Dubstep/Dnb Drums

[Meadz93]

"pitching drums" I've heard loads of people say tune your kick to the key of your song? Is this necessary for dnb and dubstep? Beacause I've herd you want your kick hitting at about 100hz to give the sub some room. If i was to make a tune in the key of E minor and i was to tune my kick to the ket of the track the kick should hit around 80hz so ye if any1 can help me it will be most appreciated.

[DJMashbot]

It doesn't have to be the root note of your tune, and depending on the kick you may not hear much of its pitch anyway. The best guide is your ears, if it sounds good do it, otherwise don't. You could also go up an octave. Dub step and drum n bass kicks are pretty short and punchy, put a high pass filter on it, side chain compress the sub and if they play together no one will be able to tell if the kick is missing some bottom end.

[theodore_whitmore]

A couple of observations. If I tune my kicks to the key of a track they can disappear into the rest of the instrumentation-which might or might not be a good thing depending on the track. Tuning to a different harmonic/non-harmonic interval usually results in a kick with more grain or presence. Results WILL vary dependant on how pitched/808 like the kick is. Finally the effects of tuning sample-based kicks are usually more apparent and relevant on the timing of the kick than anything else. Conclusion-a couple of hours focused experimentation won't hurt. In the heat of making a track just tweaking the pitch +/- 12 semitones will usually yield one setting that feels right, so go with it.
So far as the kick/sub balance goes Voxengo SPAN is your friend. If you can see your sub is most active around 60 Hz (which is pretty typical) then 100 Hz is a reasonable starting point for sitting your kick with EQ and filtering. That's not a hard and fast rule though. Some examples- if the kick and sub don't often hit at the same time there's usually no danger and plenty of advantage in letting the kick have more low end. If the sub is higher pitched and rhythmic (not sustained) there's often space for an ultra low kick boom. Used for percussive effect that can bring a track to life. With a really low 35 Hz type sub a pitched up +100 Hz kick hitting often and an occasional 60 Hz kick for emphasis will give you about the heaviest track even the best sound system can handle. Ah, I loves me some jungle. Hope that helped.

[Robmobius]

You generally don't have to tune your kick in DnB... Although, some producers do tune their kicks to remove any possible dissonance in the low end.

But as DnB is so fast, the kick isn't going to be around there for long anyway.