Pitching 808's

V

Villainaire

New member
Quick question.

I recently asked yall about tuning drums, and the response I got was basically "DRUMS AREN'T IN ANY KEY USUALLY".

Well I use the Trilogy VST for bass, and often I'll just use the basice sine wave, and put some release on it to make it sound like an 808 drum, then lay down a bassline. It's always in the key of the song.

It seems to me 808's are nothing more than sine waves. If that's the case they HAVE TO BE IN SOME SORT OF KEY!

Any help with correcting my logic would be appreciated.

An example of what I'm trying to explain would be numerous Jazze Pha produced tracks, where the bassline is 808.

Yup,
Lando
 
Just because a few person say so does not mean it is true.
 
if u don't tune ur kicks or think it makes a difference on kicks ur missing out... ofcoarse im to lazy and haven't even botherd to do it in ages... but when im real serious i tune all the drums to match the main melody.. not needed if u pic drums specific for the main part of ur song but it will definetly make a difference
 
808s do have more of a "pitch" than acoustic drums. Even if drums don't have a definite pitch center they do have a sweet spot. Toms and timpanis have more of a pitch than snares and kicks. Just play around with your drum pitches 'til they sound best.
 
hollow a kick out and **** with the bass on middle c and go down until you find what sounds right and just layer the two thats all
 
your right drums need to be in the key of the song....

i find the key using Reason because they have a pitch finding feature...
 
change your bassline to a sine wave and then try to match the 808s up with it then change the bassline back to whatever sound you had it as before
 
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yo all u gatta do is take the original pitch and go up 1 semi tone or down 1 semi tone or keep it where it was. this is becuz for your drums to be in key all you need is for them to be a note of the scale thats in key, which will be one of those three. other than that you can just use your ear its really not hard just do watever sounds best
 
K_City said:
your right drums need to be in the key of the song....

i find the key using Reason because they have a pitch finding feature...
Click to expand...

distort it if you wnna find its pitch...
 
anything thing that causes any type of vibration has a pitch, whether its audible or not
 
initialproductions said:
yo all u gatta do is take the original pitch and go up 1 semi tone or down 1 semi tone or keep it where it was. this is becuz for your drums to be in key all you need is for them to be a note of the scale thats in key, which will be one of those three. other than that you can just use your ear its really not hard just do watever sounds best
Click to expand...

Thank you very much.
 
Drums don't need to be in the key of a song. Think about a live band playing; the drummer's not tuning his drums for songs in different keys, not to mention key changes within the song.

An 808 kick has a definite pitch but it drops a little with the decay. Probably more than a little. But 808 kicks used as a bassline is like one of the sounds of old school jungle. There's about an octave that you can work in before it's either too low and muddy or else too high and sounds awkwardly out of tune. I've found that rolling the tone pretty much all the way down on the 808 to get rid of the clicky attack helps bring out the pitch a lot when you sample it.
 
mcshine said:
Drums don't need to be in the key of a song. Think about a live band playing; the drummer's not tuning his drums for songs in different keys, not to mention key changes within the song.

An 808 kick has a definite pitch but it drops a little with the decay. Probably more than a little. But 808 kicks used as a bassline is like one of the sounds of old school jungle. There's about an octave that you can work in before it's either too low and muddy or else too high and sounds awkwardly out of tune. I've found that rolling the tone pretty much all the way down on the 808 to get rid of the clicky attack helps bring out the pitch a lot when you sample it.
Click to expand...


808's have to be pitched or "unpitched" with the bass of the song or else they will sound like sh*t when they over lapp each other
 
most pro drummers...not all, tune their drums (TOMS) in minor 3rds...
 
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