He’s talking about a KEY/SCALE here. Not just individual notes. Flat scales going up and down sound different than going up and down a Sharp scale.

“I like using flats as I think they sound better for dance music than sharps”

-.-

this guy is supposed to be a musician? all flats are sharps also. it just depends on weather you’re approaching the pitch from above or below it…. lawl.

Good information – thanks a lot for sharing it, Navar!

However, with kick drums, snares, toms, low congas, and basslines (which are often percussive, some people even use toms as basslines), the lower frequencies are more likely to clash due them being much closer on a linear scale – they all occupy frequencies below ~250 Hz. So if the kick drum isn’t in tune with the other elements, including snares (snares often have a tonal body, especially synthesized snares), the frequencies can “beat,” or phase, drop out, and it can make the beat inconsistent, fluttery, less tight. I’ve been taught to use a spectrum analyzer to determine the tuning of kicks and snares (and other low-pitched tonal drums like toms, congas), then to pitch them up or down to be in tune with the song; ideally the root or fifth, but any note in the key signature will work. A lot of times a kick sample was patched with an LFO to down-pitch it over the course of its attack, so these can’t even really be tuned. Sometimes snares completely lack a body, it’s just the “whoosh” and crack, those don’t need tuning. And if you have to repitch a drum more than 5-6 half-steps, it starts to sound “tubby”, so at that point it’s best to get a different sample, or if you use Ableton, you can filter the sample with a 24db cut below ~150Hz and use the Corpus effect as a parallel insert or send to construct the appropriate tonal sub bass component of the kick (covered in a Dubspot tutorial searchable on youtube).

That’s just how I’ve learned to do it. Try it out for yourself on some uncooperative beats, see if it helps. Tuning the drums can sometimes be that magical fix to make a back beat really pop.

Yea, its a sort of inspirational to see other producers approach on music making.