Pitch tuning of Kick,snare,hh,crash...

[crx.beatz]

Hi, I would like to ask you about this topic. In advance , sry for my english, i will try to explain it as best as i can.

My friend , beatmaker as well, told me that is necesarry to tune kick,snare,hihats,crash into key of whole song.
I am not so familiar with this technique, everytime I just find drum oneshots which is good by ear against the other instuments in beat, and dont do any pitch corrections afterwards. Just an idea - is there any VST realtime plugin which can detect tone of the drum sample and help during tuning to perfect pitch ?

Thanks

 

[2GooD Productions]

honestly I very rarely bother tuning percussion, I will do it if I think its really necessary but usually dont bother. Cubase has a stock plugin that detects pitch and I use that.

 

[Iron Keys]

I tell you what I hate...

I change the pitch of a hat. It immediately sounds weird. I then change it back. It sounds weird also. And never sounds right again!

 

[Iron Keys]

The thing I hate about trying to pitch drums... is finding the pitch. I find it tricky to discern drum pitch by ear.

And pitch detection software often equally has a tricky time.

One trick I use if I cbb... is the stretchhh the sample out then use pitch detection.

I think largely I'm probably used to going by feel and whether the pitch of the sample "feels" right. Ie does this kick sound good a 2 pitch down, or 2 up. The drum (especially for kick) will have a different vibe and character depending on pitch too.

 

[2GooD Productions]

The thing I hate about trying to pitch drums... is finding the pitch. I find it tricky to discern drum pitch by ear.

And pitch detection software often equally has a tricky time.

One trick I use if I cbb... is the stretchhh the sample out then use pitch detection.

I think largely I'm probably used to going by feel and whether the pitch of the sample "feels" right. Ie does this kick sound good a 2 pitch down, or 2 up. The drum (especially for kick) will have a different vibe and character depending on pitch too.

Its not like a live drummer retunes his kit for every song they perform.

 

[Iron Keys]

Its not like a live drummer retunes his kit for every song they perform.

Actually... I can't remember who it was, but an engineer I was shadowing or working for said that they had gone out to tune a bands drum kit between songs or something.

I can't remember th3 details as this was told to me like 10 years ago. But I'm sure they told me that happened.

Unless they were using it as a reason why it isn't that deep ha. But fairly confident they had told me that

 

[Fade]

I never pitch my drums but I'll EQ them. Even when I've seen videos of beats done on the SP1200 and they pitch down the kick or snare, it just seems weird to me.

 

[Iron Keys]

pitch down the kick

Every time I pitch down the kick it always sounds better. Beefier, bassier.

 

[Fade]

Every time I pitch down the kick it always sounds better. Beefier, bassier.

I know you're into thick and beefy things but we're talking about the kick drum.

 

[Iron Keys]

I know you're into thick and beefy things but we're talking about the kick drum.

 

[Iron Keys]

That's how I like my kicks to feel.

 

[VVS]

I don't ever pitch tune percussion like hi hats or snares. I also find it easier to apply EQ or side chain compression to my bass rather than pitch tuning my kick drum. If I have to resort to pitch tuning my drum kick, I select a different 808 bass or synth bass that compliments my kick better.

 

[JustIn Flow]

I although don't pitch kicks and snares. I often layer some sounds (playing with different volumes) to the point that it fits. Sometimes hats (special open or crash) or a percussion sound could be pitched a little. But EQing is often more important to get the sounds together.

 

[Space_The_Face]

I don’t pitch drums unless they sound really off. Every now and then I will pitch my kick if it sounds out of place, but other wise I think when we are going through our percussion samples, we naturally discern what is majorly out of place and avoid using those samples.

I went through a phase where I was trying to tune my kick for every song, and found that 9 times out of 10 I was already in key. Now it feels more like a waste of time to even try.

 

[Armani]

Hi, I would like to ask you about this topic. In advance , sry for my english, i will try to explain it as best as i can.

My friend , beatmaker as well, told me that is necesarry to tune kick,snare,hihats,crash into key of whole song.
I am not so familiar with this technique, everytime I just find drum oneshots which is good by ear against the other instuments in beat, and dont do any pitch corrections afterwards. Just an idea - is there any VST realtime plugin which can detect tone of the drum sample and help during tuning to perfect pitch ?

Thanks

You wouldn't NEED to unless your drum sound is like a tabla or kuzeh or... Where the perc is obviously playing a certain note, or like when your kick drum has bass attached to it, but like

If you're trying to pitch correct shit, you don't need any lazy inaccurate app, just increase the pitch of your sound by 12x (24, 36, ...) And it'll get much easier to detect the pitch. From there. Just play random notes on a vst over it (some do piano, I figured sinewave works best for me) until it sounds the same as your perc.

Also if it feels like none of the notes you're playing fit your percs pitch, try adding/decreasing half a semitone to it's pitch to (de)tune it. Sometimes percs just use notes like d#-&-a-half or... If that makes sense.

 

[Dusty B]

You don't need to tune drums/percussion, I'd say it's more personal preference. I like pitching down snares/hats sometimes, but I've always been a fan of downtempo and chopped/screwed.