Pitch Correcting Drums

[Efe:)]

Hey Guys, This may come off as a bit of an odd question but how do i determine the pitch of a pre recorded drum sample. i have tried running the sound through auto-tune and found out that my bass drum was in Ab but for all of the rest of the drum kit it will not pick up that information. How do i tune or find the pitch of a drum kit made from samples if auto tune or Melodine wont work. i need to know the exact musical note my instruments are in
any ideas?

[JGuth]

By ear

[Ru_C]

Originally Posted by JGuth

By ear

lol...what are these 'ears' of which you speak ? What are they used for ?

[midnightrambler]

Yep, it is an odd question, especially as drums may not have any particular "note", or may even have more than one "note", plus they can be made up of a number of disparate, unconnected, non-musically related frequencies. Having said that:

- You could try chucking a lo-fi over it and seeing if the excited overtones register anything in autotune.

- You could use something like Waves Q EQ set to a really hi Q and "sweep" across the frequencies and see if anything sticks out. Then look up the frequency in a frequency-pitch chart or use autotune again.

- You could also try chucking EA on (say) the snare and temporarily pitching the whole thing up by an octave, and seeing if any note sticks out on it.

I wouldn't really get too hung up on it though, eg I don't think there are that many tracks with toms etc that are "tuned" to the exact key of the song. I may be proven wrong of course......

[BaileyBass]

Originally Posted by midnightrambler

- You could use something like Waves Q EQ set to a really hi Q and "sweep" across the frequencies and see if anything sticks out. Then look up the frequency in a frequency-pitch chart or use autotune again.


I wouldn't really get too hung up on it though, eg I don't think there are that many tracks with toms etc that are "tuned" to the exact key of the song. I may be proven wrong of course......

To the OP...That method will probably work the best, especially if you can't really hear pitches.
Also, depending on how sensitive your ears are, "tuned" toms can be troublesome, depending on key centers.
As a bass player, the kick (in rare instances) can be a problem when the fundamental is too pronounced. When it is a halfstep, or some other "close, yet far away" interval.
When that is rectified... it really opens up the bottom end. SB

[Efe:)]

LOL! Thanks Guys, I thought I would have gotten beaten up for asking this noob question, at least everyone only made fun of me. I was having some issues when a producer asked me what note my hi hat was hitting and could not give him an answer lol I guess there is some truth in his statement but in my case it was a trick question. Thanks For The Help.

[PTUser NYC]

Maybe the producer meant which MIDI note did you have mapped to trigger it?

[Philthy]

Just tell him b flat. It's always b flat.

[Andy R]

Ask an experienced drummer, or just post a link here, I can tell you. Drum tuning develops an ear for it.

Just fyi, typical ranges for tom pitches are:

10 - D-D#
12 - B-C
13 - A-A#
14 - F#-G
16 - D-E

One more thing, the batter head and resonant head are most often different pitches, and when struck results in a new pitch, so muting one head and striking the other to determine pitch will provide false results.

[mattrussell]

i've used ohmboyz hematohm to pitch drum samples for years:

http://www.ohmforce.com/ViewProduct.do?p=Hematohm

use your ears and good luck.