I just logged in to ask the same question! I’ve just been re-tuning a kit to better fit the key of the song, and though it is of course possible to do by ear, just moving semitone or two each way until it sounds right (plus an eq-analyser will help figure out roughly where the fundamental is), it would speed up the process to have a list of exactly what each drum was tuned to – and that list must exist, as surely notes were made during the recording process?
Anyway, would be very useful to have this info available, so +1 to the above request!
…or if a comprehensive list of tunings is not available, could anyone confirm that the kicks and toms are all tuned to exact pitches of the western scale (e.g. F#, D etc, as opposed to “in-between” pitches, e.g. not F#+41 cents or similar)?
Be good for an automated way. But I do it like an acoustic kit by ear. Example was adding a second mounted tom to a Decade SDX kit. I just whack each tom and tune it by ear :). but that’s just one tom, it be good to be able to auto tune the whole kit at once up or down.
Superior Drummer 3 version: 3.2.4 Operating system: Windows 10
This post was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by Whagi.
I don’t think they were tuned to specific pitches. They are tuned to sound good.
SD3 with older sdx,s plus Rooms of Hansa and Death & Darkness. Cubase and wavelab current versions. Roland TD50x using all trigger inputs for triggering SD3 only. Windows 11 computer. Various keyboards and outboard gear as well as VST instruments. Acoustic drums: Yamaha 9000 natural wood and Pearl masters. Various snare drums. RME BabyFace Pro FS and Adam A7X monitors
Have just been thinking about SD3 “tuning” capabilities. Unless you can actually tune a drum to a specific note (for example A, 440 Hz), then it’s not “tuning.” It’s just noodling with the pitch. If you don’t know the starting point of a drum’s tuning, you can’t know how many semitones/tones/cents to to move. Maybe beyond the scope of the product.
Waves’ Torque plug-in reads the actual pitch frequency and you have a reference point and you can actually tune the drums. You’d have to route out of SD3.
SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One
No, it’s tuning. In many cases you’re working in relative terms of the song and you’re tuning the drum to fit into that song. That’s not noodling. Noodling it more akin to blindly setting something to see if it will work.
Thanks for all your contributions to the forum, but, gotta disagree here. Just a definition of terms/approach, I suppose.🙂
“Noodling it more akin to blindly setting something to see if it will work.” For me, this is exactly what I feel I’m doing. Shifting the pitch with no relative starting point (we can’t tell the starting “default” pitch) is “blindly setting something to see if it will work [ ie, fit into the song.] .
SD3 3.4, EZK2.1.3, EZ Bass 1.3.1, Win11, i9/9900, all SSDs, 64g RAM, Cakewalk, Studio One
Considering that you are tuning the drums in context of the song, the song itself is defining the relative pitch as well as your starting point. That’s how you are determining if it will fit in.
Drums tend to sound best when tuned so they work well with the shell. This not necessarily a defined pitch. I can see the problem though if this is what you want
SD3 with older sdx,s plus Rooms of Hansa and Death & Darkness. Cubase and wavelab current versions. Roland TD50x using all trigger inputs for triggering SD3 only. Windows 11 computer. Various keyboards and outboard gear as well as VST instruments. Acoustic drums: Yamaha 9000 natural wood and Pearl masters. Various snare drums. RME BabyFace Pro FS and Adam A7X monitors
I think we’re losing sight of the fact that we’re dealing with a library that has already been recorded with the heads tuned to the shells. When the pitch is adjusted, you are adjusting every aspect and are really not changing the relationship between the head and the shells. You’re not simply raising and lowering the pitch of the head.
Agreed, a list of tunings and a context window showing the drum’s tuning in realtime would be useful. It’d be good as a learning tool as well because it draws your attention to the fact that drums are a tuned instrument, and drum tuning is part of the source tone of a mix. I’m not saying drums have to be tuned a certain way, just that it’s good to be aware of what something is tuned to when it sounds good.
Tuning drums is something that I experiment with quite a lot in SD3.
If you want to see the peak frequency hit of say a kick or a snare then fire up an EQ that has a frequency analyser on it. When you adjust the pitch in SD3 you’ll see what effect it has with the EQ analyser.
Of course you could always use your ear but even then a few different pitches will still work so most times it comes down to a stylistic preference.
One thing that I found disappointing was tuning toms. As far as I can see there is no way of tuning the top and bottom of a tom to fours or fifths of each other. However, this would be a massive task for Toontrack, so not something I would expect of them to do.
