Korg Forums

[WaveDrummer]

OK folks,

I really think this one needs a topic all to itself. So here we go...

There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding regarding the "tuning" issues when it comes to the head on the Wavedrum. I can only share my own experience from having worked with dozens of different Wavedrums around the country, and from my decades of experience in drum retail and as a lifelong drummer myself.

I will direct this towards drummers, non-drummers, Wavedrum owners and non-owners alike. If some of this sounds overly obvious, it is only because my intention is to inform as large a group as possible.

First off:
Forget about any notions of actually "tuning" the drumhead in any conventional sense. Due to the fact that there is a transducer pressing up underneath the front edge of the head (which is why the logo section of the Wavedrum is located where it is: it offers protection to the tranducer) and the fact that there is a large pressure sensor located underneath the center of the drumhead, there is no actual resonance to the head like a real drum would have. There is no acoustical tone or pitch to the head like an acoustic instrument would generate.
It is much like the sound of hitting a Remo practice pad or any other pad that involves a real drumhead.

Lower tensions offer more options:
It has been my experience that if the head is tightened too much, you will actually lose some of the dynamic response and sensitivity. This can very clearly be demonstrated with the Tabla Program. If the head is too tight, the pitch-bending that comes from pressing on the head will be greatly reduced. More significantly, the actual tone and resonant sound of the Tabla will be reduced if the head is too tight. It will sound as if the Tabla itself were a bit muffled or "choked."

What is too tight?
As drummers, our first instinct, if a drum doesn't sound or feel the way we expect to, is to tighten the drum head. This might be effective with a real snare drum, but the Wavedrum needs to be looked at as a separate instrument in a category all its own.

For one thing, no matter how much one tightens the head on a Wavedrum, it is never going to feel like a conventional drum (snare or tom). It will never have a tight or bouncy feel like one might expect from a real drum--and you wouldn't want it to (more on that later).
Again, the underlying sensors, alone, would prevent the head from ever actually feeling "bouncy."

Plus, the head will only go down so far before "bottoming out" or reaching a point where you can't tighten it anymore. Also keep in mind that it only has five tension rods. Most 10" snare drums have 6 tuning points and most 14" snares have 8 to 10. My point is that with only five, only so much torque can be delivered to the head and rim.

As far as any damage to the sensors due to over-tightening, personally I haven't found that to be possible. But I suppose anything is possible. As stated above, the head is only going to get "so" tight anyway.

So how SHOULD one adjust the head?
Great question!
As I have stated, I find that a lower tension will make the Wavedrum a more responsive and expressive instrument to work with. If you start with a new head and loosen the tension rods just to the point of almost rattling (or what drummers often refer to as "finger tight"), you can then proceed to gently tighten each tension rod by 1/4 or 1/2 turns, working your way around the drum in whatever way is easiest. There is simply no need to apply any criss-cross method to this. It is just not necessary. Trust me. Again, the uneven pressure of having a transducer under the head will negate any attempts of getting the head "in tune" or perfectly even all the way around anyway. But that's OK. It just doesn't matter.

After a few (perhaps 4 to 6) times around you should begin to feel a natural resistance to the drumkey. Again 1/4 to 1/2 turns of the key should more than suffice. If you really want to check consistency, flip the Wavedrum over and you will be able to see just how many threads of each tension rod have passed through the nut that holds them in place! Just don't obsess over this. It's not healthy.

After a moderate amount of tension has been achieved, you should be good to go. It is normal, depending on your playing style, for just one or two tension rods to come loose from playing. If this happens, just give those tension rods a few turns and get back to having fun! Of course if the head is too lose, to the point that tension rods are rattling around etc, that could have a detrimental effect on the performance as well. So just use common sense.

When to replace the head?
It is usually time to replace the head when visual wear seems to be excessive. As mentioned in one of the other threads, the head that the Wavedrum ships with (with the exception of Black) will probably be the least durable head you will encounter. Almost any replacement head will last longer. Don't worry too much about this as drumheads are still fairly affordable. It's just the nature of that particular head.

I have come across Wavedrums in stores with heads that were so badly pummeled, from countless customer workouts, that the overall response of the Wavedrum was severely reduced. If the use of brushes, or light taps to the head, ceases to be as effective over time compared to when it was new, you might be ready for a head change.

What is the perfect tension?
Easy. There isn't one! Think about this. The Wavedrum is designed to simulate everything from snare drums, to congas, to steel drums, to timpani, to tabla, to galactic explosions and everything in between! No one, singular tension or adjustment is going to cover all those different playing experiences or accurately reproduce the "feel" of both a hard metallic surface and a soft skin head at the turn of a dial. So don't think of the Wavedrum as a simple a collection of all those other instruments. It is not. It is its own instrument. In a word, it is a Wavedrum! And that's what makes it so incredibly cool, and the experience of playing one so amazingly exhilirating! And that is what makes us, as "Wavedrummers" to be the adventurous explorers of a new and uncharted domain in search of sounds and textures unlike any ever before available--all in one, glorious instrument. It is a Wavedrum!

Final thoughts:
Keep this in mind if you are worried about getting the "right" tension on the head, in terms of performance. For the 2011 winter NAMM show, the Wavedrum Oriental that I used was straight out of the box and not once did I make a single adjustment to the Wavedrum in any way, or tune the head at all. I did demonstrations for eight hours straight; three days in a row; over and over and over and over and over again. It never failed me once. All the videos you see from that show will testify to that. It performed perfectly...right out of the box!

To futher that point:
I have traveled all over the U.S. doing Wavedrum demonstrations for various dealers. At each stop, the only thing I have ever had to do, was to re-apply a little tension to the head as described as above, or sometimes back the tension off if the head had been over-enthusiastically tightened! (In those rare instances when the head had already been pummeled, I simply replaced the head entirely). Never once was it necessary to make any adjustments to the transducer sensitivity or pressure sensor height. That's just my experience.

With that in mind. Although the owners manual recommends recalibrating the Wavedrum after changing heads, personally, I have yet to find that to be necessary. Maybe that's just me. But again, I've literally played on dozens of different Wavedrums, and often for hours-on-end without any issues arising.

Here is one of my more thorough demos of the Oriental:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYLWcc_LDeQ


WHEW!
That should pretty much cover it!
Any questions?

[Bertotti]

Thanks for posting this! You have no idea how long and how times I kept trying to start over to get a consistent tone near the edge all the way around. I notice that certain areas on the head with headphones on sound different when played, should I work with this or is there supposed to be a bit more uniformity when listening through head phones. I currently just treat it like a zone system some spots will just be a bit darker or brighter which is just a few more available nuances at the same time.

Of course now I am going to do it again because from your description I bet I have the new Remo a bit tight.

[winged EEL]

Yes, thank you for this very informative and insightful posting.

It really clears up the confusion for me!

[WaveDrummer]

@Bertotti

Just to clarify:
I never have the Wavedrum even turned on when I'm changing or tuning heads. This is a good idea for a couple of reasons. The transducer underneath the front edge of the head is extremely sensitive. If you were listening to the Wavedrum through speakers or headphones, and you hit that transducer with the head off, it would probably not be very pleasant. You really shouldn't touch that transducer at all!

The "zones" you are referring to are more to do with simply how near or far you are, on the head, from the transducer. For non-owners, there are no "zones" in the traditional way of thinking of that. People will often ask me, "How do you know where the different sounds are?" There is a common misconception that different sounds are "location based." But that is not the case. The transducer reacts more in the way that a microphone does. Playing different areas of the head will be more like playing different areas of a real drum. On a real drum, there will be a natural separation of overtones and various attack characteristics depending on how close you play to the center of the drum or the rim

On the Wavedrum, singular sounds, like a djembe, will respond in much the same way as the real thing. That is the genius of Wavedrum.
On programs that incorporate multiple textures and voices, these sounds are primarily separated by velocity (how hard you are hitting). But there will also be some differences according to how close you play to the center or edge of the Wavedrum. Not because these sounds are assigned to specific "zones" or locations, but because the head itself is reacting differently depending on where it is hit. A different reaction from the head (like you would get from a real acoustic drum) will create a different reaction from the transducer. This is what makes the Wavedrum so realistic.

But back to the original point:
Turn the Wavedrum off when changing and "tuning" the head. Don't focus on how the head "sounds" acoustically. It's just not part of the equation. Transducers can be attached to all sorts of objects and still do their job. The use of a drumhead is as much for familiarity as it is for function. I've performed with transducers attached to pumpkins and triggered a separate sound module. I'm completely serious. You'd be amazed what a fantastic trigger surface a pumpkin is! But a pumpkin embedded into a Wavedrum would be a messy proposition indeed. And replacement drumheads are always in-season!

[Charlie]

Super, super thread - million thanks for clarifying this!
I have wondered already why tuning of an electronic drum should be necessary. I have to tune my Bösendorfer, my Fender, my Pearl drums - but never my Oasys!
So it boils down to: finding a tension that gives you an overall good feeling while playing the very different drumsounds on the WD. No tuning is needed and there are no rules - as long as I feel good with the current tension of the head and have sufficient control while playing. Great!
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[Bertotti]

Well I did change the drum head with the power off. I then tried to tune it by the #s then tried to tweak it like a real drum head, acoustically. I did get close but then when On like you said , proximity to transducers made all of that a waste of time. I didn't know any better so I tweaked and tweaked and tweaked, well lets just say, I found out the hard way that a good even and not overly tight head works the best. Now there are a couple days I won't get back. Anyway we live and we learn, hopefully!

[br232]

i have to chime in here. I just dont agree with wavedrummer and i dont think he is giving sound advice.

i have spent the last few days experimenting with many head tension variations. I have ultimately found that following Korg's instructions on tightening the head to be optimal.
it leaves the head tight, and gives it true drum head snap and bounce, while acheiving maximum dynamic range, sound control and flexibility

the reason wavedrummer has issues with a tighter head is b/c he does not calibrate his head. particularly not calibrating the head tension is simply disastrous on this instrument.

the head tension is a very sensitive setting, and also very easy to adjust. if it is wrong- for example if you tighten the head without recalibrating, you experience all the symptons wavedrummer describes. the drum will essentially be stuck thinking its head is being muted, and pressed, and you will not get the right sounds at all.

further, if you leave the head loose, all the drum sounds will sound like they are being played with a loose head.. yeah this instrument can pick up on that too. amazing. the tablas for example, will sound floppy and loose compared to snappy and tight

using the tabla, or any other drum as an example when testing is a great idea.

dont mean to offend, just trying to help

[WaveDrummer]

[mauriciomarques]

Hello,

Please, someone can tell me what´s the tuning key size for WD?

Thanks

[WaveDrummer]

It's just a standard drum key, nothing special. They're available everywhere.