How do you pitch / tune percussion?

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-- How do you pitch / tune percussion?

Posted by flutlicht junky on May-30-2007 13:56:

How do you pitch / tune percussion?

Hi all

Just wanted to get some tips on tuning percussion to a key.

Do you do it by ear? Use Eq to bring out the freq in the key you are using?

Thanks

FJ

Posted by Craig Bradley on May-30-2007 14:43:

ear ear sorry for the joke but yeah by ear mate

Posted by Limit on May-30-2007 14:46:

What I do is find the key of my kick in cubase using the pitch shift tool...then I'll use the same tool to correct the rest of my purcussion. Its basically by ear. One thing I have learned though is that it make a Huge difference, and sounds much better.

Posted by cl0ckw3rk on May-30-2007 17:09:

I've been meaning to try this out, because my drums definitely sound a little off. It just makes so much sense to do it!

Posted by jey on May-30-2007 20:28:

quote:
Originally posted by Limit
What I do is find the key of my kick in cubase using the pitch shift tool...then I'll use the same tool to correct the rest of my purcussion. Its basically by ear. One thing I have learned though is that it make a Huge difference, and sounds much better.

whats the picth shift tool u use??

i usually use the pitch shift in battery2 alough its basically speeding up/slowing down the wav sample!

Posted by SMC on May-30-2007 21:32:

I do it by ear, if it needs to be done. Usually i only adjust the tune of percussions with some tonal quality, like bongos and wood-things.

Posted by B_man on May-30-2007 21:48:

Ear's the thing... unless there's something I'm missing with a tuning fork...

Posted by echosystm on May-30-2007 22:48:

I think if you're trying to pitch something without any harmonics to a "key", you're not going to have much fun

Just go by ear.

Posted by Sanguis Mortuum on May-31-2007 00:02:

Obviously you use your ear to hear when its tuned correctly, but what do you guys actually use for pitching it up and down? I use Sonar and it has a transpose tool in it, but you have to type in how many semitones to shift each time, whereas I would rather just be able to drag the pitch up/down until it sounds right. This also goes for tuning any other samples too, not just percussion...

Posted by DigiNut on May-31-2007 00:37:

I've only ever needed to pitch snares and tribal drums (bongos etc.), and that's only when they happen to be in the same register as some other instrument. If you don't actually hear anything that's obviously out of tune, don't bother. If you do, then you have to do it by ear - just adjust the fine tuning until it doesn't sound out of tune anymore, easy peasy.

Don't pitch too much, either, otherwise it'll make the drums sound horribly unnatural. If 3 or 4 semitones doesn't do the track, then replace it with a different sample.

Posted by lowski on May-31-2007 01:19:

reason is great for pitching drums. but mainly i try and leave the kick close to the sample pitch of it , and just pitch the song around it. oh yeah and yes all by ear , i dont even know another way haha

Posted by mysticalninja on May-31-2007 09:39:

quote:
Originally posted by Limit
What I do is find the key of my kick in cubase using the pitch shift tool...then I'll use the same tool to correct the rest of my purcussion. Its basically by ear. One thing I have learned though is that it make a Huge difference, and sounds much better.

how do you use the pitch shift tool to find key? ive been using melodyne. it's such a bitch to have to go open it though, do you find it by ear with the pitch shift tool or is there a way for it to detect it?