i use blackmax for batter and falam for snare side.

just wanted to share. this is a really helpful topic, really helpful forums too.

I use a pearl fxx (14 inch)with a remo cybermax batter head and a falam II snare side head. I crank the cybermax, which are basically a newer version of the tenduras, to a super high pitch. I don't pick a specific pitch because in marching applications, its is easier to keep in tune relative to each other than to a specific pitch (for snares) and depending on head setup the pitch can change every once in a while. I tune the snare side falams to a little lower pitch, again no specific pitch. An important factor in tuning and sound are the snare guts. I found that depending on its contact and tension on the bottom head the sound can be varied a lot ( I'm talking about sound in the dry range since I'm using KevlarŪ heads). For me, having the guts at a low tension worked the best for the sound i wanted, a short stacatto note with crisp snare response, because it gave more snare responce from the falam head than a high tension gut. When tensioning individual guts one should keep in mind to tune the first gut lower than the desired pitch and work up on pitch when you move up on guts to get all the guts at the desired pitch, because tuning one gut changes the pitch of every other strand of gut ( I hope you see my logic ). Also you can always cut some guts if you can't get that dry sound you are looking for, but once gone you can't get them back on so be sure about what you are doing. Anyways, thats how i tune my snare and i think almost everything i said has been repeated somewhere else on this forum, so i give those people credit for what i am spitting out on this forum.

Hey man my name is Livi and ill try and explan this in extreme detail.(This is my level of experteace)

Ok man, First you wanna get your drum keys ready. If you can get one drumset key and a marching snare key you are in good shape. But you need to have your snare key. they are cheap as crapp and cost mabey like 4 bucs at your local music store.

(In case you were wondering) The drumset key is small and compact. The Marching snare key or T handle (Popular for its Handle as a big capital T)Makes your life 10 times easyer by letting you crank those kevlars nice.

Step One: After finger tightning your screws get your drumset key and and turn them at 90 degree angles. Repeat with bottom head. Keep tightning until you hear an annoying *Crack Crack* sound. keep going with your drumset key until tuning gets inbarible. leave it to strech for 45min to 1 hour.(repeat if nesserary)

Step Two: After streching make sure you check and see if the screws are still tight. Here is the hard part, Now grab your marching snare key and turn your key at 90 degrees again IMPORTANT Tune in a star fashion. Start at bottom screw, tune then go directly up, tune go one screw to the left, tune then go back to the bottom screw dont TUNE AGAIN YET!! now at the bottom screw go one screw to the right so its making a straight line from the last screw you just tuned. and so on and so forth.(This will make your head sound absolutley gorgous.)every once in a while hit the drum so u can hear its sounding better. when the top head sounds decent swich to bottom head and repeat be very slow this can break on you from tuning to hard.

Step 3:Here is the fine tuning. If i were you i would leave it for a while again just to be safe,But you may continue. Repeat the star fasion tuning but tune in smaller degrees like mabey 50 or so. get a drumstick(Preferbly a marching snare stick) and first hit the middle of the head. contune tuning till the head sounds nice and high and u like the sound.Now take your stick and lightly tap the very edge of the head. If you hear a difrence in sound fix it.(this can take a while lol) when the sides are leveled of well hit the center again and the top head should sound really nice. if not keep fine tuning and be careful you dont want to rip it.

Step 4: Your top head is tuned congratulations! now repeat with bottom head DO NOT TUNE TO HIGH!! Tune slowly and hit the the drum so you notice the diffrence. When you feel comfortabe with the sound take you thumb and press the center down a bit and hit the sides of the bottom drum and level them out.

Last Part! Step 5: You wanna tighten or lossen the cat intestine(thats what they were made out of back in the day lol) the material which gives the snare the popular buzz sound. go to the side and loosen all the way so it sound like you turned the snare off. now slowly tun the knob and u will hear a snare sound come slowly. keep hitting your drum while you are turning the knob. when it sounds perfect you have completed the tuning prosses my friend.

Give your drum a hit and it should sound orgazmic lol hope i helped man. Good luck!!

Does anyone know what head combo PR used this past season? I really liked their wet sound. I know they used Black Max's for the batter head, but did they use mylar on the bottom? Maybe their sound was a result of thier tuning, but I was just curious.

i know this is kind of random but i notised that alot of lines with the blackmax heads will put the remo crown (or logo for any other head) closest to them. is that so that the logo will not smear all over the drum when played on alot or is that just preference. and also i am purchhasing a new marching snare (yamaha sfz) and i was wondering what a good head combo would be to compliment that drum.

thx

PR has used a Falam II on the bottom for the last few years. At least since Paul got there ('03).

Disclaimer... This is not my response, but Bret Kuhn's. I'm not Bret Kuhn (wish I was) but this is what he had to say from http://www.remo.com/portal/pages/drumming/product_tips/Ask+The+Experts2.html

"QUESTION: This question is for Bret Kuhn.
I think that the concert bass drum sound of the Cavaliers is the best of any I have ever heard. I just love it! What size drums, head type and tuning scheme do you employ to get that fantastic sound? Also what tuning schemes do you employ in the battery? Do you tune to specific pitches or just relative intervals?

Thank You
Matt

BRET'S REPLY:
Hey Matt,
Thanks for asking about the tuning scheme for the concert bass drums and the battery. We do have specific pitches for tuning all of the membrane instruments. The concert bass drums are 40" and are tuned to a C#, the batter head is a Fiberskyn III and the resonant side is white plastic. Often times people tune the concert basses too low and they don't resonate properly. As far as the battery goes, here is the tuning scheme for this past year. The snare tops are white max and tuned to an A and the bottoms are the 3-mil thin plastic/clear (SA-0314-TD) and they were tuned to a D#. With the tenors we used Suede Emperor Crimplock on everything except the shots and there we used the clear Emperors. The pitches are as follows- 14"-B, 13"-D#, 12"-F#, 10"-A, and for the two 6" shots the low was a B and the high was a D#. The bass drums used Ambassadors (BR-12XX-MP) for heads and were tune in perfect 4th's. 32"-D#, 28"-G#, 24"-C#, 20"-F#, 16#-B. We really strive to create a sonority with all of the battery voices and tuning changes from year to year depending on the musical needs of the group. I hope this helps and gets you thinking about what you want to hear from your drums.

Take care,

Bret Kuhn
Percussion Arranger Cavaliers Drum and Bugle Corps."

Also check the link up top out he's got a lot of great stuff about marching drums. Real interesting stuff.

I've seen that before but I never noticed that the spacing between drums 3 and 4 on the quads was a major third (B to D#) as opposed to the usual minor third. Interesting. Also with the snares being tuned to A and D# (the evil tritone), I know I've seen him say before that he uses A and D, so that increased interval is kind of interesting as well, I wonder how big a difference a half step makes?

I don't know, but it sure sounds great. My HS line used they're tuning for the first part of last year. I didn't like it because It's way too full and dark for a small HS line. We covered the rest of the band, so we ditched that plan and went a little higher.

I skipped over most of the posts and i do apoogize. I am going to purchase a snare drum for personal use, at the moment it looks like it will be a 13 by 9 pearl articulite indoor snare and i was wondering on tips to get a nice wet sound like the one in this video.

http://www.pearldrum.com/wgi2007/video/sanmarcossuper.html