So I made a song in C minor. It sounded good to me. Then I wanted to see what would happen if I turned the master pitch down a little. I turned it down to -200 cents. The track still sounds good, in fact, it sounds a lot better.

So what did I just do by changing the master pitch by -200 cents?

From wiki I learned, I just changed the whole scale two semitones lower? So now I'm at a# minor? Considering I originally made it in c minor? If someone is capable of explaining what I just did, I'd appreciate it.

I'm a little confused, and I'm afraid to change the pitch back 'cause it sounds much sweeter like this.

Thanks!

edit.

This is really the first time I ever post anything I have done almost ready in here, and I'm craving for some info about how you feel about it, what do you think about it, what would you do otherwise, what should I try to do next. Anything about the track (mix, composition etc). You don't have to be constructive with your criticism, but at least be fair and don't start any personal shit.

Please acknowledge that I'm relatively new to edm compared to a lot of you guys here.


I think my experiments have gotten out of hand and I really don't even know what I'm doing anymore. I should try harder:


...


here

Last edited by JEO on Sep-14-2010 at 07:04

i would in that case, lower all the midis (on synths and base) two semitones down and raise the property again so that it is the midi deciding, not the program-property. shouldnt matter much though but incase your drums play in pitch or some loops are playing etc might fuck things. i transpose all my synths up and down somewhere in the progress to find what sounds best. i always start on C (C minor scale, like you) and just transpose up and down to whatever sounds best for that spesific track once the drums and all are ready. usualy stuff sounds better by lowering it. math has nothing to do with it imo. music is magic.

sounds more like octive change rather then true key change i do it myself from time to time as things can sit in the track better ie when making a dub trsck.

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Well, if I understand correctly what you're saying, yes, your tune is now in Bb minor (or A# minor, the difference is negligible in this discussion).

Here's the thing: the human brain does not care much about absolute pitch, but rather about relations between different notes that constitute a melody.

If you play E-E-F-G-G-F-E-D-C-C-D-E-E-D-D, you can recognise it's Beethoven's Ode for Joy. And, if you play it in another tone, and wind up with B-B-C-D-D-C-B-A-G-G-A-B-B-A-A you can still recognise it as being the same melody. Why? Because the intervals and the relations between the notes are the same.

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Probably because the down pitching reached the bass sweet spot. Just transpose your bass and other melodic content. Down-pitching samples will degrade the quality so try to find out what exactly is better about it and fix it in a non destructive way.

OK, I guess I'll transpose it to a# minor tonight without the master pitching when I get home from work.

Tuning the drums again I now noticed that i.e. the clap got so down-pitched it's much less audible. I hope this could be one to post here for reviews.



I've never really had destructive criticism. Friends tend to do it too.. Friendly.

I generally find that just the novelty of a new key tends to make a song sound better. It may not actually sound better, you might just be reacting to the fact that it sounds new and interesting after working on it for many hours.

Owien, its not an octave change, its a change of two semitones

Could also be the bass sweet spot as richie mentioned, or it could be that repitching the samples has made them sound a bit different/changed their frequency content a bit. Maybe go through and change them all back individually to see which ones benefit from which key...

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Yeah I'll definitely change the key manually this evening. And tune most of the drums lower than it was on the previous version. For defo the kick has much more of that lower end it lacked before, the 40 hz steep highpass just became so densily packed it sounds rather awesome compared to my previous kicks.

I hope reworking the drums won't get too tricky. Only changing the master pitch after working on a track in c minor for hours just doesn't fit in to my work ethics so I'll gladly do the key change manually tonight. I'm so excited again, god.

My boss is always talking by herself in the background, making it harder for me to concentrate on TA.

..did I mention my awesome work ethics?

C'mon, post something. I have nothing else to do at work.