Hi!
EDM producers probably always tune the kick and snare, considering it a mistake when you don't tune kick and snare...

...and how about pop and electro pop?
And if you tune drums in pop, do you have some notes range for the kick? like you tune the kick a note between e.g. E1 (41Hz) and C2 (65Hz) ?

thanks!

 

Tuning the Techno Kick Drum

If you create your own kick with a synthesizer, the fundamental pitch is determined by which key you press on the keyboard or which MIDI note you use to trigger the sound generator. To generate decent punch in a club, the fundamental pitch should be in the frequency range between 40 and 65 Hz. This rules out the key of D, for example, which is either around 37 Hz or 74 Hz. Ideal pitches would be F-sharp (46 Hz), G (49 Hz), or G-sharp (52 Hz).

 

i tune kick, clap, snare and even drum loops!

 

This comment shows wisdom far beyond genre-specificity listen to this man.

 

And to answer OP's question: yes.

EDIT: my favorite method for tuning drums is a bit tedious, but ALWAYS yields good results. Open Kontakt to new empty instrument. Under mapping editor, drag your drum sample (let's just say it's a snare) and widen the yellow region so you can play notes super high/low on your midi, or musical typing works fine. Then play basic scales of your snare (e.g. C Major scale) and fine-tune it alongside a piano as you go. It helps if your piano is digital because you never have to tune an electric piano!!

Of course, you can also use simple EQ tricks to tune a sound, specifically with sharp resonant Q values.

 

If you change a bass percussion instruments pitch, you also change it's size. Additionally you also change the relationship with the other instruments most of all with the bass. If you move the bass one octave up and then you move the bassdrum one octave up you'll find the bassdrum at ~100Hz. So the question arises: What's happening below this frequency now?
I can not see a reason for this.

To my experience in pop music it is in the most cases advisable to use acoustic percussion. There are exceptions which are mostly found in the years of 2008/2009 until ~2014 where the "hands-up" genre had a very big influence on pop music.

 

Last edited: May 17, 2025

Guys,

With what plugin do you guys tune your kicks & snares ect..

Thank you

 

You can use any EQ to determine the frequency and therefore the note/pitch of any sound, however I don't usually go as in depth as getting every percussion sample to be exactly the right frequency.

I just use key detection software like mixedinkey to scan my drum sounds, and I'll use samples that fall into the right key, so they're harmonically fitting with each other.

Some producers have argued that as drums are transient sounds, and you can't generally *really* hear the pitch of some of them that it's not that important to get them in pitch, but they would be wrong

 

I read that. Still, there's nothing I won't tune, including cymbals and percussion, although it's quite often certain colour/timbre that I'm after and not just pitch purity.

 

I have never tuned drums, in +/- 35 years of making electronic music

 

This is the kind of statement I comment about frequently, saying it is almost always BS when someone feels the need to say how long they have been doing something. Not that you haven't been making music for however long you feel the need to tell us about; but telling us about in effort to support your point. You can do something the wrong way your whole life. Doing it wrong longer is meaningless.

 

i will never understand this madness of tuning drums, which are un-tunable sounds lol they wouldn't be untuned percussions.

Try Steinberg Backbone and learn how to truly sound design your drums, you will understand what I mean, I am not gonna fight "youtube engineers" here lol if you like youtube engineers dont read my post

Otherwise, learn Backbone and Waves Torque, you will understand what means "tuning drums", and "notes" are not the problem.

 

do you imagine a truly tuned kick drum? if the track changes key, or makes weird chromatic movements in bass and harmony it would be a mess and I am not talking about a specific genre, this thing is valid in pop EDM jazz classical country or whatever

people really belive that they are "tuning notes" in their percussions lol

 

Of course every sound has a key or pitch, even if the ear struggles to detect it. Percussion is very easy to hear a note in, say a conga drum for instance. Things like hats are more white noisey so more difficult to hear but yes they still will have a pitch.

Even white noise will have a certain frequency, (I believe it's all the frequencies) it's not going to be an obvious as a piano key of course.

You just earned my first disagree rating in 3 years of being on here, sir!

 

Last edited: May 18, 2025

Tell me you have oldhead ears without telling me lol. If you think you can't tune drums then you've probably never made a decent beat in your life

 

The #1 rule to remember in music, there are no rules. If it sounds good, it is good. Don't ever let anyone convince you otherwise.

 

as stated i am not gonna argue on this, apologize. Learn Backbone and Torque and then talk.

yeah

 

No to argue surely you would need a valid argument to begin with :O

Backbone and Torque, "In the context of physics and mechanics, torque is a twisting force that causes rotation around an axis, while backbone refers to the structural support or the central, most important part of something. "

That's all we know, chief