Tuning your kick to accompany the sub? Tuning in general?

[loopdon]

Hi fellow producers!

Lately i have been more and more concerned with the tuning of elements within tunes. I didn't worry to much about this until recently but i am eager to learn your thoughts about this.

i am thinking that if one for example has a subbass line playing (one note to keep this simple) and i have my kickdrums playing on top of these notes - would it make sense to make them play on a note which would be part of chord together with the sub underneath (and possibly the 'normal bass playing a third note to make a full chord consisting of sub + kick + bass)? and following this idea, if remotely plausible at all, would i then go on and adjust the other parts of the tune, say perc-loops (bongos etc.) to build up a harmonic mix??

and what to do, if the bass notes/subs go through changes throughout the tune??

my idea of at first matching the kick to the sub would work like creating a subbass line and then tune the kicks to this in the microtonic drum vsti (you can enter hz/note values to have your kick play at) there so that would be a piece of cake.


i would be very very glad indeed, if you spread your knowledge freely

[RDR]

I do this all the time... but mostly its by ear...

i did use drum synth for a while (the graphical one.. not the fruity one) and that helped me tune the kicks... but for the most part, the sounds were awful.

i tend to tune the kick against the chords or pads in a tune, but sometimes against the sub, especially if the sub is in the higher registers.

[TechMouse]

You can always move stuff an Octave up, where it's easier to tune, then drop it down again.

[Metadog]

that's a good tip by techmouse there

[acidsaturation]

Another idea is use a bit of Eq or resonant filter to put a little peak at the frequency of the note you want to put in the chord.