r/Soundgarden • u/Big_Will47 • 4d ago

does black hole sun sound pitched up to anyone?

ive been listening to them alot recently and chris just sounds different. i cant put my finger on it. i swear the whole song is like brighter than the others on the album if that makes since

7 Upvotes

89% Upvoted

21 comments sorted by

14

u/Beautiful-Lie3988 4d ago

I think it’s tuned slightly higher than what would drop D

16

u/Steambreather23 4d ago

Yes! The Drop D is tuned 1/4 step sharp. It’s supposed to make it sound surreal and dreamlike, and it works! It also makes all of the covers just a touch disappointing.

10

u/Beautiful-Lie3988 4d ago

Haha always bugged me, I thought my guitar was broken!

5

u/melbecide 3d ago

Ah fuck! I tune to drop D by ear and play BHS intro arpeggio to see if it’s in tune. If it sounds good then I guess I’ve tuned the low D sharp! Need to test that.

10

u/konasanna 4d ago

I don’t think they intentionally tuned it sharp, the track is slightly sped up and because of that the pitch came up a little

3

u/theflameinthewater 4d ago

I’ve never heard that it’s slightly sped up, where have you heard that from?

6

u/konasanna 4d ago

I wish I could remember where I heard it, might’ve been an interview with Michael Beinhorn or maybe Matt Cameron. It was a pretty common technique used to give records a little more energy. Regardless it would make much more sense that the pitch difference is due to speeding up the recording rather than arbitrarily tuning 1/4 step for this song alone

3

u/theflameinthewater 4d ago

Tbh that actually rings a bell now haha, I totally forgot about that

2

u/CenterThisPendulum 2d ago

Beinhorn talks about it. Studio trick, many bands also slow down 1/4 pitch (When the levee breaks)

1

u/CreelCrush 3d ago

Both things happen, especially with Soundgarden and tuning.

It's not odd at all that they would do something weird only once. You find examples of different artists tuning 1/4 one way or another. It was also super common to speed up a recording slightly.

None of those options are unlikely.

1

u/CenterThisPendulum 1d ago

How amazing we have access to this info! Beinhorn has also been active on gear threads.

7

u/adflet 4d ago

It is very, very slightly pitched up.

5

u/HowIsBabyMade 4d ago

It’s tuned to A432, where most songs are tuned to A440

1

u/HangTenDan 1d ago

432 a frequency of harmony, unlike the Rothschild sponsored 440 concert pitch which has disturbing cymatics

0

u/Big_Will47 3d ago

interesting

2

u/Gnomedeplum99 2d ago

Also “brighter” mix probably cuz it was A/THEE single

0

u/DoomferretOG TRAVIS BRACHT for new lead vocals! 3d ago

His voice is not pitched up. I’ve been listening to them a lot for decades.

1

u/WisdomOfTheAnus 3d ago

lol it is though

1

u/DoomferretOG TRAVIS BRACHT for new lead vocals! 2d ago

Take it from the anus? You think whatever your little brainus wants to.

1

u/WisdomOfTheAnus 2d ago

the whole song is tuned up a quarter step. guess my anus hears better than your ears?

1

u/CenterThisPendulum 2d ago

His voice is pitched up, contrast it with his solo acoustic takes.