Tuning electronic beats to fit a track’s key

1 Getting your bass drum in tune with the track in which it plays a part is essential, particularly if it’s synthesised and thus possibly more ‘pitched’ than a recorded or sampled real kick. Here, I’m using Sonic Academy Kick 2, but everything I’m about to do can be applied to any sound source with tuning control.

2 First, discern the pitch of both the track and the kick. My track is in D minor, and so the root note of the track is D. As well as being able to hear that the kick drum is pitched to a different note, Kick 2 actually tells me that the initial G# transient is at 6, dropping immediately A# G# to 3, then 1 for the body of the sound.

3 Your synth or sampler probably won’t tell you the note pitch of your bass drum, but it might give you its frequency, which you can translate to a note using a frequency chart. Otherwise, fire up a frequency analyser in your DAW and look for the lowest big peak in the initial attack – that’s the fundamental frequency.

4 Now I’ll tune the kick drum up or down to meet the root note of the track ( D). This usually means adjusting the Tune knob until the source instrument hits the correct frequency – 73.42Hz for D2, 146.83Hz for D3, etc. In Kick 2, however, I start with the initial attack pitched at D6, then bend down to D1 via D3.

5 Being the most ‘melodic’ of all drums, tom toms also need to be in tune at all times. Here’s a tribal-style drum pattern accompanying a TB-303 bassline in B minor. An effective tuning for toms is the root,F# third and fifth of the scale –B, D and here, then. With the toms tuned to those notes, the rhythm track falls into place.

6 Depending on how tonal it is, your snare drum may or may not need tuning. If it sounds out of tune with the track, though, apply the same technique as used for the kick drum, but try aiming for a note other than the root – the fifth, for example, as I have here, pitching it up four semitones to A in the key of D minor.