how did it go m8
He died rip
rip
OK Iâve put some time into trying to do this, canât really get it TBH.
Iâm able to play every note of the octave (thatâs like cycle of notes, right? A-G) and identify one that sounds better than the others, read what note that is (say, E4), and then turn the key setting to that letter (E in this case). However, freely playing a melody on the keyboard with this key setting still doesnât sound quite right. To my understanding, it should right? From here I assumed that the pitch of the sample must be somewhere between two key-settings on the DAW, (does that make sense?) so I tried using a pitch shift plugin to shift the sample it into hitting the same notes as the DAW piano hits. This seems straight impossible, nothing sounds right.
The sample in question is a looped bar of a chaka khan tune which sounds totally harmonic on its own, so I doubt the notes on the sample itself are out of key.
Could this be a problem with my ability to hear what note in the octave sounds âgoodâ?
FYI I know virtually nothing about music theory, if thats not clear so far lol, so if my way of describing things is a bit clumsy excuse me.
two scales could have just one key that was different
so your scale might be logical or really close to but just different tbh
1 BigUp
disclaimer: i also know next to nothing re: music theory, info in this post is possibly wildly inaccurate
tbh i use this method more to find the key of stuff i sample to see what could match together than to find which notes would work in a melody
as hubb said, the root key only gets you so far, then you need to find the scale, most modern stuff is minor or major (so in your case probably E minor) but could also be something more exotic, its very rare tho i think⌠already iâm out of my depths with this scales stuff tbh
idk man, when i started looking into this music theory stuff i was also trying to follow the ârulesâ quite literally with very mixed results⌠you mention turning the key setting on that keyboard, not sure what that does? is it like it automatically maps the keys of your keyboard with notes in a scale?
what you should do is, keeping the example in E, try to play in succession the three notes of the minor and major chords (for E that would be E G# B for major and E G B for minor) and see which sound better when played in succession, then you should normally have three notes that sound in tune with your sample and possibly you even can build up on that and find a 4th and 5th note and who needs more than 4/5 different notes in a melody anyway?
you can check out this thing: chord house ::: piano room: chords and scales
maybe itâll help, or itâll confuse the shit out of you
1 BigUp
I think youâre just setting the starting key of the sampler not actually changing the key of the sample.
what he said. ^
Basically if youâre using a daw, and putting a sample in a sampler, what youâre changing when messing with the âroot keyâ setting (thats what its called in ableton at least) is what key the sample will playback in when pressing the C note on your midikeyboard.
Anyway iâve looked through dozens of apps that try and detect pitches etc. and tbh the best way to go about it is just forgetting the technicalities and just listen. If it doesnt sound right in the context that you want it to sound right in, you just save the sample and use it some other time. I get that youâre saying that using your ears is not an option, but it really is!
If you want a headstart though, check out this method https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KtuuLtVJg0
sometimes it might just be the timbre of the synth youâre using. I would try to play the same notes and compare the two sounds. How are you forming your scales?
have you tried melodyne
i trust it 99% of the time tbh
nope, never. It does look like a useful tool, but i thought it was more for like isolating things like vocals etc. Guess it all comes down to frequencies anyway.
It is ridiculously expensive tho
ah yeah might be (yes pirate)
i think though the demo might work for this actually or it might not work on chords just notes
but still it works great for telling what notes
1 BigUp
sometimes I get an old sample and spend ages trying to get the key, often itâs just that the vinyl it was ripped from was being played a bit too fast/slow, or the piano was a few cents out of tune of something. I just find the closest key on a synth, keep that playing alongside and re-pitch the sample as best I can. Thereâs no real science to it (outside of Melodyne/Autotune), just use your ears
Anyone else find that a teeny bit of out of key-ness can sound good. like obviously you have to dress it up, but it can hit.
giving it a go as we speak and youâre right. Actually it can scan the fine tuning of each note too. nice one!
1 BigUp