genres 105 10 Snare drum tuning 107 10.1 Key aspects of snare tuning 107 10.2 Holistic approach to snare tuning 108 10.3 Manipulating snare drum timbre 110 10.4 Comparing snare timbre example 112 11 Kick drum tuning 114 11.1 Kick drum tone and dynamics 115 11.2 Drumheads for the kick drum 116 11.3 Kick drum tuning range 118 11.4 Controlling the kick drum timbre 119 12 Production and preparation for drum recording 121 12.1 Production and pre-production 121 12.2 Setting standards and getting results 123 12.3 Choosing and evaluating the recording space 125 12.3.1 Room size and dimensions 125 12.3.2 Room materials and reverberation characteristics 127 12.3.3 Sound isolation and background noise levels 128 12.3.4 Suitability for a room’s use in a recording project 128 12.3.5 Positioning drums within a room 129 12.4 Tuning and performance for recording 130 13 Fundamental technologies for drum recording 133 13.1 Microphones and transducers 134 13.1.1 Dynamic microphones 134 13.1.2 Condenser microphones 135 13.1.3 Ribbon microphones 136 13.1.4 Other audio transducers 137 13.2 Microphone characteristics 138 13.2.1 Microphone polar patterns 138 13.2.2 Other microphone characteristics 140 13.3 The complete recording signal chain 141 13.3.1 Audio convertors 142 13.3.2 Mixing desk 142 13.3.3 Microphone preamplifiers 143 13.3.4 Recording with signal processing effects 144 13.4 Monitoring and foldback 144 13.4.1 Control room monitoring 144 13.4.2 Headphone foldback 145 14 We need to talk about phase! 148 14.1 What exactly is phase? 148 14.2 Time delay and comb filtering 151 14.3 Mono compatibility 156 14.4 Signal polarity 159 15 Microphone techniques for recording drums 163 15.1 Microphone placement approaches 163 15.2 Stereo recording for drums 164 15.2.1 Defining the stereo field 164 15.2.2 Spaced pair technique 168 15.2.3 X-Y technique 170 15.2.4 Blumlein pair technique 171 15.2.5 ORTF technique 172 15.2.6 Mid-side technique 173 15.2.7 Baffled omnidirectional pair technique 176 15.2.8 Decca tree technique 177 15.2.9 Left-right-centre technique 178 15.3 Using spot microphone techniques 178 15.3.1 Kick drum microphone technique 179 15.3.2 Snare drum microphone technique 181 15.3.3 Tom drum microphone technique 181 15.3.4 Close cymbal microphone technique 182 15.4 Room microphones 183 15.5 Microphone choices for recording drums 184 15.6 Developing a personal approach 186 16 Mixing drums: balance and dynamics 189 16.1 Balance, panning, and bussing 190 16.2 Dynamics processing 193 16.2.1 Compression and limiting 194 16.2.2 Gates and expanders 199 16.2.3 Envelope shaping 201 16.3 Hybrid mixing 201 17 Mixing drums: creative processing 204 17.1 Equalisation and spectral processing 204 17.1.1 Cutting low frequencies 206 17.1.2 Treating the fundamental and overtones of each drum 207 17.1.3 Adding attack and presence 207 17.1.4 Controlling high frequencies 208 17.2 Using reverb to regain authenticity 209 17.3 Delay for drums 212 17.4 Distortion and enhancers 214 17.5 Sequential and sidechain processing 216 17.6 Drum replacement 218 17.7 The final mixdown 220 Index 222 Drum Sound,Drum Tuning,Drumhead vibration,Lug tuning,cylindrical drum,Snare tuning,kick drum tuning,drum recording __Drum Sound and Drum Tuning__ assists drummers, sound engineers, and music students in learning critical skills related to drum sound and achieving an optimised and personalised drum kit set-up. The book covers the essential theories of percussion acoustics and develops this knowledge in order to facilitate creative approaches to drum tuning and professional-level recording and mixing of drums. All aspects of drumhead vibration, drumhead equalisation, and resonant drumhead coupling are de-mystified, alongside discussions relating to drumhead types, drum shell vibration, and tuning to musical intervals for different performance genres. The book develops drum sound theory and creative analysis into a detailed dissection of recording and production techniques specifically for drums, including discussions on studio technologies, room acoustics, microphone techniques, phase coherence, and mixing drums with advanced digital audio workstation (DAW) techniques and creative processing tools. __Drum Sound and Drum Tuning__ includes many practical hands-on exercises that incorporate example tutorials with Logic Pro and iDrumTune Pro software, encouraging the reader to put theory into immediate creative practice and to develop their own listening skills in an informed and reflective manner. The book also documents primary interviews and opinion from some of the world’s most celebrated drummers, music producers, and sound engineers, enabling the reader to connect the relevant theories with real-world context, whilst refining their own personalised approach to mastering drum sound. "Drum Sound and Drum Tuning assists drummers, sound engineers and music students in learning critical skills related to drum sound and achieving an optimised and personalised drum kit setup. The book covers the essential theories of percussion acoustics and develops this knowledge in order to facilitate advanced drum tuning and professional level recording and mixing of drums. All aspects of drumhead vibration, drumhead equalisation and resonant drumhead coupling are de-mystified, alongside creative discussions relating to drumhead types, drum shell vibration and tuning to musical intervals for different performance genres. The book develops drum sound theory and creative analysis into a detailed dissection of recording and production techniques specifically for drums, including discussions on studio technologies, room acoustics, microphone techniques, phase coherence and mixing drums with advanced DAW techniques and creative processing tools. Drum Sound and Drum Tuning includes many practical hands-on exercises that incorporate example tutorials with Logic Pro X and iDrumTune Pro software, encouraging the reader to put theory into immediate creative practice, and to develop their own listening skills in an informed and reflective manner. The book also documents primary interviews and opinion from some of the World's most celebrated drummers, music producers and sound engineers, enabling the reader to connect the discussed theory with real world context, whilst refining their own personalised approach to optimised drum sound"-- Provided by publisher