Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Tuning Your Drums Quickly and Easily


Do you play the drums? Do you have trouble keeping them in an accurate, consistent tuning?





Keeping your drums in tune is vital if you want to get the correct sound and pitch out of your drums. If the tension isn't consistent around the whole drum, the tuning will fall flat or sharp. 

Traditionally, tuning is carried out by using a drum key and tuning each lug around the drum until all sides sound consistent with the desired pitch.



This can be time consuming and, to a person who has no prior knowledge of tuning or the method to receive the correct pitch, inaccurate. Tuning relies on the tension being consistent on all sides. There have been pressure sensors developed to read the pressure of the drum head, but none that have been combined WITH a drum key.

My design would be this: a pressure sensor attached to a drum key, which would be controlled by a tuning mechanism. The desired pressure would be set by the control; then, the pressure sensor would read the current tension of the drum head. The mechanism would then turn the drum key until the desired tension is reached. 

Not only would this save time during performances and at home, but the accuracy of tuning would be flawless and each drum would resonate with perfect sound each time.