2 notes for kick, snare, hihat?

hi this may be a stupid question but could someone answer if it is common to use 2 notes for kicks or snares or hihats for hiphop music...i have been making beats for a few months now and I have been trying to listen very carefully to the drums and I think I notice that usually there is two notes on the kicks. is it usually a third apart like a G and and B note?
I would greatly appreciate the info.

Whenever I sample a drum hit, be it a snare or a kick or whatever, I always copy it and make a couple of different versions of it... Maybe raise the attack on one, bring down the filter in one, and tune it up a couple of notes on one.

I might use all of them in a track, or just one of them. Or I might layer them. It all depends on what I'm doing. Sometimes I take two completely different kicks and use them on the same pattern, to get some contrast..


Whatever you feel like doing, it's up to you! There ain't no rules to follow when you're composing, you can flip it however you like!

Also keep in mind that in many tunes the bassline always plays in conjunction with the bass drum, so it might sound that the bass drum is tuned differently in different hits when it's in fact just the bassline changing.

i think it's pretty common to perceive (and so it probably is...) that the 2nd snare in a classic 4/4 loop is piteched up by a couple of cents, especially in modern drum and bass where they all use that tired old 2-step beat (bring back the maniac breakz!)...

i often stick little tonal noises behind my drums to give them more character and often pitch these by little increments (i.e: NOT a whole note), it gives the beats more life and makes repetition less wearing on the ears.

ill try raising and lowing the pitch by cents ...

Maybe it's just me, but two notes on a kick???? i've been playing hiphop for a good 15 years now, and making beats a few years too, but i've never noticed this. Am i missing something here?
I don't know to much about notes and scales, but a kick's a kick right?

hhtmpc, i dont know about notes, but a little trick i picked up (that you might be hearing) is to set 16 levels on your kick or snare to filter, hmmmm....

definitely on snares, I hear it all the time, not sure on the kick.
Just do it and see if you dig, make your own style

ieism wrote::?:
Maybe it's just me, but two notes on a kick???? i've been playing hiphop for a good 15 years now, and making beats a few years too, but i've never noticed this. Am i missing something here?
I don't know to much about notes and scales, but a kick's a kick right?

you ever heard about tuning a drum kit?

Yeah, drums - like every other instrument - have to be in tune, otherwise they won't sound that good.
The skin of the drum vibrates to produce the sound, and the tighter it is the higher the note is.
Generally the kick is kinda low and muffled and buried under the other instruments in the mix so it can be hard to hear differences, but take a good listen to a few different records and you will notice it.

What about a very fast double kick?.......lots of times the fast kick before the main kick sounds differant because it is hit faster. Or a kick right before a snare will be faster. Im sure there are differnt perceptions of its tuning because its a differant type of hit...kind of like a flam Versus a wack.

Doulbe kicks i think bring some good variety to the loops.

BTW. im not sure if "double kick" is the right term, but i hope you all know what im talking about.

Teh-Wei wrote:

ieism wrote::?:
Maybe it's just me, but two notes on a kick???? i've been playing hiphop for a good 15 years now, and making beats a few years too, but i've never noticed this. Am i missing something here?
I don't know to much about notes and scales, but a kick's a kick right?

you ever heard about tuning a drum kit?

Yes of course. And i use the tuning on the mpc sometimes too. But more to match, say a kick to a snare. But to change the tune of a kickdrum in one song? No drummer can do this, and although you could do it on the mpc i still don't think it will sound very good in a hiphop track.

ieism wrote: No drummer can do this, and although you could do it on the mpc i still don't think it will sound very good in a hiphop track.

never seen a drummer with 2 diffrent kicks in their set??? its been done......i think it gives it a nice flavor. if the right choice is made

different strength hits will alter pitch on a real kit.

elmacaco wrote:different strength hits will alter pitch on a real kit.

And on top of that, stronger hits will sound 'brighter' whereas quieter hits are not just lower pitched but actually sound more muffled.