Hello,
I would like to start a thread about an often discussed technique of tuning the "drums" or tuning samples to the key of the track.
If working in Ableton:
I assume it is using a SAMPLER plug-in works best?
How would you go about tuning these sounds properly?
I am sure this will be helpful in other hosts too.
Tuning to Key in Ableton Live
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- KVRist
- 56 posts since 6 May, 2009
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. - Albert Einstein
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- KVRAF
- 21348 posts since 26 Jul, 2005 from Gone
Not sure that it's as necessary as some people make it out to be. If a sound is of indefinite pitch, then you don't really need to tune it to pitched instruments. Sometimes it's helpful to tune something to make it sit better with other instruments, particularly when layering percussion, but it really all depends on whether it sounds good or not.
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 56 posts since 6 May, 2009
I agree with you on it being totally subjective. But I am more interested in tuning for the better sit in the mix. So the frequency distribution is better.robojam wrote:Not sure that it's as necessary as some people make it out to be. If a sound is of indefinite pitch, then you don't really need to tune it to pitched instruments. Sometimes it's helpful to tune something to make it sit better with other instruments, particularly when layering percussion, but it really all depends on whether it sounds good or not.
These sounds being on the same root key, wouldn't it reduce the overlap?
Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. - Albert Einstein
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- KVRAF
- 21348 posts since 26 Jul, 2005 from Gone
If you try to tune instruments so that they're nearer in absolute pitch, you're going to increase the overlap.
Fixing the mix by EQing instruments so that they don't occupy too much of the same space is not the same as pitch shifting sounds.
Fixing the mix by EQing instruments so that they don't occupy too much of the same space is not the same as pitch shifting sounds.
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- KVRAF
- 1617 posts since 11 Dec, 2008 from Minneapolis
When talking about tuning drums in this context, most people I see are talking about synthetic drum patches - Operator is a great synth for doing something like this, in fact that's about the only kind of patch I can stand doing with it's UI XD ...
I find that for my own ears, pitch shifting percussion samples fails much more often than it works, however some sample libraries do have multiple pitch layers, that's generally fine to tweak a bit. I want to say that higher bitrate recordings will pitch-shift better as well, but don't hold me to that.
Crowding some frequencies if setting percussion sounds to fit the key/scale structure of a song - it sounds like it might be bad practice, and I'm sure it is more often than not, but I think there are also ways to sort of mesh two sounds that share some frequency content at one spot in the spectrum but have different harmonics up or down the spectrum, or over time, that can be interesting. So certain details from either sound will fuse and it can really change the perception of independent sound sources. Not exclusively, but for minimalist aesthetics, that can be a good thing.
I find that for my own ears, pitch shifting percussion samples fails much more often than it works, however some sample libraries do have multiple pitch layers, that's generally fine to tweak a bit. I want to say that higher bitrate recordings will pitch-shift better as well, but don't hold me to that.
Crowding some frequencies if setting percussion sounds to fit the key/scale structure of a song - it sounds like it might be bad practice, and I'm sure it is more often than not, but I think there are also ways to sort of mesh two sounds that share some frequency content at one spot in the spectrum but have different harmonics up or down the spectrum, or over time, that can be interesting. So certain details from either sound will fuse and it can really change the perception of independent sound sources. Not exclusively, but for minimalist aesthetics, that can be a good thing.