drum tuner EZ 4+

Best value tuning app

Thanks for a great app! While I think it’s important to learn tuning by ear and repetition, for some (myself included), that can take years to get good at it. However, this app helps me to quickly get a good sound so I can spend more time playing without cringing from unwanted overtones, pitch bends, etc.

The only question I have, is what are your recommendations for heads that have more attack than tone when stuck near the lug such as bass heads like Powerstroke 3 with an inner muffling Mylar ring? I feel like I get varied readings on those situations without making any adjustments.

Overall, great tuner- thank you!

Best two dollars I ever spent!

Really wonderful, simple app.
Allowed me to tune inexpensive toms, that had lots of overtones, into singing toms and give voice to previously muffled kick drum.
One must read or know beforehand what frequency toms should be tuned to.
I used free Tune-bot calculator and Tune-bot tuning guide to figure out.
Thanks again

Developer Response ,

Thank you!

Don’t buy If You Don’t Already Know How to Tune Drums

I am a guitarist and can play drums a little. I bought my grandson a set of drums, put new heads on them, then got this app in order to tune them. However, there are no instructions within the app that tell you how to use it. I even went online and viewed videos of people using this app, in which no one said anything and additional electronic equipment was used in conjunction with this app in order to tune various drums. I thought it was supposed to be easy. Hence, this app is useless to me, and I can’t get a refund either. A waste of time, effort and money.

Developer Response ,

Those videos show how this +/- 2 USD app performs next to a +/- 100 USD drum tuner.
One that's familiar with electronic drum tuners may conclude that this app is performing well.
This app is lean and simple, but some basic tuning-knowledge is a prerequisite.
At this budget, this drum tuner doesn't have the ambition to also be a course on drum tuning.
Nonetheless, we attempted to render the app self-evident to beginners. If it's not, we are happy to provide info and tips on how to use our drum tuner.

While it's common practice to tune guitars following a standardized tuning, there's no standardized way to tune drums. You can tune a drum how it sounds nice to you.
Tuning a drum is less "one-dimensional", compared to tuning a guitar because a drum's sound is mainly the result of the interaction of both heads, the shell, hardware, and the trapped air inside the shell, and outside of the drum.
Drumheads also behave differently from a guitar string when it comes down to overtones & timbre.


The main principle behind drum tuning is:

1) HIT CENTER with both heads vibrating freely to hear the fundamental tone of the drum. The fundamental tone is the result of the interaction of both heads vibrating simultaneously, the shell & the air. The heads may vibrate at different speeds when they're tensioned differently. The trapped air inside a drum shell 'couples' both heads, enabling that low fundamental tone of the drum.

2) HIT NEAR LUG with the one drumhead muted to hear the lug pitch near the impact location. (Unlike with guitar strings, drumheads produce inharmonic overtones. From time to time, these interfere when hitting near a lug. If that happens, it's annoying. Hit again, or pick another lug. Using a mallet can help, and placing the drum on a flat surface too.)

3) KILLING OVERTONES & FINE-TUNING. Detect a correct lug pitch & press "SET TARGET" to set the lug pitch as "tuning target". Clear all lugs to target in small steps per lug.

A quick & dirty way to start:

1) Begin with a slack head & gently press it in the center.

2) Keep light pressure and tighten all lugs evenly until all wrinkles just start to disappear. Follow a star-pattern at first to ensure even seating.

3) Repeat for both heads. Check the sound. Both heads will be at a similar tension now, slightly varying depending on their thickness & mass. (Similar to a string, at the same tension & diameter, the thinnest and lightest head would have a higher pitch than the thicker, heavier head.)

These are some elementary rules of thumb:
Don't tension the heads too low. Avoid that they are too slack to resonate properly.
Also, don't tension them too tight, so they aren't too rigid to resonate properly.
Stay in between.
You can tune both heads further apart in tension by leaving one head looser while only tightening the other.
This will affect the dynamics of the sound, the tone & timbre, and the playing feel. (EG. Tune the batter head tighter for more attack emphasis and stick rebound/articulation.For the same fundamental tone, tuning the top head higher than the batter head, will give you decay dynamics, rebound, attack & timbre that is bright and direct, tuning inversely will mellow it down... Tuning for close miking from the top, can be very different than tuning for acoustic projection in a room. Listen to how the drum sounds from the sides. The further you tune heads apart for a given tone, the more different the projection becomes. )

For (floor) toms: your typical (floor) tom sounds cool for rock/pop when tensioned above wrinkling. Tuning the bottom head higher than the top head can give you dramatic decay dynamic, for a thunderlike floor tom sound. Combined with a loosely tensioned top head, there's quite some tension contrast possible between both heads wherein it'll work, especially at deeper sized shells.

For a snare drum: it generally works better when you crank the reso head much tighter than the batter head. The ring-sound of the snare drum mainly consists of the lug pitch of the batter head. It's important that it's well-cleared to get that balanced ring-sound.

For a kick drum: keep the batter head slack, but not so slack that it doesn't rebound the beater well. Tune the reso higher to help the beater's rebound and promote 'tone' at the audience's side. (Mute the heads with damping material to attenuate overtones.)

It may be nice to tune to ballpark estimates as a guide when you don't feel comfortable following your gut feel for the overall sound. There's "Drumtune PRO", a more advanced app at a higher price point, and a free app of "Tunebot".
Both apps provide estimates for tuning drum heads to reach a target fundamental tone.

For a person at the start of the tuning-journey, it takes experimenting to become enough familiar with the instrument at hand to know which tones & lug pitches are best selected.
Thus we'd encourage following your gut feel at first to develop awareness.
Roughly keep track of the pitches while exploring, to get insight.
Adjust both heads and observe the changes in sound & feel. When you arrive in the sound & feel range you enjoy, fine-tune the heads by clearing them with the app.
Once mastered, there's a myriad of sounds you can get out of the same drum with the same heads.

You might want to look into buying a 75-100 USD mechanical tuning aid like a "Drum dial" or "Tension watch." You may feel better about such an investment. These tools require little insight into drum tuning. They help to tension heads +/- evenly around their circumference, still the sound is the result on how you their tension is, so also here you need to listen carefully before clearing the heads.
Different tools offer different approaches to drum tuning. Each approach has benefits and drawbacks.

Reach out if you wish to put in the further effort. We'll put effort into providing further support. Thanks!