Key of samples

Vanden

-nieuwenhuysen
VIP Junglist
Joined
Apr 27, 2011
Location
London
Had a quick search and couldn't find an existing thread.

How do you guys quickly and easily obtain the key that your samples are in? Is there a plug-in to do so?

At the moment I'm using the spectrum on Ableton and having a look at it. This works well for low frequency sounds, but anything higher - like a high hat or glitch - its pretty difficult to locate any fundamentals.

Or is the idea to pitch the high hat all the way down, get it in key, and the pitch it back up several octaves?
 
For like 'musical' samples, I usually take a piano vst en look for the same note. I personally prefer this over using a plugin. This way I can easily recreate the note progression (if there is any)

But also a good plugin to use is SPAN. And that is what I would advice for the higher pitched things. I have used it and it worked alright. Now I've stopped pitching the hats and high frequency sounds like that though.
But I'm guessing it's kinda the same as the spectrum analyser on Albeton (never used it, so I'm not completely sure), but you can take a quick look into it.
And tbw, span is completely free, if you want to look it up, you should get results with voxengo span
 
Ableton 9.2 has a Tuner plugin built in which looks very useful, its currently in beta though so I'm waiting for the full version before I update;

 
Ableton 9.2 has a Tuner plugin built in which looks very useful, its currently in beta though so I'm waiting for the full version before I update;


Daaayum, i need this!

So, what you can also use is keyfinder (or similiar programs). They are actually there for full tracks but it also works with samples.
If you have ableton use the Audio to midi harmony tool and afterwards you can look at the notes to find out the key.

Also a spectrum analyzer can help. Especially for basses, just find out where it peaks. The ableton spectrum directly shows what frequency belongs to what note.
 
Also a spectrum analyzer can help. Especially for basses, just find out where it peaks. The ableton spectrum directly shows what frequency belongs to what note.

yeh that's what I'm using at the moment, but it's impossible to find a fundamental on high freq. glitchy stuff
 

Good tutorial, same idea works with keyfinder (as i wrote before, it's kind of a free version of keyfinder)
I can't say that Mixed In Key is bad in any way, and i think the price for it is appropriate, but keyfinder does exactly the same, costs nothing and it even works faster than mixed in key. Mixed in key is simply unlucky someone released such a software for free.
I usually belong to those kids who rather buys the "proven by *enter typical beatport top 100 DJ name here* - better marketing - awesome layout" software but this time you can't do anything wrong with keyfinder.
Here's the link where you can download it: http://www.ibrahimshaath.co.uk/keyfinder/
 
Had a quick search and couldn't find an existing thread.

How do you guys quickly and easily obtain the key that your samples are in? Is there a plug-in to do so?

At the moment I'm using the spectrum on Ableton and having a look at it. This works well for low frequency sounds, but anything higher - like a high hat or glitch - its pretty difficult to locate any fundamentals.

Or is the idea to pitch the high hat all the way down, get it in key, and the pitch it back up several octaves?

I don't think its how it works with Hats and Glitches tbh. At least, I go with what sounds nice with the rest of the instruments, not trying to pitch things up or down (unless I want it for creative reasons).
 
yeah you don't need to know the key for hats, over thinking it a bit there i recon. just tune them by ear or just find a sample that works.

Orrrr make your own hats in Massive or something
 
Back
Top Bottom