- Joined
- Oct 15, 2004
- Location
- A place where the flowers grow
So as the title suggests, does anyone actually do this, willingly/knowingly??
I never paid close attention to this, but after seeing it done and how successful the finished product was. I've now been at it myself!
I used to just go by ear when tuning all the elements in a track.. But now I tend to bring up an analyser and see exactly where the bulk of a sound is sitting in the frequency spectrum and bring it up or down to the nearest note that coincides with the key of my track.
If you're confused by what I'm talking about here's an example :
Let's say your track is in the E harmonic minor scale. So naturally the notes you can use in your scale are : E,F#,G,A,B,C,D#. Stick an analyser on the master, (Voxengo SPAN is great for this). Play a hi hat and watch for the peak. Hover your mouse over and see the note it's going to, go back to your sample and tune it to the nearest note in your scale orrr if you can and it doesn't sound too wierd, take it to the root... E.
Do that with every percussive element in your track including FX. Kick/Snare. The lot! You will find that the overall feel of the track is just better?
If you've been blissfully unaware of this, like I have for nearly 6years. You've probably been doing this naturally, Get SPAN and go at it more precisely. If you feel it sits nicer on a note not in your scale then so be it. But I've been having a lot of success being particular about every little element in the tune. Overall mixdown comes out much better too.
I even went as far as grabbing an EQ and going to every E (sticking with the previous example) in the frequency spectrum and putting a little peak in it. That didn't work at all though, an made it sound really weird!
Anyway, experimenting with this has opened new doors to a better final sound. So I figured I'd share the knowledge
I'm just going off of the last 2 tracks I've made but so far so good!
I never paid close attention to this, but after seeing it done and how successful the finished product was. I've now been at it myself!
I used to just go by ear when tuning all the elements in a track.. But now I tend to bring up an analyser and see exactly where the bulk of a sound is sitting in the frequency spectrum and bring it up or down to the nearest note that coincides with the key of my track.
If you're confused by what I'm talking about here's an example :
Let's say your track is in the E harmonic minor scale. So naturally the notes you can use in your scale are : E,F#,G,A,B,C,D#. Stick an analyser on the master, (Voxengo SPAN is great for this). Play a hi hat and watch for the peak. Hover your mouse over and see the note it's going to, go back to your sample and tune it to the nearest note in your scale orrr if you can and it doesn't sound too wierd, take it to the root... E.
Do that with every percussive element in your track including FX. Kick/Snare. The lot! You will find that the overall feel of the track is just better?
If you've been blissfully unaware of this, like I have for nearly 6years. You've probably been doing this naturally, Get SPAN and go at it more precisely. If you feel it sits nicer on a note not in your scale then so be it. But I've been having a lot of success being particular about every little element in the tune. Overall mixdown comes out much better too.
I even went as far as grabbing an EQ and going to every E (sticking with the previous example) in the frequency spectrum and putting a little peak in it. That didn't work at all though, an made it sound really weird!
Anyway, experimenting with this has opened new doors to a better final sound. So I figured I'd share the knowledge
I'm just going off of the last 2 tracks I've made but so far so good!