Tune kick to bass?

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This shouldn't require debate - Just try it!

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kritikon wrote:Tuning a kick is like the web obsession with sidechaining - you can do it, it might even be useful on the odd occasion, but you used to be a ble to make all kinds of fancy music without doing it and still can.
Yep. There's no one size fits all approach to mixing and if you try it the most likely outcome is that you're going to struggle to shoehorn a technique into your mix for no good reason.

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jontah wrote:Hey,

I've been very interested in making my kicks fitting the bass more properly lately.

I've watched Future Music Magazine where Dada Life talks about tuning the kick into the right key, to fit the bass. They also state that the track sounds really odd if the kick isn't in key.

I've also watched a countless numbers of tutorials on youtube, read on forums and several posts about this.

All answers are different.

Most people just say "use your ears", sure.. but this is EXTREMELY hard. How do you guys do this?

I can't hear if the kick is in key or not, in relative with the bass. I read some posts where people stated that the kick couldn't get in key due to several pitches being blended in the key. This might be true, but there must be a fundamental key in the kick, doesn't it?

I also watched some tutorial where they inserted a voxengo span and watched the "peak" points of the kick, holding the mouse over that peak and it shows what key that peak is in. They also said in the video that this should most likely (not always) be the fundamental of the kick and therefore determines the key of the kick.

I've tried this technique. And I still cannot hear any difference by pitching the kick a semitone or so.
All I can hear is the changed characteristic in pitch, of the kick. I cannot really tell if it's in key or not.

So, what's the best method for this? I wish I could just listen to it and tell if it's in key or not. But I really cannot. It's too muddy and too, I don't know.. it's just like hearing some extremely diffused reverb, you cannot really hear what's going on down there. Muddy stuff.

I need to find a technique how to make it fit the bassline better.

Tips? and hearing/listening is excluded, I simply don't have the ears for it haha.

Thanks alot!
Let your ears do the tuning, all else is bullshit :wink:

Rob

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Pick a kick you like then pick a bass sound you like then go up and down the scales with the bass until you find the right key! simple as that!! you have to train your ears! never adjust the kick the kick stays on C3 don't transpose it up or down the kick stays the same, all other instruments can be transposed up or down a few semitones but not the kick or it will sound bad! The bass and kick might fit with the bass on f# or it might sound you just have to listen this is the best way! Train your ears! i hope this helps.

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jontah wrote:Tips?
Use a kick plugin like BazzISM or Kick etc etc..

Or Melda analyzer to see the root of the kick, then pitch it up or down to the root of your song (or what ever you want it to be).

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doesn't sound odd if it's just a few semitone difference.
depends on kick sample, but don't worry too much about this, just low pass kick + bass and hear how it sounds rhythmically

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Personally I prefer to write the music in a key to suit the vocal.
Just choose a kick to suit the music. All the rest is **
My opinion.
I wonder what happens if I press this button...

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If tuning kick to bass is so important why does the track not explode, creating a global and devastating catastrophe when the bass notes change?
My latest release 'News to Me' features at #4 on Traxsource Essential Garage charts: https://www.traxsource.com/title/924594/january-29th

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Do you know how old this thread is? :o any sampler that can transpose a kick that's basically all

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a_Scientist wrote:Do you know how old this thread is?
it's always hilarious when some poor sap joins in after the first bump and responds to some several year old post without realizing it, checking back every 5 min for a response :hihi:
Last edited by lotus2035 on Tue Mar 06, 2018 7:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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I use 6 kick drums in every song and tune the kicks to various chords complementary to the songs key and main chord changes.

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:lol: somebody who bumped has 1 posts total. Forgot to add, so I drew kicks in piano roll like bass.

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lotus2035 wrote:I use 6 kick drums in every song and tune the kicks to various chords complementary to the songs key and main chord changes.
Why tune kick to bass when you can tune bass to kick :lol:

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To add to what has been said before:

a) I wouldn't disagree with the people who say that tuning the kick is pointless, it may well be (and it's a good point that for decades no-one was tuning kick drums - although the flip side would be listen to the low end of records made now and compare to those of the 60s, 70s, 80s...). However...

b) at this point in time I do tune my kicks. The best video I found on technique is this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrcGB7gfrEU

I tend to tune to the most prominent frequency (usually in the 90-110Hz range), and then tune this in a sampler to an actual note value.

c) I don't tune to the bass as such, but to the key of the track (root or fifth).

d) as for the bass note moving around, which of course it will, my thinking is that bass notes take up a lot of space (two consecutive notes low down on a piano clash more than two in the higher registers - this is an accepted fact in arrangement). So at least if your kick is tuned to an actual note, any bass notes will either be the same, or at least a semitone away, hence you won't get any really bad clashes, as you would if the bass was playing a G and the kick was tuned to G +45 cents.

Just my thoughts, no rules. Sometimes dissonance sounds good!

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Logic's Ultrabeat does tuned kicks with its samples.
The kick samples (and others I guess, eg toms) are tuned to G, but the dial defaults to C so you have to translate C to G.

Wave Alchemy Revolution. The new single module does all chromatic pitched drums. Looks like the kicks root tuning is C, I need to check with WA that's generally the case with all the samples.

Goldbaby's Superanalog808 has a nice set of tuned chromatic 808 BDs and congas.

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