do drums create harmonics?

[asherj123]

im doing an essay and need to write about harmonics in drums, do they even create harmonics? if so how? and how does it affect the sound?

[macleodgrant]

that's a very big question!

i'm not qualified to answer your questions but i imagine they definitely have harmonics in their sound with several fundamentals and harmonics in the attack portion.

the only sound that doesn't have harmonics would be a digitally created sine wave but as soon as it's out of your speakers or even before it's out of your speakers and interacted with components, wall, furniture, etc it will have harmonics

even digital to analog converters can add harmonics to the signal

but really, i'm not qualified at all to answer this (other than my experience) and maybe my above hypothesis is even incorrect but hey, who knows!

good luck

[organik]

of course they do ..LOL
if your tuning the drums lets say.... and you tap around lighly each lug on the drum head you have the pitch, if you take a tuning key and tap the same lug as close to the rim/edge of head youll hear the harmonic note.

[LouD.]

i believe with drums they're known as overtones

[projectMalamute]

yes, they vibrate at many different modes. However, the situation is more complicated than with a string or air column. A quick google found this picture of some of the different modes you get:

http://www.tabla.com/tablach1.html

[orange]

Originally Posted by LouD.

i believe with drums they're known as overtones

Strictly speaking, harmonics are overtones -the two words are pretty much interchangeable except the first overtone (octave) is normally called second harmonic.

In response to the original question - yes there are harmonics from drums. In fact much/most of what you hear is actually harmonics (this is true of many/most musical instruments). As pointed out, the harmonics from a 2D surface (drum skin) is far more complicated than that from a 1d object (string/column of air etc). Add an extra resonant head and the vibrations from the shell and things get very complex indeed. Most of the harmonics generated are 'inharmonic' in terms of western music....that is they are not octaves/fifths etc.

It is the balancing of these harmonics, to give a sense of evenness of tone, that is it at the core of drum tuning - something which I find bl00dy difficult !

[andy_simpson]

As has been said, you can break this question down into two parts.

The first part concerns the musical tones & 'over-tones' of the resonant drums.

The second part concerns the harmonic content/structure of the actual sounds of both the drums & cymbals being struck.

It would help if you could make clear where your question is intended.

Perhaps for your essay you could make some recordings of drums and show some analysis?

Andy

[HiString]

The first concern is whether the shell itself has excessive or unwanted overtones as regardless of head type or tuning, this affects the quality of the sound produced. If a shell has a dominant fundimental note with few overtones, then when set up and correctly tuned it will normally be a good sounding drum.

Timber type and density, construction method, mass and dimensions all contribute and just when you think you have the shell figured out, you go and add hardware and heads which changes the rules

[audiovisceral]

what i've never understand is why we don't tune our snare/toms/bd to the key of the song, like with timpanis.

explanations?

[lazzaro]

I'd recommend reading the Synth Secrets articles
concerning percussion and drums:

SYNTH SECRETS
SYNTH SECRETS
SYNTH SECRETS
SYNTH SECRETS
SYNTH SECRETS
SYNTH SECRETS
SYNTH SECRETS

The ones I listed are the ones focusing on the physics -- there are
other articles that focus more on how to get analog synthesizers to
sound like the physics. The entire list of Synth Secrets articles is here:

Search SOS Articles Database

[GloryisSilent]

Originally Posted by audiovisceral

what i've never understand is why we don't tune our snare/toms/bd to the key of the song, like with timpanis.

explanations?

Because the drummer would have to tune his drums for every song. That would take forever.

[audiovisceral]

Originally Posted by GloryisSilent

Because the drummer would have to tune his drums for every song. That would take forever.

i mean in a recording situation. some big studios change heads like guit strings for every song, i'm told. (crazy imo.) either way, good drums always take time, but i've still never heard of anyone tuning to a key ...

i'm guessing they don't have enough resonance/overtones to make it worthwhile.

[joeq]

Originally Posted by audiovisceral

what i've never understand is why we don't tune our snare/toms/bd to the key of the song, like with timpanis.

explanations?

firstly, some people DO try to tune their toms to specific notes. This was very popular in the single-headed tom days of the 70's and 80's. I think there is a thread here on GS about people tuning toms to the key of the song nowadays as well. . here it is

But besides the retuning for every song mentioned above, and other similar dilemmas (such as the need to stay off your mid tom during the bridge because a key change made that note "out" etc). , 'tuned' drums often sound wrong for many musical applications.

Percussion is often not meant to be 'in tune'. Otherwise, why not simply have a marimba or some pads with bass notes assigned to them?

think of a big orchestral bass drum vs the tympani. Most orchestras have both.
The single headed tympani produces a definite pitch

the double headed bass drum produces an indefinite pitch, which is more visceral, more an explosion of sound than a note. Which sounds bigger? Which sounds scarier? I'd pick the bass drum in both cases.

Cymbals and gongs could be constructed to ring like a bell instead of clank like sword or crash like a wave, but they generally are not. Even if you were willing to change it tune by tune, how cloying it would be if your ride cymbal was an endless series of C notes for a song that was in the key of C. ding ding ding

IMO drums are essentially Noise. Noise used in a musical way, but noise nonetheless.
bam boom crash
I find pitched sounds are often too 'polite' to make the grade as "drums" in the rock and roll sense.

[audiovisceral]

Originally Posted by joeq

IMO drums are essentially Noise. Noise used in a musical way, but noise nonetheless. bam boom crash I find pitched sounds are often too 'polite' to make the grade as "drums" in the rock and roll sense.

thanks. all well stated. agreed... to an extent.

neat tuning link.

[narco]

Interestingly most tuned instruments have overtones based on the harmonic series, however some percussion instruments such as bells have overtones based on minor thirds, people have also designed bells with major third overtones.

from wikipedia:

The untrained human ear typically does not perceive harmonics as separate notes. Instead, they are perceived as the timbre of the tone. In a musical context, overtones that are not exactly integer multiples of the fundamental are known as inharmonics. Inharmonics that are not close to harmonics are known as partials. Bells have more clearly perceptible partials than most instruments. Antique singing bowls are well known for their unique quality of producing multiple harmonic overtones or multiphonics.

Harmonic - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

this was an interestin article on harmonics in bells too:

Untitled Document


however if your essay is for a recording course as opposed to a physics or even music course then this will probably be beyond it, they will be looking more for how drum tuning effects the way drums gel in a recording

narco

[audiovisceral]

is all this why maple sounds more musical/warm than birch? more and/or more major overtones?

personally i prefer birch for toms/bd - power and impact but less pretty 'music' to clutter or cloud things up. at least so it seems.

on the right track?

[the man cable]

Originally Posted by audiovisceral

what i've never understand is why we don't tune our snare/toms/bd to the key of the song, like with timpanis.

explanations?

Well I'm joining this thread late but I have been working on this problem for years myself. It has tortured me over the years!

I think the science stuff is interesting but not particularly practical in the "hands-on" sense.

Here's some of the conclusions I've reached over the years (as usual, YMMV):

1. Tuning to the fundamental of the shell is not helpful, especially considering all the extra factors like hoop and height weight, as others have mentioned already. It only makes sense to tune the entire drum as a resonant system of Shell + Hoops + Heads.
2. Toms sound best with the batter and resonant heads tuned very close to each other. Depending on the sound you're after, you may prefer to tune the resonant head maximum one semitone above or below the batter head.
3. Snares are much more flexible and can be tuned for many different sweet spots.
4. Bass drums should usually be tuned pretty low, just above the "flapping" point, where they just begin to resonate.
5. It's best to first check out each drum on its own (with heads mounted) to find its lowest fundamental pitch and then move upwards until it begins to starts to choke. It depends on the drum of course, but you can usually only tune them about a 5th higher than the lowest fundamental. YMMV.
6. The entire drum kit has to be tune with itself (i.e., toms are melodic and snare overtones sit nicely) before you start to worry about song keys etc.
7. Once you have the kit in tune with itself, you can try tuning the bass drum and toms up or down by half steps to jive with the key of the song. Ringy snares should also be tuned to jive with the song, usually this is also a half-step up or down.

In practice, I've found that it's a pretty safe bet to tune a kit so that the toms and snare drum resonate for the most part on the white notes of a piano keyboard. In particular, tune the lowest tom (floor tom) to a white note (e.g., F, G or A often work on a 14" tom). I personaly like 4ths upwards (think Star Wars theme, "Gua-gua-guan-co" or "Here Comes The Bride") because this does not imply a specific key. 3rds will imply a key, so I'd only tune them that way if I wanted the toms to be very melodic.

One more thing, these rules apply to drum tuning for rock, pop, country R&B and all other fatback groove-based styles. Jazz kit tuning is a whole different ballpark and most players tune their drums waaaay higher than fatback kit.

Am expert on drum tuning is a guy named Bob Gatzen. Go check out his videos on Youtube, he talks about this stuff in detail and shows you how it's done. He's helped me immensely.

Over'n'out

[the man cable]

Originally Posted by the man cable

... think Star Wars theme ...

Dang McNabbit!
I meant to say STAR TREK, as in the first three notes played by the trumpets during the "Space, the final frontier" bit.
Probably not the best example ... "Here comes the bride" is the classic example.

[audiovisceral]

thanks man cable. good stuff.