Tuning Drums - it works great!

[migumartinez]

hi all,
we had a thread about this some time ago.
I now made a little track useing tuned drum sounds.
And i personally i am surprised about the improvements in sound you can get using this technique.

i use a A tuned kick and snare.
the bass is tuned D.
And hihat and clave are in E.

I can recommend this subtile technique that makes really a difference.

if you want have a listen:

http://soundcloud.com/muziggy/diggin...-do-not-listen

A question: how can i find out the tune of drum sample. this time i used shots from a sample libary where all drums where in C. but how to work with other samples?

[ebot9000]

Tuning the kick is sometimes the solution when the low-end sounds muddy with the bass and kick together, but each sound is fine on its own. I've found myself scratching my head as to why I couldn't get the bass and kick to blend until I realized I had to tune the kick to the bass.

This is why people will go as far as to hire dedicated drum tuners for live drum recording sessions. Conga players do the same thing - have you play the track before you record, so they can tune their congas to fit nicely with the key of the track.

Check it out though... even though your sampler says all the kicks are tuned to "C," they probably aren't actually tuned to the note "C." They are probably just attached to the MIDI trigger note "C" – meaning if you play the note "C" on the keyboard, you'll get the untuned version of that sample. But that doesn't mean the sample itself is the note C. It might be an F, so when you play a "B" on the keyboard, the sample is playing tuned a half-step down to "E."

You just have to use your ear. You can usually sing the fundamental note of the kick, even if it's not super obvious like an 808 kick, and then tune it until it matches the key of the song... or at least to a note that fits nicely in the key of the song, since tuning a sample too far really changes its tone.

Although downpitching a sample an unnatural amount can be a cool effect in of itself

[migumartinez]

yeah.
i noticed the tuned drums and bass work much better together.

migu

[jah]

how do you do this? do you just tune by ear?

[migumartinez]

how do you do this? do you just tune by ear?

i have samples that are already tuned in c.
i pitch them to the key i need.

if you have logic u can use the tuner to check the pitch.
not a 100% accurate, but it helps.

[LukeRichardson]

Thats a good tip im going to try that, I reckon you could do it well enough by ear. There must be some tuning plugins which work like guitar tuners...

[Matt Hughes]

I am certainly going to give this more attention this weekend; especially when I am sampling individual hits from different records.

[Sal Paradise]

mixed in key is a relatively cheap way to id keys. Like other things not 100% accurate but good enough. Is also helpful to key id vocals.

[jah]

Yeah I have mixed in key. I find it really unreliable for percussion though. Does anyone know how to ID what key my drums are in - in the first place?

[ebot9000]

Just sing the note of the drum sound and then find it on a keyboard.

A tuner is probably not the way to do with a drum sound... The sound is probably very short, and the tuner needs a second to pick up the note, plus most drum sounds are full of upper harmonics which will confuse the hell out of the tuner.

Use your ears!!

[Sal Paradise]

Just sing the note of the drum sound and then find it on a keyboard.

A tuner is probably not the way to do with a drum sound... The sound is probably very short, and the tuner needs a second to pick up the note, plus most drum sounds are full of upper harmonics which will confuse the hell out of the tuner.

Use your ears!!

damn your like telling us to be like musical and stuff .......

[wes_d]

There is a vst that I've been using lately called TuneIt. As long as the bass drum has a bit of decay to it and isn't super-short, this thing works like a charm. Though on some other drums (snares, for example) the pitch is too spread over many areas for it to work properly. In that case, I tune it up an octive and then use a controller knob to handle the tuning while playing the destination note on a keyboard.