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Different Key Sounds
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| azndragon0613 |
| Have you noticed that a lot of epic/moody songs usually are in like D, F, or A minor? And the rather normal or happy sounds are in like G and B? I personally really like D minor. But yeah...the key makes a big difference! *Enlightened* |
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| GreenLight |
| I never noticed that ... |
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| BOOsTER |
if i would be to pick a key .. it would be Ais minor, just because it sounds so... hmmm epic and dark :> or how to say...try and see ;)
also it does really a lot depend on the chord progression, since even with the "epic" keys as you sort of said, you can get a whole different feel...
what does matter more is the chord progression, atleast I think so :-) |
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| DigiNut |
"Epic" keys? Haha, producers use those keys because they are simple - that's it. Many don't have much background in music so they'll use only the white keys - which is A minor or C major. Sometimes if they're feeling really adventurous they'll move to one sharp (G major/E minor).
There's no such thing as a dark or epic key. There have already been 10 million threads about this - it's the chord progression and dissonance between the melody/harmony that creates a mood. |
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| flutlicht junky |
| Yes true, and there are also natural leading and release chords. |
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| PutBoy |
I mostly use A Minor and D Minor. I don't think there really is a difference, it's in the chord proggression really.
What I do is just randomly pick one really. I just say to myself "hey, D Minor would be nice", and I start laying the chords.
What you could do is build a track, then export it in let's say D Minor, F Major and A Minor, and listen to it. That way you know what difference it really makes. |
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| Derivative |
| quote: | | There have already been 10 million threads about this - it's the chord progression and dissonance between the melody/harmony that creates a mood. |
almost but nearly there.
aside from key, there is also frequency and timbre to take into account. its true that in music theory, that successive harmonies are always in relation to the root note though. but a C5 is not the same as a C3. not in frequency terms. the lower note will oscillate slower, have a slower attack, more bass presense etc etc.
but yeah. you dont just choose a key at random and play all minors. its not pick and mix.
usually you would tune your bassline (root note) to the same key as your kick drum. or vice versa (an octave above or below - it depends on what properties you want from your kick and bass). for example, tiesto's suburban train is a lydian moded scale, root note is C. the kick drum is (i think) a 909 kick pitched waaay down to C2. most of the bassline is around C3 (to avoid a huge clash in frequencies between the two instruments) although parts of it are in C2 and C4. everything else is playing along the lydian scale pretty much which is pretty much a bog standard C major scale (except with a sharpened F). once you work out what scale you are playing then you can think about the chords you are playing, because chords are just multiple notes played at the same time, in harmony with the root note.
if you know roughly how it works (andhow scales and chords are interelated) then you just end up playing stuff by muscle memory and you dont think about it so much. its better not to think about it so rigidly or theoretically and its best not to play 'only the white keys' or 'only minor scales' and such because then you start to sound like a machine regurgitating rote learned theory. |
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| DC76 |
| It is true that most of the music is written in certain keys, but as DigiNut pointed out, that's because those keys are simplest. One wouldn't usually see someone like that doing trance in F# major or Eb minor for that very reason. |
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| DigiNut |
| quote: | Originally posted by Derivative
usually you would tune your bassline (root note) to the same key as your kick drum. or vice versa |
Why, why, why do I see one of these posts in every pointless thread about song key? Bass drums very rarely have a pitch, and if they do it's almost never a constant pitch that's tunable. They have a broad frequency spectrum in the bass range but there is no fundamental frequency - thus, there is no pitch. Pitch implies a distinct fundamental frequency with distinct harmonics.
The 909 "kick" is somewhat of an exception because it's not really a kick at all, more like a bass smudge. But under most circumstances, if your kick has a pitch, then it's not a kick, it's a bass. |
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| Derivative |
bass drums do have a pitch and discernable key. just pitch it up and down in a sampler. the pitch of a bass drum just becomes indeterminable below a certain frequency - i.e. its hard to tell what pitch any sound is below about 50hz.
909 bass drums are built out of a sine wave which is just the fundamental. the only thing that makes it difficult to discern a pitch of a bass drum is that the pitch is modulated. that said, drop all of the tech speak and load your average 909 kick sample into your sampler. play notes spanning 3 octaves between C2 and C5 and please tell me again that a kick drum doesnt have a discernable pitch.
also take note of the fact that a typical 909 kick drum has a pitch that bends down with a gentle exponential type slope. that means, the part of the kick drum where the pitch dives is actually very very very short. then the slope levels out as it hugs the x axis before going effectively flat. this part comprises the bulk of the kick drum and the tail off. the pitch dive at the start represents the initial click only. |
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| PutBoy |
| quote: | Originally posted by Derivative
bass drums do have a pitch and discernable key. just pitch it up and down in a sampler. the pitch of a bass drum just becomes indeterminable below a certain frequency - i.e. its hard to tell what pitch any sound is below about 50hz. fortunate then that most kick drums consist of frequencies above 50hz then isnt it? |
No, DigiNut is right. |
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| Derivative |
you are kidding right?
pitch = a property of sound in the similar way that phase is also one property of sound. you cant just eliminate it. you cant just say 'i cant tell what key that sound is in - therefore it cant possibly have a pitch and a frequency.' thats ridiculous. frequency and pitch are interconnected. in some ways interchangeable.
although above/below a certain frequency it becomes almost impossible for the human ear to discern the pitch of a sound (as previously mentioned).
what seperates a kick and a bass is not the fact that one has a pitch and one doesnt. the difference is in everything that cannot be explained by the pitch and frequency of that sound - i.e. its timbre. you can make sine wave basses - guess what - low pass filter them, then bring down the decay and use an LFO to pitch it down over time. and it will sound like an 808 kick. why? cuz 808 kicks are flat low frequency sine waves with the pitch modulated.
instead of telling me im wrong, how about proving to me that a bass drum does not have a pitch? that sounds absurd. why do drummer's tune their drum kits then? |
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