ok cool but now the tuning i wanna learn how to so bad sumbody give me some advice i dont want to ring out but still have sum kinda deepest to it i play quaret and sum of these cats dont care about it but i dont wanna be like everybody else
I prefer small drums to large drums. Small drums will actually sound deeper and bigger on tape. The main reason for this is that you can tune a small drum lower and keep tension on the head. A big drum tuned low will give you a "thunk" or have a nasty curve to it, almost like a really crazy vibrato. My prefrence is a 16x22 kick, 9x10, 10x12, and 12x14 toms and a 5x14 snare. This is a nice middle of the road kit that can be tuned well for a variety of rock, pop, metal and jazz sessions. A thinner, lighter shell will resonate more then a heavier thicker shell. Also, lighter hardware is better, but you don't want junk on there. The biggest thing that affects sustain is the amount of holes drilled in the shell and the quality of the hardware. The less the better and the cleaner the installation the better. Also, make sure the bearing edges (the edge of the plywood that the head sits on) are smooth.
Ok, let's talk about heads for a little bit. A thinner head like a Diplomat will have a higher fundamental pitch and longer sustain then a thicker head like an Ambassador. A coated head won't have the sustain of a clear head. A clear head will also give you more attack. A pinstripe/Evans G2/Aquarium Studio X is two heads put together, so obviously it'll have less sustain, and a lower pitch which makes them popular for live work. 6 out of 10 drummers will put clear Ambassadors on the top and bottom of their toms. The rest of the guys will use pinstripes or something similar.
Ok, now that we've picked our heads, let's put them on. We'll start with the first rack tom. Take the drum off the mount and place it on a flat surface like a tabletop or a floor. Take the old heads off and save them unless their really beat. If you have coated heads, you don't want to see through them. If you have clear heads, change them before they get cloudy. You want to change both the top and bottom heads. Even though you don't hit the bottom head they still wear out. After a few months, they stretch and dry out and you lose tone. The top head will affect the attack and the inital pitch. The bottom head will affect the overall pitch and sustain of the drum.
Ok, take the bottom head (Evans G1 or Remo clear ambassador) and put it on the drum. There are three methods to tightining the lugs. #1 would be to tighten every other lug. #2 is to crank them in a star pattern. #3 is to tighten opposing lugs. Which ever way you choose, you want to keep the tension on the head even and make sure that there aren't any wrinkles. Take the head and crank it way past the point that you want it. This will stretch the head out and seat it against the bearing edge. You want to hear the head snap and crack a little bit. After it's cranked, hit it with your stick once and listen to the pitch. Now, push down on the center of the head and all around the edges. You'll hear it crack again and the pitch will drop. Congrats!!! You're strecthing the head out. Tune it up again and repeat the process 2-3 times. Now flip the drum over and repeat the process for the top head. Now that you have both heads strecthed tight we'll attempt to tune the drum.
From here make sure you tune each lug the same tension to keep the head and tone even. I personally tune to the key of F n 4ths with O-rings on my drums or a small piece of duck tape to take out unwanted overtones.
