Quarter step up/down tuning

Coma

Coma

Well-known member
Does anyone know why this is being done? I've noticed a bunch of different bands doing this occasionally, tuning around 444 Hz (Pantera's "I'm Broken") or 434 Hz (Annihilator's "Allison Hell"). I can't seem to find any relevant information online as to why you would do it, but i just assumed it had to do with recording equipment going too fast or too slow.
 
Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

Van Halen's "Panama", too. No idea how, why, or anything. Sounds pretty boss, though.
 
Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

A quarter step down is fun that's for sure.What i like about it is that it makes the strings a bit more pliable and bendy with a bit less tension.

**** am i confused or what? Tape speed? are we not just talking about the awesomeness of tuning your guitar half step down haha
 
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Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

I tend to think small "tweaks" like that in tuning are tape speed issues or just a band playing with their instruments in tune with each other just not dead on in tune...
 
Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

Yep, tape speed I'd guess too. There are a LOT of old recordings where the tape speed has resulted in seemingly odd tuning.
 
Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

Varying tape speed not only alters the tempo of the music, it also shifts the formants of the recorded sounds.

A classic example is the song "Caroline No", the final track on the album, "Pet Sounds". The producers decided to up the playback speed by one semitone to make the song more acceptable to a pop audience. The result is that Brian Wilson's vocals sound ever so slightly feminised - as if his voice box has become physically smaller.

Several of the Lindsey Buckingham contributions to the Fleetwood Mac album, "Tusk" have had varispeed applied somewhere along the line. This, I suspect, is also how he got the plinky guitar sound that appears all over his earlier solo albums.

The most obvious example of all is Les Paul's multi-tracked guitar work on hit records such as "How High The Moon". It is an electric guitar but the overtone series are all awry.
 
Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

At least in Pantera's case, tape speed had nothing to do with it. In Dime's words, he liked to tune "a c*nthair below" whatever tuning he was in just to stand out and **** with people trying to learn his riffs.
 
Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

Agileguy_101 said:
At least in Pantera's case, tape speed had nothing to do with it. In Dime's words, he liked to tune "a c*nthair below" whatever tuning he was in just to stand out and **** with people trying to learn his riffs.
Click to expand...

yeah no ****ing kidding I always had to play pantera songs without the CD backing me up because nothing ever sounded in tune.

I've searched the internet many times for the specific HZ but have found nothing. Do you guys know anything about it?
 
Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

I recently played a cover of Alone Again by Dokken. Tabs say its Eb/D#. On the recording its a quarter tuned away from that. Its because of the singer I suppose.
 
Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

I sometimes like a 1/4 step up from std tuning.
It can be cool for adding a little garage rock attitude to things.
 
Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

The same reason people tune lower. We don't need Drop Bb or even Drop C, but we use it because people like playing in it.
 
Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

Two reasons I can think of for tuning a half step down: One, to make it easier on the singer, to get a song more in his vocal range. Two, you can use a slightly heavier gauge of strings, which will sound fuller, but just as easy to bend as the lighter gauge..
Take the case of Hendrix, you notice that a lot of his songs are in regular tuning on the original albums, but when they played live they tuned down a half step. Pretty sure it was to take it easier on Jimi's voice during those extensive tours.

Al
 
Re: Quarter step up/down tuning

astrozombie said:
yeah no ****ing kidding I always had to play pantera songs without the CD backing me up because nothing ever sounded in tune.

I've searched the internet many times for the specific HZ but have found nothing. Do you guys know anything about it?
Click to expand...

D# plus 40 cents, apparently.
 
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