Tuning sound clip? - any one submit one?

[Bataboom]

Hey guys I just got my new quinto here at home Im wondering if anyone would be interested in sumbitting an mp3 file sample recording of a 3 conga tuning set up of C- Bb -G
quinto - conga - tumba

I have nothing here at home to compair to except a box of harmonicas which I find that hard to match. I think it would be a great help to have someone with a tuning sound clip of the 3 congas in them keys.

Thanks, if you prefer emailing to me personally you can.
I ripped this from a video file of Luis Conte tumba, quinto then the conga plays a few times does this sound like C-Bb-G?
Luis tuning tumb-quint-conga



Edited By Bataboom on 1136696389

[Diceman]

Hi Bruddabataboom,

The recording sounds like A for the tumba, between C# and D for the middle and F# for the quinto.
But recorded tuning depends on musical context, and I can hear no melody instrument on your recording. If you drop two semitones down from the tumba to G and sing the first two notes of 'Here Comes the Bride' you will get the conga note, then go up two semitones from the conga to get the quinto.
Easier still invest in a set of chromatic tuning pipes, mine cost 12 pounds ($15???).
I normally use your G Bb C tuning live, but will adjust for recording. You may have noticed that on some tunes your congas sound more musical, because the tuning just happens to fit the tune.

Personally, I dont think there are any golden rules to tuning, hence the debate, but some are better or more musical than others.

I am sure the brothers and sisters on the forum will have much to add to help you. Thats what its all about!!

Suave
Diceman

[Bataboom]

chromatic tuning pipes,

is this a pitch pipe that you blow to get different notes through? To test singing keys etc.?
Like this...
[url=http://cgi.ebay.com/SINGERS-Chromatic-PITCH-PIPE-Vocal-and-Instrument-C-C_W0QQitemZ7379153986QQcategoryZ64388Q
QrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem]http://cgi.ebay.com/SINGERS....iewItem[/url]



Edited By Bataboom on 1136728260

[ABAKUA]

Im sorry, but from that sound clip in the first post, that has got to be some of the most horrible tuning Ive ever heard.

Electronic tuners? What ever happened to having a good ear? Since first being introduced to a tumbadora 20 years ago I have never ever used anything to tune the drum other than my ear.

Listen to recordings, find a tuned pitch that you like and imitate it, watch videos/dvd's of accomplished percussionists, when you like atuning you hear, follow that.

Watch good percussionists perform, see how they tune..

Most importantly, find a good mentor. There are good players or teachers out there, seek one out! You start with bad habits, it will be very hard to shake those bad habits when the day comes that you want to get serious about the drum.

The "how to tune" topic has been done to death on this forum many times, use the search function, you find it will help answer many questions, plus its a good way to revive old conversations and see what else has been contributed.

I typed 'tuning' into the search function.. here are some results.
Click on the following link for the threads which appeared.

All the best.

http://www.congaplace.com/cgi-bin....93;st=0



Edited By ABAKUA on 1136730221

[Diceman]

Bataboom,

Exactly the one I have.

Abacua,

Yea Conte's tuning is godawful and I agree, a good ear is the best, but anyone with perfect pitch is gifted and in the minority, even amongst musicians. What we should be able to do is tune one drum to pitch then use our ears for the interval between drums. On gigs , I ask the piano player for a note then do the rest myself. Is that is what you mean, or are you lucky to be one of the gifted few?

BTW I hear you are having one #### of a hot summer.

Sauve
Diceman

[ABAKUA]

Word brother, fukin hot is an understatement. We have been sweltering in Sydney! Some of the hottest days recorded in history over the last few weeks leading into Christmas and New Years.. more of the same forecasted. Though we did get some rain not long ago, isnt sticking around though, back to hot as fuk 2moro.

As for the tuning, na bro, never asked a piano player or bass player etc for a note.
All by ear, all my life.
I follow the school of Jorge Alfonso 'El Niño', Tata, Anga, Giovanni, Changuito and the tumbador of early Dan Den, as well as what my mentors explained and showed me for my tuning. I learnt by ear how to tune the drums. I regularly receive compliments on my tuning/sound of the drums, however I do not claim to have perfect pitch, but Ive never had a problem or dispute regarding my tuning.
I come from 'la vieja guardia' ie old school/traditional method of learning. My earliest lessons (apart from learing correct position infront of the drum and basic sounds, technique etc) involved tuning, untuning and tuning again, learning how to take care of the drum, the skin etc. learning correct tuning. Patterns, forms, rhythms etc came after. Learn how to crawl first, then how to stand up, then how to walk and finally how to run. :;): :laugh:



Edited By ABAKUA on 1136732785

[Diceman]

Respect bro,

You are truly one of the gifted few, better make a donation to the bank now, and I dont mean money :laugh: :laugh:

But seriously, as a melody player also (sax) I feel that all drums should be complimentary in tuning, tumbadoras, timbales, bongos, kit, so that the melody of the percussion works with the music.
My twopenneth.

I hope you arent getting too fed up with BBQs and cold beer, as if!!

keep running dude!!

Diceman

[Bataboom]

Well im still new to tuning, and I have done it by ear this far, its just never seems "right on" all the time and I dont have the time to sit there and play with my tuning when I get there to play people are there and I cant just do the tuning thing as I would like, minor adjusting yeah but thats about it. When I get my other dums here at home I will be able to play with tuning more, for now all I have is the quinto. So a good starting point would be from tumba to quinto = Do Fa & Do?
and Im a terrible singer so this will come out bad from jump street ! lol

[SkinDeep]

CHEMBO CORNIEL SHOWS HOW TO TUNE WITH A CHROMATIC TUNING PIPE IN HIS VIDEO GETTING STARTED ON CONGAS.
CHANGUITO AND GIOVANNI BASICALLY TELL YOU JUST MAKE THE SHIT SOUND PLEASANT AND NOT ANNOYING IN EVOLUTION OF THE TUMBADORAS.

WHAT I DO IS UNTUNE THEM ALL THE WAY, THEN I TIGHTEN THEM MANUALLY WITHOUT THE WRENCH UNTIL IT CAN'T GO NO MORE (WITHOUT USING FORCE,OF COURSE) THEN I GO ONE BY ONE TILL I FEEL THE RIGHT TONE. THAT'S THE WAY IN THE STREETS OF PERCUSSION.
TAKE YOUR CHOICE,THISOR THIS



Edited By SkinDeep on 1136760224

[onile]

Kiambote! Mis hermanos!

You know, I believe that there are so many of us who have just come from the ol'school of tuning, that we haven't the problems that some of the newbies have. No pun intended of course.

I normally start my tuning of the bottom drum (my lowest), I don't know if it's in key, dude I don't even care, what I listen for is the "booooom!" the fundamental note/sound. If I could get the impact of the "Iya" (enu), now that would be where I would start, but since it's only a tumba/supertumba, I go with the lowest sound possible. You can figure the lowest note in the drum by listening to it, once you loosen it and start tuning, if it rattles, then tighten up just a quarter turn on the tension rods, and hit the drum each time that you do. Of course, doing what abure SkinDeep recommended is always a safe way to start, and that is loosening up the head, and starting from scratch. In time you grow to know where the sound is, and then you move on to the next.

Like abure SkinDeep referred to "THAT'S THE WAY IN THE STREETS OF PERCUSSION.", you find the sound you want, only try not to make them sound too high in pitch. You'll know then, that you've totally screwed up and need to start again.

Peace abures!

Onile!



Edited By onile on 1136764781

[Bataboom]

I understand what you Bro's are saying that is how I tune my drums at church, I can always find that sweet spot on the first drum I start with, but what I find hard is to get the others exactly in tune to the first. To me its not hard to find the good spot on the first but the following 2 if you dont have just right you can tell by hearing, but what im after is not trail and error but isnt there a sure fire way to do this... I tried a digital tuner like the one in your picture, it just dont work too well picking up the sound of the drum.

So can someone answer that at least that would give me a good start to tune to "Do, Fa, and Do" ? Starting with tumba, conga, then quinto? At least that would get me in the ball park.



Edited By Bataboom on 1136787433

[windhorse]

Someone has already replied to you that you can use the nuemonic - "Here comes the bride.." for Do Fa.
That way you can start with "here" on the tumba, "comes the bride" is on the conga, then the Fa which is now the conga becomes Do. So, you start over with "here" on the conga, and move to "comes the bride" on the quinto.
So, you see, each Fa becomes a Do when you move up the drums to compare the next up to the one lower.

Also, you should check the overtones of your drum on each head before moving up to higher drums. You can do that by stopping the middle of the head from vibrating with a finger, and tapping about an inch or two from the bearing edge in front of each lug. You go around the drum and listen to the overtones. If some are lower or higher you tighten and loosen accordingly. (this is the tricky part for me, and after two years of practice am only beginning to reach proficiency)
On a five lug head, they generally work in threes. So, if one is higher, then two others across from it will probably tighter.


>So can someone answer that at least that would give me a good start to tune to "Do, Fa, and Do" ? Starting with tumba, conga, then quinto? At least that would get me in the ball park.

[JohnnyConga]

I just sent this to see if it could be sent....and how do we download a dvd clip of live music????.....anybody here know how?..."JC" Johnny Conga...

I just tried to send a music clip and it wont go thru withthis msg??????

[ABAKUA]

Too big in file size JC. The forum software wont support it.

You need to get the clip/file hosted online to a site, then link the url of the file (online) to the forum, where it can be viewed or downloaded.

Hmm... me thinks you deserve this now :p :laugh:



:laugh:

[windhorse]

Abakua,, you are hilarious!

:laugh:

If you don't have space on your own server to hold sound clips, I'm sure there are several folks here that wouldn't mind housing something good that you might want online.