IDEA: Tuning drums with MEqualizer to monitor

[DarkStar]

(Not quite posh enough to be a TIP).

if you ears aren't quite good enough ...

Here is the EQ graph for my kick drum:



You can see that it is peaking on E. Now, I want it to be tuned down to C. To help me I positioned a EQ band (with 0 dB gain) at the desired pitch, then retuned the note in my sampler until its peak was where I wanted:



You can see that I have zoomed in to the lower frequencies, displayed a keyboard (from the 'Area' menu) and enabled track peaks, Average and Maximum in the 'Settings' menu, Graphs tab.

Or course, you could do this with MAnalyzer too.

For Toms, try tuning them to the scale root, 3rd and 5th. And for the Snare - to the 5th too.

[werzel]

I'm not sure if it is due to the fact that I gravitate towards 'darker' music or not, but I once tuned my snare to a #5th and it seemed to have more 'snap' to it...and now it is my habit.

[Bullfrog001]

I'd be really wary of using that kind of graph to come to any conclusion about the actual fundamental of a kick. Just by changing the smoothing, you're likely to get a different result (some kicks have a few different spikes in the lower frequencies and a spike at 80Hz and another at 130Hz might average out to show a 100Hz fundamental). By changing the time settings of the graph you'll often get yet another reading (some kicks have an initial transient at, say, an F and the tone drops during the sustain to, say, a D#. This might average out to show an E on that type of graph when, in fact, the kick doesn't sound in tune with an E at all). Furthermore, at such low frequencies, the slant/tilt of the graph can trick you into thinking one of the spikes is more dominant than it actually is (relative to human hearing).

In this particular example, you might be fine as the fundamental *appears* to be quite high at 160Hz (though depending on what kind of a tilt you have, the little bump around 67Hz could be closer to the actual fundamental). So all in all, I'd take those kinds of readings with a huge grain of salt.

[MeldaProduction]

I'd be careful with this too. You might make the frequencies at the pitch of the tune more apparent, but that will mostly apply on the transient where there are technically all frequencies. But the actual sustain of the drum stays the way it was before. The only way is to tune the drum before recording and pitch shift it (which I hate, it just doesn't sound good to me at all and it is quite impossible to do that with overheads etc. unless you shift the whole kit of course ).