Setting the Pitch of a VST Kick Drum to Work with Bass

[Seth GeissParticipant]

Hello everyone,

I have a question about setting the pitch of a kick drum to be in key with a song. My immediate thought was to set it to the root note, but then I find it often conflicting with the exact frequency the bass is using. Should I be selecting the 3rd or 5th note in a specific key for the pitch of the kick? Any advice would be awesome! Thanks!

[Russell Cameron ThomasParticipant]

I wrote a long answer and it got deleted!  (so frustrating)

Short answer:  no, you don't need to tune the kick if it is a normal, un-pitched kick.  Just make sure it has it's own space in the frequency spectrum, by high passing the bass or other instruments, and maybe adding an EQ cut in the kick to make room for the bass.

[Mirko BuschiazzoParticipant]

Hi Seth, actually I think you can try add a bit of it and listen if you like the result on the track.

In order to get more space I suggest to try also a multiband compresson sidechain on the bass that pick the root note triggered by the kick, this will give you more room for contrasting low end elements.

Anyway pitching the kick could be nice to see if fits better the song, lot of mixing engineer do that, there is a also a great plugin by waves called Torque for that.

Cheers. Mirko 🙂

• This reply was modified 1 year ago by Mirko Buschiazzo.

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