How to find key of accapella in Logic Pro X

[dasen]

Hey,

Can anyone tell me how to find the key of an acapella file in Logic X Pro?

I want to match a bassline to the acapella but need to find the right key.

[Roman Empire]

Is this an acapella of an existing song that contains a full arrangement? In that case, you could just find some website with the chords showing for the song.

[jancivil]

sure, use your ear.

[Roman Empire]

sure, use your ear.

I´d assume the guy don´t have that skill (yet, hopefully) or he wouldn´t ask here...

[deastman]

sure, use your ear.

I´d assume the guy don´t have that skill (yet, hopefully) or he wouldn´t ask here...

It doesn't take much skill to determine if new notes that you play are in the same key as an existing melodic line. Or to tell if two existing melodic loops fit together. Just use your ears. Play some bass notes and listen to which ones fit and which ones don't. Keep the ones that fit. I'm afraid it really doesn't get much more basic than this.

[jancivil]

Well, my standpoint is get your ear together long before you start believing it's time to write music. Kind of like you learn to walk on your own two legs rather than use a crutch right off the bat. When exactly are you going to learn if you have to use a machine to do something so fundamental? Is the idea you'll never need to?

[deastman]

Well, my standpoint is get your ear together long before you start believing it's time to write music. Kind of like you learn to walk on your own two legs rather than use a crutch right off the bat. When exactly are you going to learn if you have to use a machine to do something so fundamental? Is the idea you'll never need to?

I was going to leave this topic alone rather than beat a dead horse, but you make a good point. In my opinion, this is symptomatic of today's "app culture". It's like... I'm trying something new and I'm not instantly good at it, so can someone recommend a tool to do it for me? Where's the big red Easy button? I want to be a "producer" but I don't want to have to learn music theory or how to play an instrument. How do I know which notes to choose?

Again, it's a symptom of modern society. As technology advances, things which were once difficult and the domain of skilled experts gradually become accessible to the masses with very little effort. That isn't inherently bad. What, though, is wrong with learning a traditional craft, appreciating the process and valuing the hard work needed to attain proficiency?

[Roman Empire]

Ok, such an old thread but just found out about that there´s been a bit of activity since I wrote in it.

While I personally agree with that ideally people SHOULD learn what music traditionally is all about before starting to make it, because it´s more and more obvious in what´s played on the radio today that what is now considered the fundamentals is so terribly basic that the compositions no longer has anything that we old school people care for. I do think that, sadly, you´d be able to create modern music without even being able to determine the key of a song.
This guy may know alot more about compression, bassdrum layering, eq´ing and so on than me, and for him that´s probably what music is all about.
I clearly have my opinion about what things have turned into, but but who knows.. maybe his development curve doesn´t have the same A-Z structure as ours, and for him to stay motivated, maybe the most obvious thing is not to learn what we consider the fundamentals, but to create some quick results and pick up here and there along the way of what he´s missing.

[Jbravo]

not criticising the OP but it's blatant to me that there are loads of people who are really skilled at production and at getting a very professional sounding track, but actual composers who (probably know about music theory) and can write an interesting tune with nice chords with interesting changes and development are very very rare - and I think it's a shame. Even in commercial pop hits now it's pretty much only chords I,IV,V and VI all the way through :/