Drumtune PRO | Drum Tuner 4+

Mostly great... but tuning can be tricky

Pretty much everything about this app is great as far as the organization of your various drums and their settings/intervals.

However, the actual tuning function is useless for me. I tap near a lug and the app says I’m -7Hz, tap again in the same location with the same force and it says +21Hz, tap again -6Hz, tap again +18Hz...

I’ve watched every single video and read the tips, but nothing I try will allow me to consistently tune any of my drums.

Oh well, I will still use the app because I like how I can catalog my drums and store their preferred settings. But for the actual tuning I will have to find another solution.

Update: Developer has since uploaded extra training videos and I feel more confident in the app’s ability to accurately tune. The more I use the app the better I understand how it responds to tuning and overtones, etc. Although I do wish the app had the ability to detect wild pitch readings between hits and perhaps pop up with potential reasons/solutions for the readings.

Developer Response ,

Update: Thank you for updating your review and also thank you for your nice suggestion with regards to the pop-up... (We'll play with that suggestion for a while to see what we can come-up with.) We're glad that the extra information has been useful. Also nice to hear you get better results, now you're more familiar with overtones and how to use the app with regards to them. If you have any questions or suggestions about the app, free to reach out to support. A Happy NY!
Previous response: "


Thanks for the compliments with regards to the organization of presets!
However, the tuner should work great too! Therefore, please reach out to support@drumtunepro.com, and allow us to jump-in with feedback where needed. You didn't contact us, but we're sure you will get perfect tuning results!

Since you say the app's tuning function is useless for any of your drums, please check the following videos of how the app works next to another tuning solution, and how it can deal with overtones when they are present: ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SaGBRrzLiWk )

To show how to get consistent results, also check this video, wherein a drum is tuned to a certain tone, and thereafter detuned fully in a completely uneven manner, and then tuned again to the same tone to get a consistent and repeatable end-sound:
( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHVbiF1O92k&t=64s )

In general, it seems you may have gotten some overtone interference when detecting a lug pitch. These over-tones are physically present in the timbre of a drum sound. While this interference can be annoying, depending how the app is used, it deals with these overtones properly without interferrence, as you can clearly see in the videos above. If you're tuning a head within the tuning range, it's probably solved by a small tweak to the usage flow, therefore we would like to have the opportunity to offer support and get you going, when you contact us. Thanks so much!"

Best way to tune my drums

Since using the Drumtune Pro app, my drums have sounded their absolute best. I can select pitches for each drum, even intervals, etc. plus store it all. I especially like the organizational functions for creating various tuning presets. I create my own, but you can download more options. I play Gretsch USA Customs, drums known for “That Great Gretsch Sound”. This app helps me get that sound I listen for.
Once you learn how the program works, it becomes a more and more useful tool. It takes time to learn and understand what it does and why. It’s great when I change heads and need to re-tune to the same fundamental pitch. Fast.

UPDATE from customer: Why drummers should jump on the Drumtune Pro app: I just bought a second set of Gretsch USA drums and used the Drumtune Pro to tune them up. I’ve used the app for many months, having discarded other tuners that weren’t nearly as useful. Having already learned how to effectively use the app (users must understand overtones), I was able to tune up the new kit in minutes! I used the same tonal settings as my other kit to compare the results. A perfect match!
This app is as good as $100 tuners using similar technology and saving me 90% of the cost.

Developer Response ,

Thank you very much for the review, Keikitc!
We are happy to hear the app comes in handy to make your drums sound at their best.
It's a pleasure to hear that you create your own 'customized' tuning presets. (While the app offers built-in tuning suggestions as a reference point to get one started, the ultimate goal of the app is to be a useful tuning aid that assists drummers in exploring the sound potential of their drums.) While the app helps to keep track of pitches visually, a drummer can tweak the heads, listen to the effect & make tuning decisions based upon how the drum sound is affected. Once a good sound is found, the tuning you have created can be stored as lug pitches per head in a custom tuning preset, so it's easy to tune-up to that exact sound fast. It's nice to know that you use the app that way! Enjoy Drumtune PRO & Thanks again for the thumbs-up!

Drumtune PRO Review

This is one of the most excellent tools a drummer could come across, even if you are only getting to know your drums you will instantly learn the fundamental frequency range of each of your toms, as well as the correlating musical note(s), sound engineers love it when you walk in with a kit and can communicate like this (if they have the time, LOL). You can also send your resonant head frequencies to someone who may tune your kit b4 you get to where you are going. I sent one of my non-drummer friends some fundamental freqs to tune a kit he just purchased for his space, then told him to download the app and how to use it. The next day he sent a video of his kit sounding good enough for any drummer to play on it. -My only complaint is it wasn’t available when I was a kid….but neither were cell phones, LOL! Thanks for this!
Dave Weidenhoffer