In all seriousness, tuning drums is an essential part of any record.

This is what happens when you don't tune your snare drum to the rest of the track, it can cause severe consequences forever

 

For those not realizing that drums create a frequency, well they of course do. Snare and kick drums can be tuned as well as toms. For the kick as an example, if one uses Bazzism Kick you can sweep through frequencies to choose what sounds right for the song or part of it. In the real world drums can tuned by a knowledgeable sound engineer or the drummer to impart cohesion with a song. It's a good idea to be able to do so

My brother who had just started playing drums and was in a band had bought a super inexpensive drum kit which sounded like crap. His band's first gig was to warm up for a pro band, and when their drummer heard the sound check rushed over to my brother and on the spot tuned up the kick and snare for him. Those shitty drums then sounded like a million bucks after that.

 

Yeah regarding the 'you can't tune a kick to fit in with the track' this is exactly what they do in hardstyle/hardcore.

Usually a 909 kick with lots of distortion on will turn into a sort of bass sound, and they are often tuned to change with the bass note changes in the track.

Essentially, distortion will add upper harmonics to a kick track which will make it sound more tuneful to the ear, but the pitch still remains in the kick even without the distortion on, it's just harder for our ears to determine, often why people dismiss regular kick drum tuning entirely (they can't hear it so how can it matter?)

 

There is no "right" nor "wrong" to this, but I myself tune sampled drums as I see (hear) fit to do so. Sometimes snares are punchier when tuned down a bit.

 

Tuning drums can work, not tuning them can also work, detuning might even work. Literally tons of dance tracks became huge hits, with untuned drums. Now you have millions of tuned-drum dance tracks that are absolute garbage, littering the streaming platforms. And of course also a lot of of tuned-drum dance tracks that are great. There are also still untuned-drum dance tracks being made that are great. That's the beauty of dance music, you don't have to follow certain rules.

 

For audio tracks, ReaPitch. Comes with several sliders for pitch and formants(!) and various algos.

 

Yes exactly, sometimes tuning a snare down, or up, sounds better.

Some would argue to always bring a snare forward, or rather to always delay it to make it groove more. But it depends on the sample/sound, and groove of the rest of the sounds & patterns, there is no right or wrong.

Don't waste your time on self-invented 'laws' of others, but listen to what sounds or feels right for you.

But if you want to program realistic pop drums, make sure the whole kit is out of tune, make the snare randomly too late, overuse cymbals especially during choruses, and use a tempo track to speed up the tempo during the song.

 

No. Not unless it's very tonal and part of the tonality (808 bass, tuned toms playing a rudiment, etc).

 

obviously an acoustic drum set needs "to be tuned" with the keys on the instruments, kick snare and toms also. And that can be also defined as "lets torque the drums" as the Waves plugins suggests, which is a great tuner for drums

But the question here is that people want to tune the drums with the key of the song lol that is absolutely "not necessary", electrocnic drums should be "torqued", it means worked "by frequencies" not by "notes". Hope that makes sense. I "tune" my drums in the sense that I "torque" em, but not "put in tune".

Anyhow as omiac stated if it sounds good it is good. Everything in music is fair (except being rude)

 

Unless you actually have the original drum sample, or know what drum machine a hit is from; how would you really even know if something has been selected by correct pitch, or "tuned" anyway? They can turn out sounding wrong either way. Drums have a great potential for people to make them sound bad in a good number of ways.

Most of the plugins I ever end up using for separate single drum hits, like Kick for example; have pitch envelopes where you can adjust pitch at every node you want to place along the envelope. It's the same general idea with replacement/layering tools like UVI Drum Replacer or SPL DrumXchanger, where people will pitch match the original drum. When it comes to using raw wav samples, it's common for someone to just audition and then select a sample which already "sounds right" because of its root key that was sampled. Minimizing all changes made with after-the-fact effects processing can reduce any loss of fidelity. So they start out with a "tuned drum", and then do nothing else to it.

I suspect many people do all this stuff without even thinking about it, because it isn't done by them as its own separate process. They just "make it sound right".

 

Tuning it means it doesn't fit the song or is a bad choice.
Most great electronic producers use one good kick for their entire lives.

 

... except timpanis.

 

Well, I've learned something from this thread.

I think on the argument of pitch vs torque I looked a little bit into it and discovered the 'fundamental pitch'

"In music, pitch refers to the perceived highness or lowness of a sound, while fundamental pitch (or fundamental frequency) refers to the lowest frequency component of a complex sound, often perceived as the main pitch. While pitch is the overall subjective perception, fundamental pitch is the objective lowest frequency responsible for that perception.
Elaboration:

• Pitch:
  Pitch is a subjective quality that we perceive when listening to a sound. It's how we mentally categorize a sound as high or low. For example, a high-pitched sound on a piano might be the note A, while a low-pitched sound might be the note C.
• Fundamental Pitch:
  When a sound is produced by a vibrating object (like a string, a reed, or an air column), it often vibrates at multiple frequencies simultaneously. The fundamental pitch is the lowest of these frequencies, and it's often the most prominent and easily discernible.
• Relationship:
  The fundamental pitch is the basis for the pitch we perceive. It sets the overall tone or "note" of the sound. While the overtones (higher frequencies) contribute to the timbre (or quality) of the sound, the fundamental frequency is primarily responsible for the pitch.
• Example:
  Imagine a guitar string playing the note C. The string vibrates at many frequencies, but the lowest one (the fundamental) is the one that defines the pitch as "C". The other frequencies add to the character of the sound, but they don't change the basic pitch"

So with a kick drum for example you can tune it to the fundamental pitch over the.. pitch. This has also explained why lower frequencies are more difficult to determine pitch, and a high percussive sound can be obvious

 

when I synthsize my drum with a drum machine or vst, yes, of course

whe I am using WAVE files (loops/single shots) = NEVER, because I choose the sounds by ear.
there's no need to tune when you choose sounds that are in the Key (or near) you want

 

There are two fundamental schools of thought for sine based electronic kick drums:

A. Static pitch sustain which is precisely tuned to the key fundamental.

B. Continously falling pitch sustain which is tuned by ear/feel as it never settles on a fixed frequency.

There are also kicks that are very 'clicky', where there's essentially a very fast pulse wave and/or are made of white noise, which essentially do not have a fixed pitch. Generally, the tonal characteristics of these sort of kicks are imposed on them via the tuning of filters (EQ). More often than not this type will be layered with one of the above.

This is actually how most classic electronic kicks are synthesised under the hood.

Regarding the argument that not tuning at all is a thing - yeah, I've heard plenty of that and it nearly always sounds absolutely fucking terrible. There are in fact whole genres based on tuned kick drums. Most obviously, ALL the 808 based rap styles but also the majority of "EDM" styles. Imagine trying to tell a rap producer not to tune their 808s, you'd be laughed out of the studio or worse...

So, that's just electronic kicks. Acoustic kicks are a different kettle of fish entirely but still conform to similar principles. To fully grasp how an acoustic kick works, one needs to examine the physics of a drum - factors which apply to all drums of any description.

There are two main components to a drum: The resonant body (shell) and the membrane (skin).

The shell is essentially a cylindrical acoustic space, not much different in principle to room acoustics. It provides amplification of the membrane by the interaction of standing waves via reflections (reverb). Just as in a room, the specific frequencies that are amplified/nulled (nodes/antinodes) by the body are static, fixed and repeatable.

Factors that influence the result are shell dimensions and wall material density. These are varied and tuned to provide differing outcomes in manufacturing to produce a particular response curve and harmonic balance. Such is physics that the same laws apply to any resonant body, be that a drum, a room, a violin, or a pipe.

The membrane however, has a quite different set of rules as it is a moving target and thus much more complex, in fact so complex that the mathematics involved is regarded as one of the most difficult areas of physics to study. In its most basic form (my level of understanding), the resulting harmonic structure is varied due to the velocity and position of where it is struck and thereby the pattern of movement imparted via the strike. What this means in practice, ie when hit by a stick for example, is that a centre strike will sound completely different to a perimeter strike, as will a soft strike to a hard strike. Whilst mathematically possible to calculate the resulting frequency response from a given velocity and position it's pretty much impossible for a human to strike a membrane in the exact same position, with the exact same velocity, ever. Really great percussionists will be very accurate but even so, small variations in tone will always exist due to fractions of difference in the striking technique. Hence, why no two drum strikes ever sound exactly the same.

The frequencies (partials) created as a result of stretching a membrane over a cylinder aren't as regular as that produced by the vibration of a string or the acoustic impedances (notes) created by a wind instrument for example. In most pitched instruments the strongest overtones created will generally be pleasing, being regular integers of the fundamental, and almost always some combination of fundamental, fundamental x2, x3, x4, x5, x6, etc. With pitched instruments the harmonics do become increasingly more inharmonic as the frequencies progress (a major factor in the character of any particular instrument) but invariably they are dominated by the level of the fundamental and initial harmonics.

In a drum the integers aren't in a regular series. It's almost beneficial to think of them as random, as the relationships aren't what we would ordinarily associate with harmonicity. In a pitched instrument, there is mostly a regular decrease in energy (level plus decay time) as the harmonic overtones rise in frequency from the fundamental. In a drum that is also variable, so the 4th or 6th overtone for example could be almost as prominent as the fundamental, or the 2nd and 3rd lower due to the inherent resonances of the system. There is ALWAYS a fundamental however, which is usually the most prominent frequency. It is this fundamental that provides the basis for tuning. In fact, tuning a drum correctly will actually reinforce the fundamental harmonic, reign in the inharmonic elements and result in a much better pitched drum. There's probably no greater examples of pitched drums than timpani and tablas, both of which destroy the idea that drums cannot be tuned accurately.

The physics of instruments, particularly percussive instruments in this case, is persistent through all permutations of resonant bodies; thats cylinders, tubes, plates, boxes and bars of all descriptions. Each variant has differing acoustical properties and unique harmonic structures, some more obviously tonal than others.

Cymbals, for example, obey the laws of plate acoustics. These principles are the same as for any other plate-based instrument which belong to the family; which spans from the completely chaotic harmonic complexity of a riveted China cymbal, through ride cymbals, to bells, gamelan bonangs and the serene harmonic beauty of hang drums. It's fairly arguable that a Chinese cymbal or a standard crash cymbal are inharmonic enough to not really warrant tuning, though there are a vast array of permutations that fit sonically into different spaces within a musical arrangement - a finger cymbal obviously differs hugely to a concert gong in the role it plays so in essence could be said to be "tuned". A ride cymbal is a good example of a cymbal in a conventional kit that is capable of producing a more recognisable pitch when the bell is struck (there's a reason it's called the bell which should be obvious by now), so can benefit from the appropriate selection, or in the case of synthesis/samples, tuned to the piece.

Extending into other percussion areas, there are those that are chaotic such as shakers, but there are actually far more that are tuned. An orchestral percussion section would be a massive failure if it weren't the case. Timpani, marimbas, blocks, bells, toms and many more are all pitched instruments. An orchestra would disintegrate if that weren't the case (imagine the timps in the opening fanfare of Sprach Zarathustra being out of tune!) Anything resembling these instruments should be pitched appropriately if harmonicity is desired (if inharmonicity is desired then there's still a strong case for tuning as this gives you control over applying inharmonicity purposefully).

To come back to the basics and the original question: Should we tune kick and snare in pop? (I don't see why pop is singled out as a singular style of music immune to tuning when in fact, pop(ular) music is hugely diverse in style, instrumentation and production, so every technique in existence applies somewhere in the repertoire.) Of course we should, along with all other percussive elements, whether that be acoustic or electronic. The choice of tuning is open to question. Drums and more inharmonic elements don't necessarily have to be tuned to fundamentals; sometimes 3rds, 5ths or other degrees can work equally as well depending on the overall harmonic structure of a piece - that's a personal choice.

What is a hard and fast rule and never to be ignored under any circumstances however, is that cowbells must always, always be tuned absolutely precisely.

It may not always be necessary to take things quite to this degree however...

Addendum: Here's a brief overview of the maths involved in membranes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessel_function

 

Last edited: May 19, 2025

but not only timpanis, there are BILLIONS of percussions that gives pure pitch: marimba bells vibes and even pianoforte is a pitched percussion lol

anyhow now this thread is taking the right/interesting way and people can now go deep and understand the difference between "tuning notes" and "torqueing"

 

I think this question is very simple to answer: you don't tune drums in pop muisc that is live oriented (not meant only for playback). Can you imagine a band tuning the kick every time they start a new song on stage with a different key? That would be funny. Finding an optimal universal tuning for the drums is essential though, but I would rather call it setting than tuning.

 

I don't tune anything and honestly it all sounds good.