How do I know what key things are in?

[lorposralem]

Lets say I sample the drums from Aliens by Figure. How do I know what key anything is in? (Sub, Kick, Snare, Hat, etc)

Moreover, if I just take a sample from the song and am trying to layer it with drums of my own production, how do I know what key my drums are in? How do I make them fit without key clashes?

[-[2]DAY_-]

drums don't tend to have a key. with the exception of sub, none of those instruments are concerned with key.... am i being trolled?

[drake89]

never heard anything about drums in a key. unless you're playing timpani

[-[2]DAY_-]

steel drum, hang drum, pitched toms, 808 kick

who knows more? and not marimbas/xylo/etc.... DRUMS!

[paridiso]

Drums don't have key but you can look at it through a spectral analyzer to make sure you're dreams aren't hitting the same regions as the sample.

[jrisreal]

sometimes, drums DO have a key. Take an 808, for example. 808 definitely has a key, and some kicks have a noticeable key. But if they are noticeable, your ear should be able to let you know easily.

[apastrat]

steel drum, hang drum, pitched toms, 808 kick

who knows more? and not marimbas/xylo/etc.... DRUMS!

loads of percussive and electronic drums/snares.

[Big Freq]

some drum sounds are in key... some are not. it depends on how it was made/recorded...

most professional drummers tune their drums...

you could use a spec analyzer to find the freq...

even a virtual guitar tuner might work... (never tried it)

or the best way would be to just use your ears and transpose it til it sounds good.

i wouldnt be overly worried about it unless it sounds like shit.

[drake89]

or the best way would be to just use your ears and transpose it til it sounds good.

i wouldnt be overly worried about it unless it sounds like shit.

yeah there was some thread a while ago with somebody asking if they should tune a bunch of virtual drum kits to every major/minor key. Jesus!

Does anyone out there actually tune drum kits, and if so how do you do it? Just the tonic (root), or 5ths???

Best vid of a tuned drum that I know of:

also i want one of those shirts. the only shows worth going to would light it up full the whole time

[lorposralem]

I guess I could just do the spectrum analyzer... I guess I'm thinking too much into it... but whenever I make a drum pattern, shit just does NOT sound good at all. It sounds very robotic, quantized and.... well crap. I cant seem to make it sound good, let alone "realistic"

Ill refer to the many threads here on how to make a better drum pattern

[drake89]

yeah, tuning them isn't going to help them sound good.

[Filthzilla]

Aliens by Figure.

Love that tune.

[Basic A]

or the best way would be to just use your ears and transpose it til it sounds good.

i wouldnt be overly worried about it unless it sounds like shit.

yeah there was some thread a while ago with somebody asking if they should tune a bunch of virtual drum kits to every major/minor key. Jesus!

Does anyone out there actually tune drum kits, and if so how do you do it? Just the tonic (root), or 5ths???

Best vid of a tuned drum that I know of:
also i want one of those shirts. the only shows worth going to would light it up full the whole time

Dude you definately want to look up some other hang drum vids. Schpongle is awesome but there is beautiful music being made on the hang...

and, they sell those shirts on thinkgeek.com

[Kochari]

Use dem ears

[victor w]

Use dem ears

[iamjoncannon]

I guess I'm thinking too much into it... but whenever I make a drum pattern, shit just does NOT sound good at all. It sounds very robotic, quantized and.... well crap. I cant seem to make it sound good, let alone "realistic"

you aren't overthinking it, making beats is an art and you just have to work with samples until the processing is second nature to you. two pieces of software i would recommend are native instruments battery and audio damage's 'rough rider' compressor. battery has a really good stretch function which helps tune samples as realistically as possible (a key MPC feature that a lot of vsts forget). i tune hi hats/shakers by ear, just move them up and down until they sound right to me with the beat, i dont know if other people do that though. in terms of the 'robot,' theres no real secret, just work with swing and velocities and change the beat a little between the bars,

[-[2]DAY_-]

more drum sample tips for avoiding robotic-ness -- bring down the sustain/hold on the amp envelopes, bring the decay to low-middle, raise up the release so that each hit rings out fully (in other words so the drum samples don't cut off at release) , but the decay stage give it that snap/impact at the transient.
when applying quantize, try it at less than 100% strength. maybe 90, 85 % or less depending on how well you play. Try using swing but very subtlely -- quant swing functions almost always give a more robotic feel than a human one, because its noticeably NOT a real person's swing. when people swing, they drift, which is cool, but quant swing will be more or less identical every note.
Alter velocity of hits, as mentioned above, with low velocity on ghost notes, high on accents, and maybe some crescendo/decrescendos at places.

apply subtle reverb. not the humongous bright plate you might send your snare to. Just a short, dark plate or room ..or something to put those drum hits into a shared "space", that you might barely notice except for the fact that your drums are beginning to sound "real".


I really wouldn't worry about tuning for the realism and humanizing. It's more for getting a sample to sound better in the context of the beat (hmm, this kick needs to be higher pitched, because it's a wee bit flabby for this beat and i need a bit more punch out of it). If you're dramatically re-tuning drum samples, look back at your sample selection.
Just my $.02 ;]