Quarter tuning - Winter Solstice

[Caelum666]

So I've noticed that you guys use some sort of Quarter tuning on Winter Solstice? Looks like C#F#BEG#C# but tuned up a quarter of a step. May I ask why?

I've never found out why musicians do this. I suppose it certainly makes things sound different and unique - completely different sort of pitches to listen to. I wonder if it would make pitch perfect individuals go insane?



By the way I'm sitting here attempting to pick apart Black Swans on my piano - I need to ask, who the hell wrote that song. You fucking GOD.

 

[Omin]

You see... We recorded Winter Solstice with tuning down two steps. But slower and lower it sounds much more brutal and massive as to speak. I thought to play it on C# tuned guitar but in this case some grace of song have been lost. That`s why Solstice sounds how it is.

May be you`re right and this is the way to make music sound orginal, don`t know.In fact i think that only melodies and compositiion have to be uniquie but not the tuning or some sort of pitch.

 

[Caelum666]

But why did you choose to tune C# up a quarter of a step? Maybe you didn't understand what I meant. Quarter tuning is when instead of tuning from C# to D, you're tuning to a pitch halfway in between C# and D. That is what you have done on Winter Solstice. I found it because I was attempting to play along with it on my keyboard and because my keyboard isn't tuned a quarter of a step up, it literally made my keyboard sound out of tune. Upon pitchbending the keys up quarter a step I was then in tune. It actually made me contemplate if my keyboard had a heart attack.

Other bands have done this. I believe Pantera did it a fair bit on Cowboys From Hell. I just wanted to find out why you did it? Why do bands ever consider tuning a quarter step up?

I'm not so sure about losing any grace on Winter Solstice. It's a beautiful song, possibly my second favorite on the album.

 

[AutumnElegy]

maybe it was recorded with an out of tune guitar unknowingly

 

[Caelum666]

Are you a guitarist? It is impossible to have all strings on a guitar out of tune which so happened to be perfectly tuned to something else. Also, the entire band was tuned a quarter of a step up - all guitars, bass, keyboards.. everything. It is no mistake.

 

[Omin]

I`m sorry! I explained the stuff not clear. I meant that we didn`t tune the instruments to quarter higher C#! First we recorded the song and mixed it down tuned on D and then used the software to pitch the song a bit down. That`s it, man!

 

[Caelum666]

No worries mate, I understand now.

I was beginning to think that the pitch was shifted down a quarter of a step after recording was done, rather than having all instruments set to that sort of tuning. It would have been meticulous and annoying for you all...

I find this very interesting how it has been tuned down a quarter of a step for sound reasons - to make it more brutal as you said. I might try changing the pitch of the song to D myself and see the difference, because although it's a quarter step, it could mean a lot.

I have written songs in the past where I've changed the tuning and noticed dramatic differences, even in consonance. A song tuned in E sounds has a completely different effect on the ears when it is tuned to D.

Anyway, back to the other half of my first post in this thread - who wrote Black Swans? So beautiful..

 

[Omin]

We found and developed the basic idea of the song and arranged it together but the main melodies of Black Swans belong to Sonm.

 

[AutumnElegy]

Are you a guitarist? It is impossible to have all strings on a guitar out of tune which so happened to be perfectly tuned to something else. Also, the entire band was tuned a quarter of a step up - all guitars, bass, keyboards.. everything. It is no mistake.

yes i am, its not impossible. I'd imagine its studio tweaking