A Guide To Tuning Drum Samples

If you make electronic music, should you tune your drum samples? From kicks, snares, hi-hats to toms, here's a quick tutorial.
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[@bombaclitt]

Completely agree with this, as a self taught EDM producer for around 12 years, it took me some time to get to this conclusion, as there is so much disinformation regarding this.

[@Kai_soze]

The main thing is training your ears to know what sounds good and what doesn’t at a professional level, but that can take years.

[@sniei5192]

@@Kai_sozeit takes ears for sure

[@sfleeee]

I would almost always tune hats, however. Or at the very least the main single hat (if making dance music).

[@Jala_haru]

I always thought I was tone deaf with drums because I would pitch drums up and down and still not know where to put them….

[@bfors8498]

I’ve always wondered if I should chune my drum samples - now I know!

[@fa1lure69]

broooo 😭😭

[@MrCool144]

Chooning by eer is dee best

[@GavHern]

even short stares usually still have a steady fundamental! you don’t have to tune them but there’s still good reason to if you like the sound!

[@lalalalalal169]

bro just throw autotune on the master it'll tune all the sounds trust 🔥🔥

[@d3rduck]

How to ruin your mix 101

[@LeeSnowdon2578]

Give up making music bro

[@cody42693]

Most sane FL user

[@mr.justice3220]

Ozone on every track

[@cody42693]

@@mr.justice3220 Well this one can actually work. Some of the "mastering" presets really are just presets for a bus, like adding stereo width.

[@ImSoOld2007]

I started tuning my kick and toms to the song in 2016. I played a friend a track I did as a joke and they laughed at the fact one thing was out of tune like I’d done it on purpose to perpetuate the joke. In reality I didn’t even think to tune it at all and hadn’t even noticed it was out of tune. So now I always tune drums and sfx to be in key with the song…because of an out of key air horn in a joke remix.

[@illford]

tbh i feel if your kicks are short it's not too detectable, i don't usually like long kicks so it's never been an issue. IDK ig to me if you have a long kick it's just a short kick and a sub to an extent

[@edsohovocals]

Thank you for this. I've tried doing it and never sure what I'm doing or why. This provides a bit of method behind the madness.

[@beatsbymaxxie]

A well made tutorial

[@Cableguys]

Thanks 👍

[@Lilly24244]

Honestly, even on shorter kicks; if they have a strong fundamental in the lower frequencies tuning them helps your track sound more cohesive. It really depends on the kick though though, if it doesn't sound right it's probably best to tune it.

[@somilgupta6666]

I have asked more experienced friends this exact question and nobody had an answer, thank you so much!!! Also never knew about shorter sounds like hihats being inharmonic… super helpful :)

[@Jack_Rivet]

I know I'm not a famous producer, but I tend to pitch my bass, pads etc to my drums and not the other way round. But there is still good information in this video

[@jaxon4080]

There’s definitely some tonal snares out there but still great advice

[@platinumcamel]

Show us an example of a “de-tuned vs tuned” version of a drum loop and let’s hear the difference?

[@clocks8137]

a oustic kits sound great pitched in key too

[@PIZZAdayisback]

Please do a deconstruction of a "The prodigy" song! I've been wondering how they made such crazy beats for a long time!

[@cwav4718]

i tune my percs -9 semitones to get that Burial sound

[@Zaflon]

I always tune my drums by ear, the more of the heavy lifting you do in the sampler, the less you rely on EQ. The more defined your sound.

[@iamsyntact]

great vid 👍🏻 I saw another video recently where a dude was arguing you should never tune your kicks to key because of phase issues with the sub bass and honestly I'm still triggered

[@Quiet_Forge]

Getting the kick in phase with the sub is top priority to me, pitch is secondary

[@winterapparel7540]

If I’m not drawing the percussion and FX in a MIDI channel then I always make sure the drum rack is playing a note in key

[@the3dotsguy...610]

I like tuning my drums so the freaquency resonates with the sertain body parts to create movement inside your body... I think kicks as "pushers" that they push the song forward and snares as "pullers" that catches the momentum of the kick and continues pulling. Amd hihats as the reference how it pushes and pulls and i try to create a sertain movement with in ur body with the tone.... Idk if im crazy or does this happend to everyone. But i feel drums as 3D

[@uselessuserusing]

sometimes tuning kick -1 is being nice. but tom is always needed tuning for me

[@CalleJonte]

Completely unrelated but I love your s and t. You really make them sound smooth and whispering. Do you have a gate on because it almost sounds as if they get louder after a release?

[@rkeewi]

I switched from hip hop/trap music and i always use those with less tail so apart from always cutting the lows except for kick i almost never tune but i mix to add texture to the sound to kinda fit the them, is that good?

[@onblast.podcast6892]

yo let me get that snare that first one

[@clarkfluegel6875]

Mmmmm that one snare hit in the video was tasty 🤤

[@Galaxis-X]

What about tuning the sub frequencies of the kick and the first 16th note of the bass line to avoid phase issues and to align them ?

[@cody42693]

I would just use sidechain here. Or have the bass not hit at the same time as the kick. But idk, do what sounds good.

[@SToXC_.]

as he said, "tuning" the sub is bullshit because the kick is a frequency sweep anyways, you are just turning the start/end point of the sweep, everything else wont be in phase with the sub its practically impossible to have your kick always in phase with the sub, just side chain, no one is manually adjusting the phase for every single kick hit, its just music, it doesn't have to be a torture

[@futuref1sh932]

🔥

[@Gnurklesquimp2]

Ive also heard advice NOT to tune a kick to the bass note, iirc because its hard to balance it against how it sounds when the bass note changes. Idk though, i find i often like it, and theres also ducking the bass.

[@cremaset5595]

Don't tune drum samples by pitching it normally, use a frequency shifter instead. It sounds way cleaner, it preserve the highs and doesn't mess with the transient

[@Dinglezz]

👌

[@churricardo1457]

What part of the 808 should you tune to, the initial hit or the part after it has landed on a contant pitch? They all seem to pitch drift

[@naughtyducky6325]

Just make your own ones in serum, it’s quite an easy sound to make, thats what I do anyway.

[@ihaar]

Pitch the whole thing and don't care. That's what everybody does. The pitch decays for longer than just the transient but they usually end on a constant pitch

[@SToXC_.]

It only matters if your kick lasts so long its basically a Sub thats where you get the sustained stable-ish part for a short kick it just doesn't matter

[@naughtyducky6325]

I would not recommend tuning kicks, it normally messes up the waveform. It’s best to using a kick that doesn’t need tuning, I think. Or synthesis one, with your track key in mind.

[@cody42693]

I suppose it depends on the stretching algorithm, but yeah basically. You pitch your kick up enough and you'll start making it shorter and the waveform will be entirely different.

[@clocks8137]

oh no not the waveform

[@naughtyducky6325]

@@clocks8137 Bro, a good kick has a specific shape, stretching it often messes with the balance of it, the waveform of a kick is extremely Important if you want a loud and clean master. The shape of your kick is going to dramatically alter how the final limiter reacts to your track. Most stretching algorithms are gonna introduce transients spikes on the sub of the kick, caused by a phase shift , you can clip these off but ultimately you’re gonna end up with unwanted distortion. If you don’t clip them off you’re gonna have a quiet, amateur sounding track with additional distortion in your master but if you’re making a genre that has distorted kicks, clipping them doesn’t master as much. When you’re mixing your lowend you should be aware of your waveforms, it’s will tell you how things are gonna respond further down in the process, solely relying on your ears isn’t good advice IMO, you can pick up other potential problems such as asymmetry in your waveforms too, they’re more common than you think.

[@clocks8137]

make your own kick problem solved

[@naughtyducky6325]

@@clocks8137 that’s what I recommended in my OP

[@BionicMexican]

Bet

[@QueMusiQ]

The end of the video is problematic. You can pitch shift a tonal drum while preserving the attack if you great them as different elements or have the tone correction kick in after a preset attack time.

[@anotherastronaut_]

CHune

[@briancase6180]

If your kick sample is long enough to benefit from tuning, it's not a kick sample.

[@MOSMASTERING]

DEPENDS!!!! Techno, sure. Psytrance - SOMETIMES. Its taste and track dependant

[@patricksmith9517]

It takes like a minute to do. Always tune ur drums

[@blank2541]

Drummers don’t retune for each song. This is completely unnecessary. Tune your 808s tho, that’s a bass.

[@ihaatey0u]

Nope. Just use good samples that sound cohesive and you’re good.

[@deasgusting]

Ijbol no percussion almost never needs to be tuned unless it’s a stylistic choice because it’s… percussion