Do you tune drums to the key of a song?

YES.

Not necessarily to the fundamental, but absolutely to a relevant tone. Ideally the one whose spectral band is not used much by other instruments.

I see a lot of people here downvoting the ones who say they tune the drums to a certain pitch, and I'll bet it's the same ones who make posts about being unable to get drum tracks to sound "full", but also get offended when given advice.

I dare everybody to try it before raging. All the pieces of a drumkit which have a membrane have a pitch, which is absolutely configurable. If you don't believe so or can't find it, it's not shameful to let someone who knows do it for you, and hear the difference.

Great sound comes from good prep; not compression or weird panning/stereo/eq tricks. Those are just the polish to a good recording.

/r/audioengineering Thread