Do you care about tuning?

Vsyevolod · Post by **Vsyevolod** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 2:59 am

Abraxis wrote:Something I find confusing about people saying they tune their oscillators to 440hz is that all of the sequencers I have add voltage.

If people tune to 440 how do you play lower notes than A4? Sequencers that apply negative voltage? Offsets? Am I just confused (probably)?

It's just saying that when you have the pitch A above middle C, it's tuned to 440 Hz, as opposed to 441 or 339. It doesn't mean that it's the starting pitch or the lowest note. It's just like saying that you tune middle C to 261.62 Hz or A below middle C to 220 Hz. In other words, standardized 12 tone equal tempered tuning with the reference pitch being A 440 Hz.

Of course if you made a drone piece and recorded it without using a tuning reference, it's easy enough these days to go back and raise or lower the pitch to the nearest semitone so that it's at least something you can play along with should you choose to (with a standard tuned instrument).

Stephen

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Post by **Rigo** » Fri Aug 21, 2015 3:05 am

Abraxis wrote:all of the sequencers I have add voltage.

There exist things like the Doepfer A-185-2 Precision CV Adder ... which can also subtract CV.

Abraxis · Post by **Abraxis** » Sat Aug 22, 2015 1:25 pm

Thank you.

For me this is one of those things that seems like it should be simple (and probably is) but for some reason I find confusing.

rush340 · Post by **rush340** » Sun Aug 23, 2015 12:44 am

spacessound wrote:I don't always bother and then i usually end up regretting it

Same here. When I don't tune, I usually end up with something cool that I can't play over with my other synths. Depending on the patch it can be really hard to tune after the fact.

Jamesf1 · Post by **Jamesf1** » Sun Aug 23, 2015 6:31 am

Not generally as the modular is not used with other instruments. The only time tuning concerns me is if I am working on a melodic patch that incorporates more than one oscillator and I want them to be in tune with each other.

stk · Post by **stk** » Sun Aug 23, 2015 7:03 am

I answered Always.

But... Although not always to 440, it depends on what I am working on. Often I will pick up a guitar and work out an idea, but inevitably my daughter will have been wiggling with it and tuning will be way out, so I'll tune by ear relative to itself and on with it. I'll then tune everything else in the track to the original source as reference as I lay parts down.

(Substitute guitar with synth or frogular or whatever, it's all the same)

In the end it's all about harmony and sympathetic vibration (not math-perfect tuning, which sounds crap anyway).

Cheers

stk · Post by **stk** » Sun Aug 23, 2015 7:06 am

RetBody wrote:To get around this, I work with very, very low frequencies and perform through a 6 x 15" stack with a 2000 watt amplifier.

Great post, I look forward to checking out your music (just not on this iPad!)

Also, as another (mostly former) extreme low-end warrior, I would love to see a picture of this amp rig!

insoul8 · Post by **insoul8** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 12:46 pm

This may be ass backwards as i'm very new to euro but i tend to start patching away and when I find something I really like and want to record, i then tune my oscillators. I guess part of it for me is how the oscillators interact with each other as well as i'm not always exactly sure what I'm looking for until I've found it. That process usually involves changing the coarse tune between the oscillators quite a bit.

Old/Magnets · Post by **Old/Magnets** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 2:14 pm

Totally. As mentioned before, I use other instruments in my set up that need to be tuned together

cornutt · Post by **cornutt** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 2:52 pm

If I'm recording with other instruments, I'll tune up before I record. When I'm patching, I seldom bother tuning to any external standard; I'll just tune the VCOs with each other in the intervals that I want them. Sometimes, if I'm using the modular for noise or effects, I won't bother tuning even for recording.

Scaling is another matter. Unless I'm deliberately messing with scaling, oscillators that don't scale properly drive me crazy.

Parnelli · Post by **Parnelli** » Thu Oct 12, 2017 10:43 am

Absolutely, and I just tune it when I start. I cannot count the times when I came up with something cool that I thought might be augmented by some other keyboard layers only to find that I'm nowhere to be found on a musical scale and had to tune at that point; it kind of messes up what you had going in the first place.

"The furthest distance between two points is a short cut". Leadership training seminar, 1990 something....

starthief · Post by **starthief** » Thu Oct 12, 2017 11:09 am

Sometimes I tune to A440 (or 220, 110, 880, whatever... octave doesn't matter as long as 0V isn't too high.) Sometimes by ear with a reference pitch, sometimes by O'Tool or plugin (or on the E352, its own display).

Sometimes I will just run with whatever I have, tuning each new voice by ear to sound good with the ones I've already established. That can lead to some fun places, as "sound good with" might be some interval other than an octave, and I wind up with harmonies I might not have written originally.

And then if I add a less easily tunable voice (like the Microbrute or some software synths or the sometimes stubborn Kermit) I may retune previous voices, or more likely, I will make it work with some combination of transposition and pitch bending and other shenanigans. When in doubt, add more FM...

And once in a while I'm like KLANG KLANG BONK BUZZ MOTHERFUCKER and don't worry about it at all

WolfInterval · Post by **WolfInterval** » Fri Oct 13, 2017 12:11 pm

I don't really care about tuning, since I'm not all that interested in making traditional music using traditional intervals/tones/scales/modes/whatever. I'm more interested in semi-chaotic sound/noise-scapes, and like to have a bit of unpredictability involved. I've tried to accomplish that using software synths so far, and only partially succeeded. I'm in the process of building a small Euro system around that particular philosophy right now.

msmithsp · Post by **msmithsp** » Fri Oct 13, 2017 5:23 pm

voted "never", but my music is admittedly not the nicest sounding thing and I like atonal and layered chaos. (which is why I'm here, to see what equipment can make me sound noisier).

tross · Post by **tross** » Sun Oct 15, 2017 6:10 pm

Mostly do tuning by ear, using cv quantisers as helping tool for scale intervals.

unexpectedbowtie · Post by **unexpectedbowtie** » Mon Oct 16, 2017 8:05 am

I don't bother tuning to any particular pitch or key if I am just using the modular within itself - I just tweak until it sounds good.

If I use an external sequencer (like the Pyramid), I tune them to a base note like C2 or C3, and then quantise where possible. If things still aren't in tune (because of calibration or whatever), I'll apply auto-tune in my DAW (the shame).

Howie_Doodat · Post by **Howie_Doodat** » Mon Oct 16, 2017 6:27 pm

I really enjoy droning out on one note drenched in tape wobbled delay and reverb and sliding into notes via Tune knobs rather than the keyboard.
I will say, I have trouble really making stuff play nice tune-wise with my 303, so i just end up throwing some tape saturation on a drum machine and the TBass and letting those two grind away at each other. That's all you need really. maybe some formless ambient pad/noise washes sidechained to the beat for flava.

61050 · Post by **61050** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 10:54 am

I have everything tuned to eachother within the modular, but since i no longer own any other gear outside of my rack, the reference pitch is irrelevant to my needs. honestly, as long as it all sounds good together, that's all im going for. i use my ears for that.

noisejockey · Post by **noisejockey** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 11:17 am

I was adamant about tuning in Eurorack, and still am. But the Buchla 200 format really makes me not care at all. Everything is just so euphonic and rich that just making tones and timbres is autotelic - it is its own reward. The intervals that happen are driven more and more by ear, not convention. It's an interesting adventure.

That goes out the window when I try to play alongside it with other instruments, of course. But a format change has me rethinking how I conform to western scales for the first time. Auxren said this would happen and at first I didn't believe him.

avantologist · Post by **avantologist** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 3:06 pm

Always to start with...then you can alter the pitch slightly which is great for microtonal music and drones.

Yes Powder · Post by **Yes Powder** » Tue Oct 17, 2017 9:32 pm

I try to stay in tune, at least enough for me to be able to plug my guitar in and play along without cringing.

bougie · Post by **bougie** » Fri Oct 20, 2017 11:10 am

rarely tune my oscillators unless I want to add some guitar in my jams, in which case I can tune the guitar against the modular

kindredlost · Post by **kindredlost** » Fri Oct 20, 2017 4:24 pm

Wow.. you guys are quite professional around here. I only have one Ning.

Maybe someday I’ll improve and have two Nings.

Koa · Post by **Koa** » Fri Oct 20, 2017 5:25 pm

Should add, "most of the time" to the poll, broh. That's where I be

oilpanic · Post by **oilpanic** » Sat Oct 21, 2017 3:27 am

Yes, using disting mk4 for this.

MOD WIGGLER

MOD WIGGLER

Do you care about tuning?

Is keeping sounds in tune with each other a focus when you wiggle?