Drums Tuning POLL
We asked a number of questions about drums-tuning to a large number of drummers and here are their answers.
Drummers interviewed
What kind of drummer are you?
33,8% • Professional
33,3% • Semi-Professional
17,6% • Amateur
15,3% • Student
How important do you consider the tuning of the drum set?
53,2% • Essential
36,2% • Very important
9,2% • Quite important
1,4% • Not very important
How do you usually tune the drums?
53,7% • With my ears
30,7% • With my ears with reference sounds
12,4% • With a specific app or hardware
3,2% • Tuning? I beat the skins and stop
Do you think drum tuning is more important in a certain context than in others, and if YES in which one?
71,2% • No! It’s always very important
25,6% • Recording Studio
1,8% • Live (amplified)
1,4% • Live (acoustic)
What do you think sounds better?
92,2% • A well-tuned low-budget drum set
7,8% • A top quality drum set not well tuned
What do you think is most influential in achieving great sound?
49,3% • The quality of tuning
30,1% • The quality of drum heads
20,5% • The quality of drums
What do you think is most influential when the sound turns out bad?
60,7% • The wrong tuning
32% • Poor drum heads
7,3% • Poor drums
Think you know an effective method for tuning a drum set?
69,4% • Yes
30,6% • No
How easy do you find to effectively tune the drums?
49,5% • Hard
38,6% • Quite easy
10% • Very difficult
1,8% • Very easy
How long does it take to tune your drums satisfactorily?
55% • A long time
23,2% • Short while
14,5% • A lot of time
5,9% • Too much time
1,4% • Very little time
Usually, after tuning, how do you consider the result?
65,5% • Quite satisfied
20% • Very satisfied
10,9% • I am almost never satisfied
3,6% • I am never satisfied
How do you handle the sustain length or unwanted harmonics of your drums?
63,2% • I have to fix them with duct tape, gel, muffle, rings
34,5% • With the choice of the drum heads and the tuning
2,3% • I don’t manage them
How would you rate a method to be able to quickly replicate a pre-established tuning in any context and condition?
49,1% • Very helpful
42,7% • Helpful
6,8% • Not indispensable
1,4% • Useless
Do you use or have you ever used apps or hardware for drum tuning?
65,1% • NO*
22,6% • Hardware
12,3% • App
*Drummers who answered “NO” to the previous question did not answer the following blue questions
How would you define them?
64,9% • Reliable
23,4% • Unrelieable
10,3% • Very relieable
1,4% • I Don’t know
What is your impression about them?
49,4% • Not too easy
40,3% • Very intuitive
5,1% • Complex
5,1% • I Don’t know
What is your impression about them?
71,4% • Quite usefull
16,9% • Very effective
9,1% • Useless
2,6% • I Don’t know
You think they…
70,9% • …increase the possibilities of the drummers
16,3% • …I don’t know
12,9% • …limit the drummer’s creativity
How do you think electronic hardware allows you to tune with respect to the ears?
52,5% • Tuners are more precise and effective than ears
38,1% • I don’t know
9,4% • Tuners are less accurate and less reliable than ears
How much would you be willing to spend to buy a tuner that allows you to quickly and flawlessly tune your drums by predetermining pitch and sustain for each of them and that prevents annoying resonances between the pieces of the set?
45,3% • 30 – 50 $/€
22,9% • 80 – 120 $/€
16,6% • 15 – 20 $/€
8,5% • Shut up and take my money!!
6,7% • 0 $/€ – I would not use it out of bias
Did it take you more or less time to complete this poll than to tune your snare drum?
55,2% • Less time for this poll
34,1% • About the same time
10,8% • More time than tune the snare drum
These interviews and responses were collected through a private and anonymous survey by Larsen Premoli in February 2022 carried out through a Google-link. All these data – taken individually and as a whole – are the exclusive property of RecLab Studios. Use or publication by unauthorized entities or persons is prohibited.
SO, WHY DRUM TUNERS ARE NOT YET A STANDARD ON THE MARKET?
