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How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 6:48 am
by sargentpilcher
Are there any specialized programs that will tell you what note your kick is hitting? It's a very low frequency, and a very short amount of time so I would imagine it would be difficult to find out. How do you guys go about matching kicks to the key of your song?
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 6:58 am
by jrisreal
you can listen and try to figure it out by ear, or you could look at it with a spectrum analyzer and translate Hz to a key on the keyboard.
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 9:15 am
by dmisreal
jrisreal wrote:you can listen and try to figure it out by ear, or you could look at it with a spectrum analyzer and translate Hz to a key on the keyboard.
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 10:30 am
by RandoRando
If a program told you your kick is hitting a A# note with a resonant frequency of 43.7 Hz, are you gonna do anything about it?
Who cares, get some speakers or headphones where you can actually head the bass from the kick, and do what sounds good.
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 10:32 am
by infam0us
As with many things.. Music shouldn't be analysed like this.. What sounds good - works..
- Your choice of samples and musical ear is a way more important aspect to begin with, than using Melodyne for spotting "kick keys" and stuff..
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 10:32 am
by djbmc
i don't think u should worry too much about which note your kick is hitting, just make sure it's in the right frequency area, and that it sounds ok. drums have a difficult pitch to determine because, unlike tuned instruments they produce harmonic content which doesn't fit or re-inforce the fundamental frequency, they're called "en-harmonic".
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 10:38 am
by jrisreal
'twas merely a suggestion
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 10:52 am
by Filthzilla
jrisreal wrote:or you could look at it with a spectrum analyzer and translate Hz to a key on the keyboard.
If you can do this to any kick other than an 808 I will give you a cookie... near impossible. :L
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 10:55 am
by Depone
actually, to the people saying "just do what sounds best, dont bother etc..." Tuning your drums can have a huge impact on how your song will turn out technically, and musically. Its a win-win. If you find your kick is clashing with your sub, you can tune it so that its not directly on-top of that sub line. alternatively you can say tune some toms so that they are in key with your melody. Now your drums have a musical element too. Think about the benefits
to answer your question, you should try get a spectral analyser. Voxengo make a good free one, you should be able to detect what frequency the kick is, but be warned, quite a few kicks have a layered sine dipping in frequency, so pinpointing this frequency can be difficult.
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 10:57 am
by Depone
Filthzilla wrote:jrisreal wrote:or you could look at it with a spectrum analyzer and translate Hz to a key on the keyboard.
If you can do this to any kick other than an 808 I will give you a cookie... near impossible. :L
not true, gimmie my cokie
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 11:13 am
by jrisreal
Depone wrote:Filthzilla wrote:jrisreal wrote:or you could look at it with a spectrum analyzer and translate Hz to a key on the keyboard.
If you can do this to any kick other than an 808 I will give you a cookie... near impossible. :L
not true, gimmie my cokie
This. 808's didn't even cross my mind.
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 11:18 am
by benjam
Think it was an interview with photek where he was saying he always tunes his drums and doesant understand why people dont
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 11:41 am
by Filthzilla
Depone wrote:Filthzilla wrote:jrisreal wrote:or you could look at it with a spectrum analyzer and translate Hz to a key on the keyboard.
If you can do this to any kick other than an 808 I will give you a cookie... near impossible. :L
not true, gimmie my cokie
Yeah but you're Depone...
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 12:58 pm
by Divane
Doesn't Battery show the key of the sample if you load it into it?
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 1:18 pm
by Aphile
benjaminC wrote:Think it was an interview with photek where he was saying he always tunes his drums and doesant understand why people dont
TRY THIS YOU non tuners. Layer the same clap sample (triad chord aka 3 hits) with the Major or minor of your key signature. it sounds FAT.
So you've written in F Major; pitch the clap to an F, a G, and an A. Offset the hits slightly and your clap now adds to the melodic reinforcement of your tune.
Ableton's spectrum reads off note names as you mouse over. Get hip.
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 1:30 pm
by Basic A
If in fl, right click sample preview in sampler window, edit sample, edison opens, right click waveform on edison, 'convert to score, dump to piano roll', youll get 2 notes, one thats the attack, and one thats the body/decay, everytime. You figure out which your tuning by.
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:22 pm
by UnCL0NED
Of course: If it sounds good it is good! But sometimes it just doesn't sound good, but you still like the feel of the kick. Tuning it can make it fit with the rest of your song!
How I normally fix it is by just transposing the kick (I use Ableton Live) 2 or 3 octaves up so it becomes more an audible/recognizable tone. This you can then tune to fit the song and then transpose back down... Do this before you start eq-ing etc. because most of the time you otherwise have to redo the eq-ing.
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:24 pm
by Sharmaji
in general, i think tuning drums to the key of the song is a really namby-pamby, tucking-your-tshirt-into-your-undies thing to do.... until, of course, it becomes the thing that really puts your song into focus. YMMV.
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:27 pm
by Today
Sharmaji wrote:in general, i think tuning drums to the key of the song is a really namby-pamby, tucking-your-tshirt-into-your-undies thing to do.
i love this description
Re: How to tell what note your kick is hitting?
Posted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 3:58 pm
by Kilo beats
all good advice posted above. ill add my 2c
voxengo SPAN is a very nifty little VST analizer, im pretty sure its free too.. there is a tutorial on youtube by trancemusicmastery that goes quite deep into how to use it to find freq clashes (bass conflicting with kicks, etc), and he shows you how to use it just to find what freq your sound is hitting at.
if your using ableton theres the spectrum... just wack it on the audio channel or the master channel, and change where it says "block" from "2048" to "16384", this gives more accurate visual representation of whats going on.
also, like some ppl have mentioned above i sometimes tune my kicks. If im wrighting a tune in C Maj for example, i might either find or pitch a kick so it peaks/ hits at either a C, E, or G (only if i was working in the scale of c maj). I dont pitch drums more than a semitone or 2 coz pitching drums much more than this will make them sound wack.