I have been struggling with this for a while now and would love to hear any ideas or methods anyone has on the topic.br
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I usually just use presets and add some FX to give it my own touch but I would really love to know how to make my own trance kicks from scratch or from a default kick with no alterations.br
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As the kick in an uplifting trance track is one of the main driving elements i think its important that I know this.br
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I have tried multiple times but I normally just end up sitting in front of my PC for 3 hours and end up worse off than I started.br
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Any explanations welcome. Thanks 
My suggestion would be to check the tutorials from James Dymond and Activa. They both address two of the main techniques for Trance kicks:br
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- James starts with a solid sample and applies compressor and EQ to enhance it, fattening the lows, killing the resonance and highlighting the attack and a bit of the mid/high range.br
br - Activa goes for the well-known technique of layering two samples, in his case a kick and a hat… applying EQ but no compressor.br
br - Another great way to explore more about this is with the actual Kick plugin from Sonic Academy. Look for the tutorial video that Phil and Chris did on how to mimic kicks from existing songs, where they sample actual kicks from songs, crop the “high part” of the kick and then bring this sample into kick as the “Click” and mash it up with a low sine.br
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The layering technique I think it’s the most widely used for Trance kicks. I think that most of the tutorials I’ve seen outside of SonicAcademy use that technique, often times going for not 2 but actually 3 layers: A fat low kick, a mid bright kick and a small hat on top. Producers like Sean Tyas and Simon Patterson build their kicks that way.br
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QuantaDJ
Thanks for the info this has given me a lot more to explore.br
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I checked out James Dymond’s technique already and that cleared up a few things for me but I am yet to see Activas technique so I will check that out.br
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Big thanks.
Try taking what is already a decent sample with a good snap to it, then duplicating it, compress the hell out of the second kick and roll off the top end, then mix your new subby compressed kick back in. Then send both to a bus and add some more subtle compression to glue them. That’s a good way to get a really pounding kick without boosting EQ and ending up with something muddy. I would also add an enveloper and play with the release time of the kick, cause sometimes it can bleed into the bass too much you end up with too much low end. Also, put it in mono.
Thanks for the reply.br
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Tried this out last night and got some pretty good results and ended up saving a few so big thanks I will almost definitely use this technique again.br
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Cheers