Does anyone lower the pitch of drums for more oomph?

[erock]

I have a bunch of drum samples and I also make my own of all the bands I work with. I don't know why this sentence is relevant, but oh well...


There have been times where when I start mixing, I want the snare to be a little deeper sounding. Do any of you alter the pitch of drums to make them sound deeper? Does that eff with the waveform and do some crazy phase stuff? Or are there any eq tips to help achieve this?

[travisbrown]

Well, there's digital pitch-shifting which attempts to alter the pitch without affecting length and playing back at a lower rate/speed (digital or tape).

Slowing the rate increases the duration of the hit, makes the transients longer. Sometimes this can be used to good effect to make the drums sound thicker. Sometimes it just makes them sound muddy. If this is the method, I prefer tuning the drums up so they settle back into the right pitch when you slow them down. That being a hassle and requiring planning during tracking, I don't do it so much.

Slowing down, of course, alters the formants. Used in tandem with something like Melodyne, you could probably compensate.