Tuning drums

[Geey]

Unfortunately I'm not blessed with amazing ears when it comes to tuning.. And I'm having a really hard time tuning my drums sounds..
Am I right in thinking that it would be best to keep all the drum hits in key with the song your making?

I use the exs sampler in logic to programme all my drums.. Can anyone help coz I'm pulling my hair out here

[smile]

Yes. It's typically a good idea to keep your samples in tunes.

If you can't do it normally by ear you could determine pitch by:
1. transpose the sample an octave up and try again
2. check the spectrum analyzer
3. use a tuner or a pitch recognition software (like Melodyne)

[mthrfnk]

Most DAWs should have a "detect pitch" function somewhere (in FL I use Edison for this).

I normally then tune the drum to the key of the track or to the 5th above it.

Out of interest, I only started tuning drums again recently - the other day I was fiddling with a house track and the kick just wasn't sitting right, turned out it was like 100 semitones above the key of the track, I tuned it down and instantly everything sounded so much more coherent.

[dddemain]

G tune is a pretty good free plugin you can use to detect pitch and its not very cpu hungry

http://www.gvst.co.uk/gtune.htm

[Eat Bass]

you dont have to tune your drums. i think its kind of a waste of time unless the drums add some sort of melodic value. for instance toms that complement something in your track. yes you might want to tune those. or if your making some techno you might want to at least tune the kick drum to the key of the tune since its such a fundamental part of the track. but for most dubstep, i think its a waste to tune drums. not only will people not notice, but it usually makes the samples sound a bit shit if you try and go back and tune your drums.

[RmoniK]

Don't tune your drums. If they are too far from a scale note it 'll end up weird because you stretched it too far. Drums are impacts, not instruments. It'll even sound a bit dull if everything is hard tuned to the max. Why do you think people make reeses?

[daeMTHAFKNkim]

I should start tuning my drums also... it seems like every famous producer does. Never tried doing it.

Rmonik your track is dope btw.

[dougriley]

i tune my drum hits slightly, but not necessarily to the key of the track. just make sure everything sits well together.

[Icetickle]

Anyone else doing this? Is the song actually going to sound dull if every single thing is in the key?

EDIT: I heard that if you don't, you might get some phasing issues, Not really wanna do it tho.

[Crimsonghost]

i tune my drum hits slightly, but not necessarily to the key of the track. just make sure everything sits well together.

This is a good approach. Clearly a lot of people don't care enough to tune there kicks/snares to key, but the least they can do is tune them to sit better within the context of the key.

IMO (for example), a note 40 cents flat of G, still sounds good within the context of the key of G minor.

I guess what I'm try to say is, there's no reason to not try and do a little bit of tuning (or find a sample in the right or relative key) to try and get the best sound possible.

It's something that should be right up there with eq'ing. Find sounds that fit. If you don't, then clearly you don't care.

[ChadDub]

wtf is tuning a snare

[Crimsonghost]

wtf is tuning a snare

Its kinda like watching 2girls, 1cup. Its not something you want to do, but something you should do.

[Gewze]

IF it needs it then, i just play with the pitch till it sounds right

[Augment]

I make snares tuned to the track Im working on alot of the time

[Add9]

wtf is tuning a snare

If your snare has a fundamental, then you should probably tune it if it doesn't sound good originally. Like if your song is in D and your snare's fundamental hits at Eb, probably change it unless that dissonance is something you are going for.

[Artie_Fufkin]

i tune my drum hits slightly, but not necessarily to the key of the track. just make sure everything sits well together.

Ya I think the best drum sounds sound good with each other but don't really need to be related to the melodic instruments. Like a lot of kicks and snares are at least an octave apart in the low end. If you take a sine synth with the attack, sustain and release turned down and set the decay just right and play two notes an octave or so apart, you can get some very simple kick and snare thumping sounds. Or take a drum loop and lowpass it with a steep filter.

And it doesn't have to be specific intervals, just relative highness and lowness. That's how people hear drums.
Unless you wanna be like Terry Bozzio

[AxeD]

It was already said, but in the case of bands the drummer or drumtech tunes the kit but not
to the key of the track.

Although it does some times help to tune your kick to fit the bass sound, but I usually just mess with the pitch a little till
it sounds good to me.

[Toolman4]

There is something to be said about when the kick fundamental is tuned to the key of the track. It's when the bass and kick hit together. I don't quite fully understand technically why this happens so I won't try and explain that, but it feels more 'right' when they are tuned. The impact is more 'correct' or perhaps less 'dissonant' like a previous poster said. This is all based on opinion it seems and in mine, I like it better.

[kaili]

never done this never saw the point :/

[Crimsonghost]

There is something to be said about when the kick fundamental is tuned to the key of the track. It's when the bass and kick hit together. I don't quite fully understand technically why this happens so I won't try and explain that, but it feels more 'right' when they are tuned. The impact is more 'correct' or perhaps less 'dissonant' like a previous poster said. This is all based on opinion it seems and in mine, I like it better.

It's because they share relative harmonic frequencies.