Pitching Drums

W

WestCoaster

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Do you guys typically pitch your drums with your sampled beats? Do you pitch them to the same pitch as your sample? Thanks for your help!
 
depends. for softer neo soul types i like REALLY light toms in the snare pitched up a bit to give it a tone.

but most i tune kicks to the root if they have enough tone in them, and snares to the 5th to get that uhm-ah feel, but if you do it might run over similar frequencies and when mixing will congeal together to make a big wodge of bass.


but really it depends. take dooms productions, snare sound so off, but they work because they are off...yah semme?


just wondering do you mean the layering stage, when you put your drums together? or just how the drums mix with the song.
 
nah u were right on point... but lately ive been trying to use the fpc to do my drums like an mpc, i was wondering if anyone could shed some light on how to layer the drums in it cuz i cant seem to figure it out and ive never used an mpc before.... would it be easier to just use the sampler channel with the piano roll? thanks again!
 
Depends on the sample/beat.
Sometimes I'll get a break & stretch it (which causes the pitch to change) then I just hit "reset".
So the break is slower or faster without changing the pitch.
 
Hey Danny I was just checking out your soundclick. Were you trying to purposely recreate the beats off Apollo Brown's Clouds, a lot of your beats are identical to the ones he made
 
Never. I just pick drums that I think fit. I have no idea if they are in tune or not.
 
I tend to make drums first and get the sample to fit my drums Ive never tried tuning drum samples it never sounds right to me
 
All the time. Sometimes I like a deep kick but with a lot of snap from the mallet contact (similar to putting a mic inside the kick, no?). I start with a kick that has a lot of high end and then tune it down. Like Vantage, I like to snap my snares a bit.
 
I pitch drums every now and then while I'm tweaking the drum sounds for the beat. Pitching the right snare up a bit can make it hit nicely.

Not tuning anything to the sample though. Would imagine doing this only with timpani..
 
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I don't think pitching a drum sample is the same as tuning a drum kit. There's only so far you can pitch a sample before it sounds unnatural imo

If you pitch just the kick and snare but not the cymbals, the tone of the room or the air in the room become a difference between the samples. If you pitch the cymbals, you're sort of defeating the purpose.
 
Tuning drums is not just for matching the key of a song. You also tune drums to change the freq and tone. If you want a tight, snappy snare that cracks loud, you pitch it up. If want more of a bassy, loose/thick snare, pitch it down. You dont always need to find a new sample. One good snare sample can be used over and over and sound like a different snare just by pitching it up/down.

If you owned a real drum kit, you wouldn't have to go and get a new snare drum every time you wanted a new sound. You adjust the sound by tuning it to give you a different snare sound.

Its good to tune your drums to the pitch you want before you start EQ'ing as well, so you get it in the octave of the frequency range you want first, then just use the EQ for any fine tuning. In other words, if you think your snare sample has too much bass and not enough treble, you dont have to just crank the treble and turn down the bass. You can just pitch it up to higher octave. Then use your EQ to fine tune it, if nec.

In the early drum machines like the Linn and DMX, they only had 1 sample of each sound. Pitching the samples was the way artists like prince/rick james could use the same kick/snare sample for every song on an album without them all sounding exactly the same.
 
u gotta go with your ear if u too busy worried about other people its gunna **** u up..just do what u feel works.
 
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