Drum Machine Tuning, Need help figuring this out. Options

[thefarside07]

I use Propellerheads Reason all the time, however I am just now starting to venture out into my own compositions. As far as Drum tuneing goes I just don't get it. I use the Redrum for my drum patterns, and load the provided samples... but how do I tune these samples to work better with each other. Should I tune the kick drum so it's on or around the same frequency as the bass, the claps and hi-hats so that there at the same frequency as my mids... Can someone please shed some light on this for me, or point me to a direction that might help.

Thanks,
Brian

[dixiechicken]

This is a very personal subject I'd say.
How you color your soundscape is a matter of style and taste & intentions.
(among many other factors)

If you're after clarity and separation have the original sounds as clean and well recorded as possible. ( good signal to noise ratio)
Go easy on the reverbs and other sundry effects.

Imagine your soundscape as a painting.
Place instruments from left to right in the picture as you'd like them to appear.

Let each instrument occupy it's own level from top to bottom.
(corresponds loosely to highs down to lows sonically)

This should in theory generate a sound more akin to old Steely Dan recordings.
A sound I personally happen to like - BUT - wich many probably feel is TOO
clean and wimpy.

There's a thousand ways to sculpture sound - take your pick.
Listen to favourite recordings and try in some small measure to emulate their
sound and see what you get.

Good luck and dont give up: Dixiechicken

[thefarside07]

Thanks for the post. I just remember reading that your drums (I produce Dance Music) should be tuned well for example the kick drum should be intune with the bass. What you have said is helpful though, thanks.

[DANO10]

Hey Brian,

I agree with everyting Dixiechicken said - including the Steely Dan drums sound. Jim Keltner was the drummer on those early recordings and he used to tune his toms slightly sharp in pitch relative to the key of the track. This simple trick made them "cut" through the mix. As an engineer, I worked with Jim a number of times and he taught me this technique which I used to my great adavantage from then on.

DANO10

[lepetitmartien]

Save a few idiophones like marimbas, xylophones, triangles etc. with fixed pitch. Drums are mostly not pitched as they are in the most part noise, and noise has no pitch. Now, some can have a tuning like timbales because they are the only ones of this form of the drum family to have a prominent fundamental note. On drums like a kick, it will mostly affect the "tightness" of the sound and its harmonic structure, and there is a question of taste there, tuning is more a "quality" than a way to follow a key. Be it deep or less so, more dry or wet…

DAN010 input is interesting as it's an illustration of an intelligent "abuse" to be musical in some way And some (like drummers, we all know they are crazy may be more atuned to drum tuning. Myself on synths, it's taste I follow (and absolute hearing… erk)

[DANO10]

RE: Drum Tuning

Please note that my post refered to toms only which, many times, have a strong fundamental note.

DANO10