In order to achieve acceptable drum tones, one must first get to know the parts of the drum set in general: The 3 toms are arranged from smallest to largest (left to right) and are known as high, low and floor toms, the bass drum (or double bass drum for advanced drummers) and the snare drum. Cymbals are normally available as ride (larger and with longer resonance) and crash (smaller and with shorter resonance) cymbals. The type of drum set (or the brand) to be bought is highly debatable and depends on subjective, personal tastes.
First logical thing to do is check each drum head and place them on with the corresponding rim size. For the entire tuning process, an apparatus called the drum key will be most useful. You will notice several lugs also known as tension rods located on every drum head. These are the mechanisms responsible for changing the drum's pitch.
As a generic step, turn these lugs only until it bites or when there is already a slight resistance. From hereon, do a quarter and a half turn per lug, making sure that each area of the drum head (where the lugs are placed), will sound the same when hit with a stick all throughout the drum head. Again, this step should be done on all the other drums. After this, adjust the pitch per drum as desired with the floor tom having the lowest pitch and so on. Here's a tip: tight drum heads will always produce a higher pitch while a loosely placed one will produce lower tones.
The snare requires that you adjust the underside of the drum where the actual snare (or a series of wires) is located, but only after you've performed the abovementioned steps on the snare head (or batter head). Adjustments on the snare either produce a type of sound or a dull, loose sound that resonates. If the snare is not clipped on, the snare drum sounds like a tom-tom.
For the bass drum, do make certain that you install the head properly to avoid creating any ripples since this may produce a weird flat sound. Bass drums are usually supported with pads from the inside (like pillow and foam) to create a more muffled, heavy sound.
With that said, the only things left to do are to study different types of drum beats and learn how not to hit your face with the drumstick when they are thrown in the air!
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