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

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

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.

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

that's a good tip by techmouse there

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.