Drum Tuning System - Mike Michalkow Options

[Jared Falk]

This is the *official* discussion thread for the Drum Tuning System.

Drum Tuning System « click this link to learn more about the Drum Tuning System at Drum-Tuning.com.

Use the "Add Reply" button above to post your questions or comments.

[Poco Askew]

I already did a review of the Drum Tuning System (which I won shortly after joining FDL). I copied it here since this looks like where it belongs.

Drum Tuning System review
I figure the best way to review the DTS is to tell you what it covers. Like all RRM "Systems" it is well done - nicely produced and uses multiple camera angles whenever they help explain something or make a procedure more clear. If you view everything, it is over four hours long.

Basic Tuning Guide
After a brief introduction, Mike covers the tools and materials you should have available and use. He then goes over the correct names of drum parts and pieces. Next comes kit maintenance. Mike shows cleaning and/or polishing wood and metal shells, chrome hardware, and cymbals. The final part of this section is setting up and adjusting single/double bass drum pedals.

The rest of the disc is the real "meat". On to changing heads on each drum; snare, bass, and toms (removal, installation and seating). Then bass tuning, snare tuning (heads and snare wires), tom tuning (hi, mid, low/floor). There are lots of tips and techniques to make maintenance and tuning easier, as well as muffling/dampening techniques.

Drum Tuning Tips
This disc covers tuning for various music generas and kit config's for those styles. It covers rock, latin and jazz music. Then Mike talks about tuning for the studio and working with the sound engineer. The next section is tuning troubleshooting (overtones, wrinkles in heads, etc.). Finally, Mike discusses muffling techniques. The last part of this disc is bonus material (3 drum solos and 2 jam tracks).

Are there any negatives? Not really. Mike recommends WD-40 as a lubricant. I think many of you know what I think of the stuff. The only other thing I can think of is I would like to have seen some coverage for tuning drums to specific pitches (fourths and/or fifths, for example), and a discussion on the effects of tuning the reso heads tighter or looser than the batter heads. I may be the only one that cares about that stuff.

If you are new to drums, or can't do a tuning on your drums that make them sound the way you like, then DTS is for you. If you don't know how to change/seat heads or pick the products that will work best for you, this will fix you up. There is excellent info that should be part of every drummer's knowledge base.

I hope this helps.

This post has been edited by Poco Askew: Dec 24 2008, 09:18 AM

[T-Trav]

The DTS was a great tool for me to have during the first time that I tuned my snare drum. Being new to drumming and having never played a drum much less tuned a drum, I was really nervous when it came time to tune my snare. After watching the DTS advertisement in the drum shop, I had a somewhat reassuring feeling and felt that by ordering it, I would learn to tune my drums and learn how to hear when a drum is in tune.

All of my fears were relieved when I tried to tune my snare with the DTS for the first time. Mike takes you through a step-by-step process in breaking down, cleaning, and rebuilding(for lack of a better word) and tuning the drums. Mike gives you an in depth view of his opinions and tips when it comes to tuning. And like Poco said above, he also breaks down the different genres tuning and tips on how to get your drums sounding like the music that you want to play.

After trying to tune my snare for the first time, I was able to tune my reso head to the point of almost tune. Unfortunately, I had to take my snare to my drum teacher due to my snare wires being somewhat off from me switching the heads. My teacher had to only slightly tweak the tuning. He was really impressed with the way I tuned the reso head for my first try.

I am greatly impressed with the DTS. I would recommend it to ANY drummer that is questioning their tuning techniques or is unsure how to tune their drums. My only recommendation to Mike or RRM is to maybe include a section in the lesson on how to reattach and realign the snare wires that way there is no extra resonation. Other than that it is a great, great DVD and teaching instrument.

[cjs033]

The DTS was a great tool for me to have during the first time that I tuned my snare drum. Being new to drumming and having never played a drum much less tuned a drum, I was really nervous when it came time to tune my snare. After watching the DTS advertisement in the drum shop, I had a somewhat reassuring feeling and felt that by ordering it, I would learn to tune my drums and learn how to hear when a drum is in tune.

All of my fears were relieved when I tried to tune my snare with the DTS for the first time. Mike takes you through a step-by-step process in breaking down, cleaning, and rebuilding(for lack of a better word) and tuning the drums. Mike gives you an in depth view of his opinions and tips when it comes to tuning. And like Poco said above, he also breaks down the different genres tuning and tips on how to get your drums sounding like the music that you want to play.

After trying to tune my snare for the first time, I was able to tune my reso head to the point of almost tune. Unfortunately, I had to take my snare to my drum teacher due to my snare wires being somewhat off from me switching the heads. My teacher had to only slightly tweak the tuning. He was really impressed with the way I tuned the reso head for my first try.

I am greatly impressed with the DTS. I would recommend it to ANY drummer that is questioning their tuning techniques or is unsure how to tune their drums. My only recommendation to Mike or RRM is to maybe include a section in the lesson on how to reattach and realign the snare wires that way there is no extra resonation. Other than that it is a great, great DVD and teaching instrument.

I must be going crazy...I thought I saw this package available for $27.00 just yesterday...now it's $47.00...is that correct? Did the price go up or is there a special discount for FDL members who have already purchased the rock drumming system?

Thanks

[Gilligan]

Hi Guys!

I first wish to congratulate you on a great product. I've had the Drum tuning system DVD's lying around for some time and had not bothered looking at it since I was using a e-drum for the past six months - no-tuning required .

Last week, I finally took the plunge and purchased a used Yamaha Rydeen 5-piece fusion kit. After setting it up, I realized that some tuning was in order... the mid-tom had a lower pitch than the floor tom, doh!. This being my first accoustic set, and my first tuning experience, I really appreciated the "tuning for dummies" approach of the DVD. I was able to confidently perform a complete overhaul, remove all the heads (they had been fitted and played upside down) cleaned and wiped everything, reassembled and tuned every drum. Wow, I couldn't believe how easy it was. I'm sure the set could sound better, but I was easily capable of bringing it to an "acceptable" tuning level.

I do have one question, Mike gives general tuning ideas for rock, latin, and jazz. How about a Blues setup? Can you provide me with general and/or specific guidelines for tuning my kit for playing blues?

Thanks!

[pearl0863]

Hi Guys!

I first wish to congratulate you on a great product. I've had the Drum tuning system DVD's lying around for some time and had not bothered looking at it since I was using a e-drum for the past six months - no-tuning required .

Last week, I finally took the plunge and purchased a used Yamaha Rydeen 5-piece fusion kit. After setting it up, I realized that some tuning was in order... the mid-tom had a lower pitch than the floor tom, doh!. This being my first accoustic set, and my first tuning experience, I really appreciated the "tuning for dummies" approach of the DVD. I was able to confidently perform a complete overhaul, remove all the heads (they had been fitted and played upside down) cleaned and wiped everything, reassembled and tuned every drum. Wow, I couldn't believe how easy it was. I'm sure the set could sound better, but I was easily capable of bringing it to an "acceptable" tuning level.

I do have one question, Mike gives general tuning ideas for rock, latin, and jazz. How about a Blues setup? Can you provide me with general and/or specific guidelines for tuning my kit for playing blues?

Thanks!

IMO Gilligan I would think that the rock tuning would be the same that you would use for blues. I may be wrong on this but rock and blues are so closely intertwined that I think that would be the case.

[Jared Falk]

IMO Gilligan I would think that the rock tuning would be the same that you would use for blues. I may be wrong on this but rock and blues are so closely intertwined that I think that would be the case.

I would agree with this and tune blues as though you were playing rock. Unless you were playing a very acoustic sort of blues/jazz..then I would recommend doing a hybrid tuning between jazz and rock. Hope that makes sense

[Drumlugs]

I already did a review of the Drum Tuning System (which I won shortly after joining FDL). I copied it here since this looks like where it belongs.

Drum Tuning System review
I figure the best way to review the DTS is to tell you what it covers. Like all RRM "Systems" it is well done - nicely produced and uses multiple camera angles whenever they help explain something or make a procedure more clear. If you view everything, it is over four hours long.

Basic Tuning Guide
After a brief introduction, Mike covers the tools and materials you should have available and use. He then goes over the correct names of drum parts and pieces. Next comes kit maintenance. Mike shows cleaning and/or polishing wood and metal shells, chrome hardware, and cymbals. The final part of this section is setting up and adjusting single/double bass drum pedals.

The rest of the disc is the real "meat". On to changing heads on each drum; snare, bass, and toms (removal, installation and seating). Then bass tuning, snare tuning (heads and snare wires), tom tuning (hi, mid, low/floor). There are lots of tips and techniques to make maintenance and tuning easier, as well as muffling/dampening techniques.

Drum Tuning Tips
This disc covers tuning for various music generas and kit config's for those styles. It covers rock, latin and jazz music. Then Mike talks about tuning for the studio and working with the sound engineer. The next section is tuning troubleshooting (overtones, wrinkles in heads, etc.). Finally, Mike discusses muffling techniques. The last part of this disc is bonus material (3 drum solos and 2 jam tracks).

Are there any negatives? Not really. Mike recommends WD-40 as a lubricant. I think many of you know what I think of the stuff. The only other thing I can think of is I would like to have seen some coverage for tuning drums to specific pitches (fourths and/or fifths, for example), and a discussion on the effects of tuning the reso heads tighter or looser than the batter heads. I may be the only one that cares about that stuff.

If you are new to drums, or can't do a tuning on your drums that make them sound the way you like, then DTS is for you. If you don't know how to change/seat heads or pick the products that will work best for you, this will fix you up. There is excellent info that should be part of every drummer's knowledge base.

I hope this helps.

I have this dvd and it is realy good and educational but I wish it was in a format that would work my laptop computer. They should burn them in a way that it works on both dvd players and computer/ laptop players. This way I can take my laptop out to my drums and go over the video and my kit at the same time. At the moment I have to watch it on the dvd player then go out to my drums and then by the time I get there I have forgotten some of the important aspects of the drum tuning. Is there any way around that.

[Poco Askew]

I have this dvd and it is realy good and educational but I wish it was in a format that would work my laptop computer. They should burn them in a way that it works on both dvd players and computer/ laptop players. This way I can take my laptop out to my drums and go over the video and my kit at the same time. At the moment I have to watch it on the dvd player then go out to my drums and then by the time I get there I have forgotten some of the important aspects of the drum tuning. Is there any way around that.

Odd. They play OK on both my desktop and notebook computers.

[Jared Falk]

I have this dvd and it is realy good and educational but I wish it was in a format that would work my laptop computer. They should burn them in a way that it works on both dvd players and computer/ laptop players. This way I can take my laptop out to my drums and go over the video and my kit at the same time. At the moment I have to watch it on the dvd player then go out to my drums and then by the time I get there I have forgotten some of the important aspects of the drum tuning. Is there any way around that.

They do work on all laptop computer DVD drives...It must be on your end as they are all tested on many different types of players.