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Hey guys I was wondering if some of you guys also work with different tunings in productions. I found that for certain moods it has a huge difference if you work with 440Hz tuning instruments or other tunings. A good example for that is probably the early AC DC recordings which were obiously recorded in other tunings. Back at that time there was an other australian hard rock band which sounded very similar ( Rose Tattoo ) but they used 440Hz tunings.

Do you know other examples which different tunings might made a difference ?

In terms of production music, the tuning reference (whether 440Hz, 432Hz, or anything else) makes no real difference. There’s no evidence it affects the emotional impact of a track, and frankly — nobody in the industry cares what pitch standard you’re using, as long as the music fits the brief and sounds good.

Clients aren’t sitting there analysing Hz values — they want tracks that work with picture, hit the right mood, and are in tune with themselves.

So yeah, interesting rabbit hole if you’re into that stuff, but from a professional production standpoint: it doesn’t matter.

Hey there
I agree that nobody really cares and for sure does not check the tunings but it sounds different whatever tuning you are using and since you mentioned the 432Hz there is currently a brief in the listings where the at least one of the examples sounds like it was done with such a tuning - so I guess these people are looking for that vibe and I thought I ask here in the forum to get a vibe of the overall situation.

I've never felt that way, but when recording wind instruments, players sometimes say that it's easier to play if you make the track at 442Khz.
Because they make the notes with their mouths. The pianos they have on stage are usually 442Khz, so they're used to it,

I think going down this rabbit hole and spending any mental energy on this is a futile effort that won't yield any results other than what you would get by sticking to the standard 440.

A lot of times, when you sign music to libraries, they will ask you for the key of your piece, because the end-user (the editor of the show) might want to seamlessly blend your track into another that's in the same key. Well, imagine their surprise when your piece, supposedly in Gm, all of a sudden doesn't match the Gm of the next piece. There's potential frustration when you go down these roads, and it's always best to alleviate any frustration or roadblocks that might prevent your music from getting placed.

Plus, in all the thousands of tracks I've signed to around 50 music libraries, I've had to fill out hundreds of metadata spreadsheets that ask for all sorts of information, and not once has any spreadsheet ever included a field for the hertz number of the tuning you used.

But, you know, if you want to do it, go ahead. Keep us posted, as I'd be genuinely curious. But I'm just trying to keep you focused on the things that really matter - which is the USABILITY of the song or cue.

~~Matt

Well I know that in the classical music scene the tuning sometimes is a discussion because they want to sound different. And in the artist field sounding different is in fact something people are seeking to achieve to make a difference. Playing " hard to play keys such as Gb, B, Ebm " is a solution or if you want to push it harder then take different tunings. So I did quite a few piano recordings using 432Hz and those turned out to be far the most successful piecses in streaming services with 4M+ streams in the past 3 years. It makes sense because if you play a simple piano song lets say in C even you have a nice melody it sounds completly overused because everybody is playing in C - with a different tuning it sounds fresh and new. So in one current listing I heard that at least one might also used this tuning in the reference track - that leaded to the assumtion that some supervisiors or at least that supervisor might look for such specific material.

On most tracks I of course use standard tuning but If I want to have a specific effect on solo piano or guitar then other tunings can be a solution - at least in the artist field to sound differnt since you don't have more sounds then only the solo instrument. Or like on guitar - currently a lot of blues recordings are using dropped tunings. So that field is also getting overused everybody is using drop D, drop C or drop B - that might lead to the solution that artists start to use dropped tunings + different Hz tunings to sound different.

But thanks Matt for your heads up. If supervisors are in fact looking for the keys and to blend tracks then it does not work and since cue sheets never ask for specific tuning settings then it's not a deal in production music. Good to know

VanderBoegh wrote: ↑

Sun Apr 06, 2025 6:58 pm

A lot of times, when you sign music to libraries, they will ask you for the key of your piece, because the end-user (the editor of the show) might want to seamlessly blend your track into another that's in the same key. Well, imagine their surprise when your piece, supposedly in Gm, all of a sudden doesn't match the Gm of the next piece.
~~Matt

This ^^
I was going to post the same thing but I see Matt covered it.

Casey

Thanks guys for the heads up - I see that different tunings are not a deal in production music and i makes total sense or only if a brief is specificly asking for it.

HanspeterKruesi wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 07, 2025 5:22 am

Thanks guys for the heads up - I see that different tunings are not a deal in production music and i makes total sense or only if a brief is specificly asking for it.

There's probably 100 other things that will make or break the track for sync before we get to different tunings

The point Matt mentioned that they need the keys to blend from one to an other track. Then it's clear - it has to be standardised. There is no further point.

Thanks for the inputs guys.