My Samples Are Out Of Tune!

Have you ever had this problem?

When you have spent time recording samples of an instrument you then realize that they are out of tune!?

Well, I have.

In this video, I show you a quick fix for this problem.

How I deal with out-of-tune samples

The easiest fix is at the source. When I record an instrument for sampling, I keep a tuner running so each note is generally on the money. A note that wavers a little is fine. It can even sound nice. But if a note starts out of tune, I’d rather sort it out in the recording than have to fix it later.

That isn’t always possible. My violin is a strange old instrument I can’t really play in tune any more, and the guitar I sampled was deliberately detuned. When the samples come out sharp or flat, I correct them in Kontakt. In the Mapping Editor each zone has its own tune setting, so you can nudge a single sample up or down a touch without touching the others.

Tuners don’t always help here. With odd instruments they can struggle to pick up the note, so I end up tuning by ear. It isn’t the most scientific method. But half the charm of a detuned instrument is that it sounds like something that can’t quite be tuned, so I aim for “in tune enough” and not perfect. Sometimes even a beautifully tuned instrument gives you an odd note, and that’s when it’s handy that Kontakt lets you adjust each one.

Tuning also matters when you spread samples across the keyboard. Pitching samples down tends to sound better than pitching them up. If you record a note every tone or every minor third, no sample has to stretch very far from where it was played.

For more on this, Make your own Kontakt instruments EASILY builds a full instrument from scratch, How to Change Pitch in Logic Pro X covers the Time and Pitch Machine with a table of semitones in cents, and 5 Things That Make Great Horror Music explains why broken or out-of-tune elements can work in your favour.

Happy composing!Rich