Tuning Drums and pitch snare fill

[HalfBlacko0000]

hey guys this is kinda a 2 part question something 1) i should of learned a long time ago just never took the time to learn i'm now taking relative pitch training and i'm not far along but anywho i have a couple of drum samples with the key sig in the name and i was making a beat with the drums in tune and the difference is like night n day when your drums are out of tune i must of been pretty close in my other beats because they don't sound bad but they sounded alittle off in the drum area so my question is how do you guys tune your drums? i know by ear is the sure fire way but my ears are not in tune hence the relative pitch training. i know your gonna say well if you can tell if its off then you can tell its on which makes sence but it almost reminds me of a foggy area you can only see so far without it getting blurry. i use logic pro 9 and i've been using the guitar tuner on my drums and sometimes it works but most of the time it can't relay the pitch so are there any tricks or tips or a drum tuning plugin i would really like a good plugin for this so i can atleast check if i'm right or wrong. i was also wondering what do i have to tune and what don't i have to tune hihats? claps? cymbols? i know kick n snare should be but what else should be tuned if you tune other percussive instruments let me know.
2) i asked a question awhile back ago about drum fills and rythm which i figured out but now that i have the groove down it still is missing something so i went back and i was listening to some of my fav. drum fills and i know when you stike a snare your not gonna get the same pitch, velocity each time you hit it it sounds like when they program or play drums on the fills the snare is pitched up and down a semitone to give it some movement does anyone do this with there drum fills? if so could you explain alittle about how to pitch it to give it a more natural feel to them? thanks again guys these 2 questions have really been bugging me

 

[bandcoach]

hey guys this is kinda a 2 part question something

1) i should of learned a long time ago just never took the time to learn i'm now taking relative pitch training and i'm not far along

but anywho i have a couple of drum samples with the key sig in the name and i was making a beat with the drums in tune and the difference is like night n day when your drums are out of tune

i must of been pretty close in my other beats because they don't sound bad but they sounded a little off in the drum area so my question is how do you guys tune your drums?

i know by ear is the sure fire way but my ears are not in tune hence the relative pitch training.

i know your gonna say well if you can tell if its off then you can tell its on which makes sence but it almost reminds me of a foggy area you can only see so far without it getting blurry.

your ability to sense whether a note is in tune or not develops over time - 3-4 years usually

i use logic pro 9 and i've been using the guitar tuner on my drums and sometimes it works but most of the time it can't relay the pitch so are there any tricks or tips or a drum tuning plugin i would really like a good plugin for this so i can at least check if i'm right or wrong.

i was also wondering what do i have to tune and what don't i have to tune hihats? claps? cymbols?

i know kick n snare should be but what else should be tuned if you tune other percussive instruments let me know.

You have a few options, best bet is to tune your kick to the root of your chord, tune the snare to the 5th of the scale for your active key, tune your toms so that they move in 3rds down from a high Root to low root - 8-6-3-1 or 8-5-3-1, some guys tune their high tom to b7 so that you have b7-5-3-1

You can tune your hats and cymbals but usually not much point as they are noise first and pitch sources second

2) i asked a question awhile back ago about drum fills and rythm which i figured out but now that i have the groove down it still is missing something

so i went back and i was listening to some of my fav. drum fills and i know when you stike a snare your not gonna get the same pitch, velocity each time you hit it

this is the secret sauce of programming believable drums period

it sounds like when they program or play drums on the fills the snare is pitched up and down a semitone to give it some movement does anyone do this with there drum fills?

if so could you explain a little about how to pitch it to give it a more natural feel to them?

It could be pitching up or down or it could just be two samples played by different hands or two or more samples of the drum head being hit in different places, which is usually the way a real drummer gets that variation - i.e. use multiple samples each with their own trigger pitch, do your snare line as a separate track and then randomise the notes to be triggered creating instant but controlled variation within the rhythmic choices you have made

 

[HalfBlacko0000]

You have a few options, best bet is to tune your kick to the root of your chord, tune the snare to the 5th of the scale for your active key, tune your toms so that they move in 3rds down from a high Root to low root - 8-6-3-1 or 8-5-3-1, some guys tune then high tom to b7 so that you have b7-5-3-1

You can tune your hats and cymbals but usually not much point as they are noise first and pitch sources second.

Never knew this awsome i was looking for both the snare and the kick to be at the first root C i'm gonna try the kick at C and my snare at G it makes sense is this how they do acoustic drums? i have alot of work to do i wanna get my drum library to the point i have all the kicks in C in one folder C# and so on thanks coach

 

[bandcoach]

You have a few options, best bet is to tune your kick to the root of your chord, tune the snare to the 5th of the scale for your active key, tune your toms so that they move in 3rds down from a high Root to low root - 8-6-3-1 or 8-5-3-1, some guys tune then high tom to b7 so that you have b7-5-3-1

You can tune your hats and cymbals but usually not much point as they are noise first and pitch sources second.

Never knew this awsome i was looking for both the snare and the kick to be at the first root C i'm gonna try the kick at C and my snare at G it makes sense is this how they do acoustic drums? i have alot of work to do i wanna get my drum library to the point i have all the kicks in C in one folder C# and so on thanks coach

sorry I did not reply before must have slipped through the cracks - yeah I was talking about tuning an acoustic kit:

there are some other approaches especially when you get to a kit like Bill Bruford's [sup][1][/sup] that has multiple small diameter toms with various tuning lengths and no rear head
- think resonators for a vibraphone or xylophone or marimba made with diameters that are from 3" up to 5" and lengths of tube that vary from 6" to 3' (36") or more) arranged to provide an alternative to cymbals
- these are called "boobams" [sup][2], [3], [4][/sup] by Bruford (and are meant to be an alternative to using anklung [sup][5], [6], [7], [8][/sup]) and you can tune them to a scale or in semitones or even quarter tones (depending on how many you have - Bruford had nearly 22 at one time in the 80's) to have an effective range of pitches within a band setting

sorry for the spammy nature of the resulting page for the 1st octoban link - it has good info just got spamsh!t front and rear