Ep. 4 How to Tune Up a Calfskin Snare Drum Head

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Ep. 4 How to Tune Up a Calfskin Snare Drum Head

Рет қаралды 9,664

6 жыл бұрын

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Welcome to the next video in the animal hide drumhead mini-series! If you haven't watched the calfskin overview video, definitely give episode 3 a watch: • Ep. 3 The Truth About ...
In this episode you'll learn how to:
1. Prepare a new calfskin head to be mounted on a snare drum
2. Mount the head on the drum
3. Tune up the drum
4. Detune the head after installation for the collar to begin forming overnight.
👂🏼👉🏼🥁
Hosted by: Cody Rahn
Production: Ben O'Brien Smith @ Cadence Independent Media
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Пікірлер: 33

@Bigsbeee Жыл бұрын

Brilliant as always - Just fitted an old pair of calf head's to my 40's Radio King 13'' tom. Man I never thought it would fit - my shell does not seem over size as modern head's fit fine. These calf heads have RADIO KING Slingerland stamp on them. I wish I had seen this video first as the 'damp' edge seems a great idea. I'm very pleased with the tone and they feel AWESOME under the stick. I have a 12'' RK tom also which came with original calf and that is a 30's drum .

@garysmith3173 6 жыл бұрын

After seeing your video I purchased my first calf skin snare head. Fitted to my John Gray snare. IT sounds FANTASTIC. Thankyou thankyou thankyou!!

@SoundsLikeADrum 6 жыл бұрын

Congrats! Glad to hear it.

@0riole11 4 жыл бұрын

Great video, not the first time I've watched it, I use it as a reminder for when I'm putting new heads on a kit, using Kentville batter and reso on all drums, the snare side heads sound so good. Just a quick one, I've had success with over stretched rawhide heads by putting them in warm water until they feel like a chamois and then letting them dry, they end up billiard table flat in a few hours, with a slight crease where they were seated before. After that I just put them back on as normal.

@Percupedia 3 жыл бұрын

Nice video!!! Thanks a lot for sharing!

@Klaasytsma 6 жыл бұрын

This is so nice!!!

@SoundsLikeADrum 6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@rhythmfield 3 жыл бұрын

Not a major omission, but just pointing out, bottom/snareside head is not mentioned. This is true with most drum videos. snare-side head is a neglected subject, and the world would have many more great sounding snare drums if just a little more attention would be given there. For example, in the rare cases where someone has a calf snareside head (suggested new rule of drum grammar: let’s just make that a single word), of course one would have to detune it for storage. also, tuning of the bottom head really matters. I will be mentioning it in upcoming videos. All that aside, let me say that your presentations are really fantastic, a touch of dry humor, really well thought out and solid information.

@cymbolic_space1832 Жыл бұрын

did you ever upload that snareside video? im thinking of going full calf on all my drums. any brands to reccomend? its a mapex saturn bop kit, maple walnut. 12 and 14 tom, 18 bass drum, and a 13 canopus the maple snare. thoughts?

@octaviohenrique.n Жыл бұрын

Thank you so much guys! Cheers from Brazil! I'm not a drummer, but I really enjoy the old school recordings, acoustic drums, mikes, preamps and so on, and I try to record my acoustic drums (trying to be a better player lol) the right and old way (here in Brazil everything is so expensive, also I'm not a very talented drum player, so it's kinda hard lol). My main snare is a Mapex armory Dillinger. I've put a Evans hidraulic coated (that red one) on top, going for a low deep and full tone, but ended up with a kind of dead sound, wondering if the problem is the skin itself (i saw many reviews of this skin and sounded different), if the problem is the tunning too low, or what... I'll try to lower the tunning of the bottom (side head), that i believe maybe it's too tight (hope i didn't ruined it lol). Loved this Clafskin Tone, and already want to have one in one of my snares. I'll search which one is good. The wheter is very wet here, maybe a low tune will be better for this kind of skin here to mitigate this problems... Thanks so much for the priceless advice, i didn't see any chanel as comprehensive as yours, that's why I made sure to watch all your episodes since the first! Already learnt so much!

@curtishill109 4 жыл бұрын

Useful that!

@NuDrums 6 жыл бұрын

Awesome resource. Another great vid.

@SoundsLikeADrum 6 жыл бұрын

Thanks for watching!

@BryceChristopherHodge 6 жыл бұрын

This is great! Random Thought: Adam Savage from Mythbusters and Tested LOVES those silica gel packs that sometimes come with shoes and vitamins, etc. and always keeps them for other uses. Any thoughts on tossing a couple of those in the drum case during storage? Seems like it couldn't hurt a calf skin head unless it's possible to over-dry it out. Thanks.

@SoundsLikeADrum 6 жыл бұрын

Ha! Now there's an idea - I wonder how much of an effect that would have, maybe useful if you're living somewhere super humid :)

@WeEmptyRooms 2 жыл бұрын

@@SoundsLikeADrum I throw them in my cases if storing anywhere susceptible to condensation.

@vipermad358 5 жыл бұрын

Just received a Stern Tanning Calf head in the mail yesterday. This one has a collar, instead of the older crease.

@robertlivingston6964 6 жыл бұрын

What do you know about EARTHTONE heads? Great show you have keep it up.

@SoundsLikeADrum 6 жыл бұрын

Thanks man! I’ve had a couple and they were pretty good! I wasn’t in love with the texture for brushes but they were super durable and had a crazy wide tuning range.

@nickdejesso9166 6 жыл бұрын

I’ve always been interested in calfskin, I use Evans calftone on all of my drums, from snare to bass, and I Evan bought the Evans strata 1000 concert snare head because that is suppose to replicate the vintage calfskin skin as well, thinking I can use that for recording, because my friend told me the calftone won’t cut through the recording enough. Anyways, the cheapest real calfskin head I’ve found so for is Earthtone, for around $40. Do you have any experience with those heads? They supposedly come pre-stretched to eliminate the process in this video. I am not worried about convenience, but for a college student $40 is a much better price than $70. Thanks for the great info and videos

@testabeatdrums 6 жыл бұрын

So how would I use this head? Like what gig is this head best for? Loved the video guys

@SoundsLikeADrum 6 жыл бұрын

Hey Nathaniel, thanks for asking! I feel like the most common use of this sort of head is in jazz situations since they really bring to life the sound of recordings from the 50s and earlier. That said, I actually use them primarily in singer/songwriter situations where the playing isn't super aggressive and relative mellowness/warmth is desirable when paired with acoustic guitars or piano. They are great for most any volume level, but I think the unique character comes across better at low to medium-volume gigs. Any situation where I expect to be using a lot of brushes/mallets/hands/other stuff in addition to sticks can really benefit from this sort of head too. Cheers!

@testabeatdrums 6 жыл бұрын

Sounds Like A Drum oh ok awesome that's great to know. Thank you for al the insight and keep killing it. Love what you guys are doing

@SoundsLikeADrum 6 жыл бұрын

Our pleasure man, thanks for watching!

@kushking420 4 жыл бұрын

@@SoundsLikeADrum I think of jazz right away, but they must be pretty cool for hard rock like the late 60's and early 70's

@JJPercussion1 2 жыл бұрын

Just bought a kangaroo head, and while I have put calf heads on before, I came straight here, juuuuuuust to be safe lol

@hinkemiki 4 жыл бұрын

is aplying a natural oil like almond or coconut any good for head dryness and durability?

@victorcarrillo8500 6 жыл бұрын

Really made me want to get a calfskin head now, I have the perfect drum for it! Great video and channel. Just to clarify something that came to mind, if the height of the rim relative to the head is the same on each lug, then does that mean the tension of each lug is the same all around? Or is the head not necessarily in tune just because the height is the same everywhere? And would it apply to both calfskin AND mylar heads? I'm asking because it would be a great way to tune a drum more accurately if one doesn't have a tuning bot. Anyway keep the great videos up :)

@SoundsLikeADrum 6 жыл бұрын

Hey there! Good question, and worth talking about. When the hoop is level, the head is not necessarily in tune at that point because no drum head (especially calf) is going to be 100% perfectly flat in and of itself, same goes for most hoops. In the case of a calf head, this process is about teaching the head to conform to the bearing edge AND the hoop in the same way so that when you then go to tune the head after it's had a chance to settle in overnight, you're dealing with a level head and level hoop. If you take a new calf head and just dig in and tune it up, because of the nature of the material you can end up getting the skin sounding in-tune, but have some lugs dramatically tighter than others and end up with a bent hoop and an un-tunable head in the future. I see old drums in this condition all the time. Calf is terrifically elastic vs. a mylar batter so you have to take this kind of thing into consideration. Because of how thin snare-side heads are, I treat them the same way. The rim height business with those also influences the behavior of the snare wires, so that's a whole other thing. If you're a tunebot fan, i'd say get your calf head level and seated as in the video and let it conform to the drum, then try the bot on it and see what you get. Hope that helps!

@zublefar 4 жыл бұрын

Could you help me with one thing? I asked local drum builder to do a calf head for my snare. And since I'm doing it first time and he's mostly working with frame drums, I'm not 100% sure that i chose right side of the skin for playing surface. When you get a new calf head which side is more smooth? Or are thry both the same in smoothness?

@SoundsLikeADrum 4 жыл бұрын

Hey there! I honestly don't know exactly, with the heads i have both sides are fairly smooth. I think I'd for sure want the smooth side to play on, especially for brushes. I'd talk to someone who makes them often, maybe Ryan at Bovid percussion. - Cody