Matching the Keys of Basslines and Samples

I'm sure a lot of you read the article in Scratch with 9th Wonder where he was talking about how you have to get the bassline and the sample in the right key in order for your joint to sound proper. My question is, is this possible to do without Music Theory or Fruity Loops doing it automatically? In the past I've done it by ear and my knowing the right key hasn't affected my beat, I believe. I was just curious how everyone else does it.

i just usally do it by ear

yea mostly by ear man. but after a while you learn the notes and you can find the key easier. just like anything else you do man. you get used to it after a while. you of course have to use your ear. if the notes clash then it aint right

Its all in the ear.

use your ears.

...on another note (pun not intended ) i'm working on some detuned sh!t at the moment, its hard to judge how far to take it. while i dont wont it be too hard to listen to, i want it to be clearly detuned, but without any major tonal clashes.

i think i got the urge to play with this cos that last two beats i made were quite polished and clean (by my standards), so i kinda felt the need to switch styles up again... anyway i'm ranting...

shakespeare used alot of puns...(i donno wen he said no pun intended it made me think of that ) but yea UR EAR KNOWS ALL....

the trick it to tune the sample before you chop it. Usually stuff that comes of vinyal is a little sharp. So i pitch the sample to the nearist key i want it in.

Once the sample is in tune everything falls into place. Composing over the sample is easy casue synths are perfectly in pitch

casue synths are perfectly in pitch

Mine aren't.

the trick it to tune the sample before you chop it. Usually stuff that comes of vinyal is a little sharp. So i pitch the sample to the nearest key i want it in.

Once the sample is in tune everything falls into place. Composing over the sample is easy casue synths are perfectly in pitch

Maybe that's my problem, when you say tune the sample before you chop, I'm thinking that I got to change the pitch of the sample, but I have a feeling that's not what you're talking about. Would you care to explain further?

i sometimes have problems getting basslines in key to my samples,
one way around it, is get the root key of the sample, or use a program like Meloydine, or Anatres Auto Tune, this will put the sample in tune. or in a perfect pitch preservation thing..

use your ear. go one note at a time. try using a piano sound to find the notes, then switch back to the bass sound.

when you sample your shit. Sample it straight..........that is, dont speed up or slow down your samples with the turntable- do that after you sample it. When you speed up or slow down your samples, do it in wholesteps and halfsteps...........+ or - 10 (on mpc2000xl) or use 16 levels. That way your shit should stay "in tune" when you are messing with it. Say your original sample is in the key of C........if you speed it up +20 it should now be in the key of D.

back in the day, with the sp1200 and the mpc60, the memory was limited so they would speed up the turntable and sample, then pitch down the samples inside, to save memory. With newer mpcs you dont really need to do this; and if you do, you increase your chances of getting the sample out of tune which will create some more work.

Sometimes the original recordings might be slightly off tune, but I think it depends on the recording and it might not be noticeable enough to try and fix.......it all depends on the recording; I wouldnt worry about it at first..........if you pitch your samples up and down in whole/half steps and you still cant find the right note, then start to worry about the sample being in tune.

you also have to learn what notes to listen to in yoru samples. always go for the root note first. The root note in each chord in the sample (if you have a phrase) or the first note of the sample, etc. Sometimes if you have a phrase there are parts that act as natrual basslines, like a timpani drum in classical music...........or an organ in jazz, etc. follow those with your bass.

sometimes multiple notes will work, but its the root note that you want. For example. If you have a basic C Major chord..........C E G you could play a C,E,G bass note under that chord and it will probably sound decent, but depending on your chord progression, bassline, rhythm, etc. you have to decide what sounds best....................IMHO the root note usually sounds the best for basslines(its not always the case)....YOu can tell which the root note woud be by what note makes the chord pop out the most-and you get that same feeling whether it was a bass sound or a piano soud played simaltaneously

Tyran wrote: Maybe that's my problem, when you say tune the sample before you chop, I'm thinking that I got to change the pitch of the sample, but I have a feeling that's not what you're talking about. Would you care to explain further?

Yes i am talking bout changing the pitch, all the synths i know of are in tune perfectly tune. On the mpc, to go up a step on the chromatic scale(to go up half a note) you use increments of 10.

So for example if you have a perfectly tuned sample in the key of C and its pitch is at 0, to move it to c# you would pitch it up to 10, key of D 20, etc.. etc...

Usually when you lift a sample off vinyl its either sharp or flat(because of the recording and record player) which means that it doesn’t fit within the chromatic scale(out of tune). Now some cats sit there and de-tune every voice note or bassline note to the out of tune sample.

thats pointless,
Using my ear I just get the sample in tune to the nearest root key that i want it in. Sometimes i will have to pitch the sample to a strange number 27 one the mpc. Sense the sample is out of tune its not gonna fall perfectly on the 10, 20, 30 ,40 chormatic scale when you try to get it in-tune. But once you find were the tuning pitch number of the sample is, you still follow the same rule by moving it up or down increments of 10.

So say I have a sample from vinyal, to get it in tune to the key of C I have to pitch the sample to 13 on the mpc. If I want to move it up to C# then I pitch it to 23, Key of D 33…Etc.. etc.. Once you get the sample in-tune move it up and down in increments of 10

Now to tune the sample I use my ear, sense im a musician I can hear when something is out of tune pretty quickly and fix it. But if your not there yet you can just use a synth voice(hardware or software), play the note on the synth(piano, chours, whatever) and pitch the sample up/down until it sounds in-tune with the synth.
Sense synths are perfectly in tune you would have tuned the sample, by matching it with the synth.

Once this is done you don’t have to worry about pitching your other synths to the sample sense its already in tune. You can just play in the key of the samples with your synths and It will be in-tune with the sample…

I use this on all my tracks that I sample(cause even when I sample I compose over it) for examples you can check out some of the tracks on my website and see what im talking about.

Sorry for the long explanation… Its a lot easier then it sounds(espically wit a knowlege of basic music theory)

Class..

No tricks to having a musical ear. I am suprised how many producers have trouble with that kind of ish. How can you make music and be tone deaf? Just guess the notes and hope it sounds ok?

I appreciate the feedback homies!! Thank You

got some good tips out of this

thx classic & cyrus!