Tuning Drums

Hi,
I’m making beats on the mpc one in standalone only and I’m having trouble tuning my drums. When I want to put them in the right key by pitching them up or down, it always alter the original sound, and by this I mean it make the sound loose all strenghth. For example I got my hi hats/clap in C and I want my snare whose in F to also be in C, so I go to my sample and tune it in C but the snare becomes awful.. So, am i just doing it the wrong way ? And if so is there another way to do it properly ? Or maybe the problem is in the sounds I picked in the first place that have to already be in the key of C ? Or something else..
Thanks for your help

Captiv H. Maltesse wrote:Hi,
I’m making beats on the mpc one in standalone only and I’m having trouble tuning my drums. When I want to put them in the right key by pitching them up or down, it always alter the original sound, and by this I mean it make the sound loose all strenghth. For example I got my hi hats/clap in C and I want my snare whose in F to also be in C, so I go to my sample and tune it in C but the snare becomes awful.. So, am i just doing it the wrong way ? And if so is there another way to do it properly ? Or maybe the problem is in the sounds I picked in the first place that have to already be in the key of C ? Or something else..
Thanks for your help

Sample "tuning" is always going to be an order of magnitude rougher than tuning - say for instance - oscillators on the synthesizer. You'll always lose some dynamics with samples, and it can absolutely depend on your source material. That said, if you really like your source material (samples you're using for your kick, snare, clap, etc) and want to try something else, instead of tuning them in the Drum Program editor, try re-pitching them in the sample editor offline. Good luck!

So use the pitch shift tool instead of tuning it. Tuning a sample is completely different then simply changing the pitch of the sample.

No need to match the pitch unless it's like a pitched 808kick.

Elijah wrote:No need to match the pitch unless it's like a pitched 808kick.

I agree, a drummer doesn't retune his entire kit to match the key of each song the band plays! Tune drums to get the drum timbre that you want from your kit, e.g tune the snare high for a tight snare sound, low for a fat loose sound

Eh.. it's personal preference to an extent, but tuning (your kick especially) drum can certainly have an impact on the feel of the song, IMHO. Producers have been tuning kicks since electronic music began.

I only “tune” the kick drum if it has low end content. Or tune the sub layer. It helps to not clash with the bass and sample

But as far as snares and tops I just pitch until it sounds right. Basically, use your ears

Turning hmm idk it just the art of tweaking over the years of sampling in the MPC world

Tuning won‘t help if you source material is not up to scratch. I‘d advise to use other samples, since tuning (pitching) will surely mess up your transients. I pitch them when I EXACTLY want to mess my samples up.