KVR Audio

jonnyham · Post by **jonnyham** » Fri Mar 25, 2016 10:36 pm

Ok so you've written drums for a track. Now for the synth sounds. What key do you select to produce the track in? Is there a method to it?

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Fri Mar 25, 2016 11:00 pm

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Fri Mar 25, 2016 11:52 pm

If you're going to have vocals, you'll want to use a key which matches the singer's range. Or certain physical instruments with a limited range or fixed key. Otherwise, it really just depends on personal preference.

Doug1978 · Post by **Doug1978** » Sat Mar 26, 2016 12:05 am

zethus909 · Post by **zethus909** » Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:18 am

once you have lots of experience playing and composing in many different keys, then you can choose the one that feels right.

Sampleconstruct · Post by **Sampleconstruct** » Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:34 am

Augmented C# with a touch of A and a tad of E always works well and will also get you the most Soundcloud plays.

murnau · Post by **murnau** » Sat Mar 26, 2016 8:51 am

Sampleconstruct wrote:Augmented C# with a touch of A and a tad of E always works well and will also get you the most Soundcloud plays.

The question is not as pointless as you may find it, it's a legit question. Of course if you playing atonal drones all over the place with not much other content behind you'll hardly miss anything.

I'm a little bit astonished about the answer since i'm pretty sure that you know the importance of tuned percussions and that a wrong pitched drum can (not carefully worded) ruin a piece.

Back to OP question: Especially the kick (and of course every drum with tonal character) should not be pitched against the bass or the key of your track in general. Maybe it's a better idea not to start with the drums but with the "real" music and pitch the drums afterwards or select the ones that work right from the start.

Sampleconstruct · Post by **Sampleconstruct** » Sat Mar 26, 2016 10:56 am

murnau wrote:
Sampleconstruct wrote:Augmented C# with a touch of A and a tad of E always works well and will also get you the most Soundcloud plays.
The question is not as pointless as you may find it, it's a legit question. Of course if you playing atonal drones all over the place with not much other content behind you'll hardly miss anything.

I'm a little bit astonished about the answer since i'm pretty sure that you know the importance of tuned percussions and that a wrong pitched drum can (not carefully worded) ruin a piece.

Back to OP question: Especially the kick (and of course every drum with tonal character) should not be pitched against the bass or the key of your track in general. Maybe it's a better idea not to start with the drums but with the "real" music and pitch the drums afterwards or select the ones that work right from the start.

Thanks for policing me. OPs question can't be answered, so a satirical answer seemed most appropriate, cheers officer.

Kinh · Post by **Kinh** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 1:27 pm

Shit, that depends on what it is you're tryin' to open.

datroof · Post by **datroof** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 2:54 pm

I suggest F minor.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 3:39 pm

The "skeleton" key: it always fits!

You may do whatever you like. Just noodle away and record that. Nothing is right nor wrong.

cryophonik · Post by **cryophonik** » Mon Apr 04, 2016 3:48 pm

I just built a basement. How do I decide what kind of building it should be?

toughenough6 · Post by **toughenough6** » Thu Apr 07, 2016 7:41 pm

I'll be the one not to be a smartass. The key literally doesn't matter.

HOWEVER, in certain types of bass music where you might have lots of a simple sine-ish sub bass playing one note (likely the root of the key), there are some keys that tend to work best purely because of the average sound system.

If I'm working on something where my sub bass or sub kicks will likely be playing the root note of the key, I'll get my sub all ready and find the lowest note I can that's still hard hitting on my monitors, desktop speakers, headphones, etc. You can also use the fifth of the key for this type of kick, but it pretty much needs to be either the root or the fifth. This does make some keys better for some types of music.

That's just because as humans we can only hear so low and the average speaker system can only accurately reproduce sounds so low. It's not because a different key will give off a different "feeling" or anything like that. It's all relative.

Numanoid · Post by **Numanoid** » Thu Apr 07, 2016 7:46 pm

jonnyham wrote:Ok so you've written drums for a track. Now for the synth sounds. What key do you select to produce the track in? Is there a method to it?

My method is not to just select one key, but several, the counterpoint of keys makes stuff interesting for me

Then again, if you have programmed a drum masterpiece like Plastikman's Spastik, then just release the drums! No more is needed.

Willis Wills · Post by **Willis Wills** » Sun Apr 10, 2016 12:48 pm

G : The people's key

What key should i choose?