Do you change the pitch of cymbals?

dominic94

New member
Cymbals, ride edges, crashes, china, splashes got their own tones. Do you change their pitches ? Also on crashes it is so hard to define what kind of pitch it is because it vibrates in pretty wide range. Also when I am trying to change the pitch I instantly do not like the sound, because most of the time cymbals are starting to sound not so well to me. So is it necessery to tune them or pick close pitch to your music ? Will the wrong cymbals sound dissonant ? THanks.
 
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Cymbals, ride edges, crashes, china, splashes got their own tones. Do you change their pitches ? Also on crashes it is so hard to define what kind of pitch it is because it vibrates in pretty wide range. Also when I am trying to change the pitch I instantly do not like the sound, because most of the time cymbals are starting to sound not so well to me. So is it necessery to tune them or pick close pitch to your music ? Will the wrong cymbals sound dissonant ? THanks.

Crashes, rides and splashes not so much, but I do with very tonal stuff like wood blocks, steel drums, toms, and sometimes the kick.

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I do with cymbals sometimes within a loop if I'm using one-hits.. that and not quantizing makes it feel more natural.
 
check your libraries you should have several differently pitched cymbals (I currently have over 100 in the many kits that I use)

also unlike toms and snares and kicks, which can be tuned, the only way to change pitch for a cymbal is to get a different size one that is what drummers do when they want to change the sound of their cymbal work
 
check your libraries you should have several differently pitched cymbals (I currently have over 100 in the many kits that I use)

also unlike toms and snares and kicks, which can be tuned, the only way to change pitch for a cymbal is to get a different size one that is what drummers do when they want to change the sound of their cymbal work

Right. Except you can get extremely different tones from the spot you hit a hi-hat on. There's the sweet spot, and then everywhere else. Playing on the 16ths with one-hits at slightly varying pitches can emulate that sound you'd get from a drummer not always hitting the exact same sweet spot. I find doing this, and not quantizing, is the only way to replicate a natural sound besides using a actual drum break.
 
The only reason I pitch cymbals is if I want a lighter or heavier cymbal sound, I don't tend to focus that much on trying to make them "in key" with the track since they're quite dissonant elements naturally.
But sure if a cymbal has a very strong key signature, I'd like it to be in the right key (but I can't remember any scenario where I had to do this).
 
check your libraries you should have several differently pitched cymbals (I currently have over 100 in the many kits that I use)

also unlike toms and snares and kicks, which can be tuned, the only way to change pitch for a cymbal is to get a different size one that is what drummers do when they want to change the sound of their cymbal work
Right. Except you can get extremely different tones from the spot you hit a hi-hat on. There's the sweet spot, and then everywhere else. Playing on the 16ths with one-hits at slightly varying pitches can emulate that sound you'd get from a drummer not always hitting the exact same sweet spot. I find doing this, and not quantizing, is the only way to replicate a natural sound besides using a actual drum break.

tones (in this context) are not pitch: they are overtones or harmonics -and every cymbal has them and yes depending on where you hit the cymbal you can get a vastly different sound from it, but in the world of sample libraries this sort of variability is usually non-existent, mostly because it is not thought about but also because in some cases folks would not/do not know how to use them effectively so why clutter the picture?
 
Hi guys ! I'm trying to change pitch on drum hits, a cymbal exactly. I want to create this sound from scratch "in key" to understand how to make this with everything sample , I tried to change pitch on a sample but the result isn't good, can someone help me?
 
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