tuts suggestions on how to get a powerful kick?
I think the best trick is to find a nice sample. Now alot of days I hear tracks that have a nice boom at the end, but it doesn’t sound muddy. If your track doesn’t have enough “boom”, parallel compress it.
you could try layering a few different kicks in impulse and use the soft button and start time to cut out the attack if you want to just keep the bass bit.
you can also try different decay times if you just want the attack portion
EQ can also be your friend, small boost with a low Q between 80-125hz to give it more punch. Small boost with a high Q around 2-3khz to give it more click/snap.
Ohh and also don’t spend a year trying to get the perfect kick like me:P
[quote]roben (05/04/2010)[hr]EQ can also be your friend, small boost with a low Q between 80-125hz to give it more punch. [/quote]
i normally make a small cut around 125hz,if i boost the signal(which i generally dont do/have to do in the low end with kicks(well with edm)maybe ill give it a slight bump around 58-60 hz.i do slighty boost the mid/high mids but thats usually with a passive eq on the drum buss.
Ha ha it’s a nice question ! and agree don’t spend one year to have nice one
many way for that
You can sample at high resolution from Drum Machine (maybe you know friend who have 808, 909, Jomox or Elektron) or do it with a synth (great video tutorial here : [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laQZyMwDOC8]NI - Massive - Tutorial - Kick - Part One - YouTube but generaly need some adjustment with EQ/COMP)
if Not you can take good sample (use your hear and no mp3…)
You can also use the Layering method which working also
if you want to learn it i recommend to use tutorial and ableton rack of sonictransfer
[url=http://sonictransfer.com/kick-drum-design-tutorial.shtml]sonictransfer.com
very nice tutorial and ableton rack =merry christmas 
BUT DON’T FORGET THE MOST IMPORTANT THING :
People generaly looking for a great kick, listen the kick and say wow this one is amazing, you’re going on your tracks and : done ?
It’s not all
Percussion like conga, bongo, clap, every pieces of a drummer and Electronic Kick’s not an exception, was tuned
So, you must tune in the root key of your track (Search for learn more if you don’t know how and why)
After it’s ok and tuned
You must understand why your loop or track not sound great !
The first one is forget all, because you usually listen masterised music and what you hear firstly need some improvement for arrive to a good result…
All is linked Your Kick not sound correctly if it’s overdo the rest or bass overdo the kick
It’s a combination of adjustment for each sound give the punchy sound…
That’s what is called HEADROOM
All sound share the Headroom and as it shared frequencies you must play with it, that’s here EQ enter !
Compression just make your sound cut through the mix
When you understand this, you will be capable to make music in a home studio
(for that ears, monitors, soundcard is extremely important)
I don’t have time to explain all the process and i’m french so… i’m sure you find problem in my post but i hope i explain well and you understand
BUT ALL IS LINKED and all is choosen by others
you can’t have a loud Kick… if you have a deep sub bass every time, and a fat massive bass line with a great tom part
HEADROOM is squashed and you Kick seems to be bad but it’s not 
Hope it help
[quote]william wild (11/04/2010)[hr]
The first one is forget all, because you usually listen masterised music
[/quote]
this is a very good point.one huge problem for a lot of people that are starting out is they have no clue about this,what there mix is supposed to sound like,and end up reading a lot of things they dont understand posted by people that dont know what they are talking about and end up regurgitating it for others to read and misinterpret so they can get kudos on forums.you see that on here actually,people downplaying the importance of certain processes and recommending the wrong tools for the job and what ends up happening is the people following that advice end up confused and frustrated as why they cant get their tracks to sound finished,then they fall into the trap of just accepting some more myths.mixes are not meant to be overly hot,they need depth and headroom,not everything is supposed to be loud and upfront,people get in the habit of boosting one thing too much and end up having to boost a lot of the other tracks in their song to compensate and lose any dimension and headroom their mixes have.“oh i want deadmau5 style kick but no matter how many kicks i layer i cant quite get that sound”,well once you have a dynamic mix,bounce it,duplicating the track and using a modified ssl compressor clone(obviously most people are working 100 percent i.t.b. so… you can actually use waves g comp for this task and get fantastic results ,since thats probably easier for everyone to get a hold of, dont use cytomics “the glue” for this,the marketing bs some people fall for…anyways) with a slight hipass,turn the attack to 30ms,release time to .1, and ratio at either 4 or 10 on one of those tracks,now slam it so mostly youre hearing the knock of your kick(s) and everything else sounds really pumping,grooving ,at this point i might even add a transparent limiter, only to catch excessive peaks because of the nature of how the g comp behaves,and generally i never go over a 10-30 percent compressed signal mix.yes this is just parallel compression but thats pretty much it,thats the big sound,that knock,theres been times ive made three copies of the mix and applied this technique to 2 of them but maybe changing the attack and release time on on one.theres my trade secret/tech tip for today that will probably fall on deaf ears
had a bad weekend booby? lol i think you gave some very good advice/knowledge there.
[quote]bobby lupo (11/04/2010)[hr]
now slam it so mostly youre hearing the knock of your kick(s) and everything else sounds really pumping,grooving ,at this point i might even add a transparent limiter, only to catch excessive peaks because of the nature of how the g comp behaves,and generally [/quote]
slam as in how much db reduction?
[quote]bobby lupo (11/04/2010)[hr]
generally i never go over a 10-30 percent compressed signal mix.[/quote]
what do you mean by this? you only play the compressed version at 10% volume in comparison to the other uncomp track?
thanks
[quote]jpgetty2win (11/04/2010)[hr]had a bad weekend bobby? [/quote]not sure i follow…if you mean my rant about newcomers trying to impress other newcomers with half retarded information that they got from good information and misinterpreted it,to seem like theyre really in the know,then i guess i follow,it just bothers me because its the reason the internet can be more destructive than helpful even with the vast amounts of great knowledge being dispensed,how is someone new to all of this supposed to decipher through the sheer overload of nonsense,and its not even just a problem for people starting out, this is a chosen path that you will be always be learning new things no matter how much you already know, no matter how many years youve been doing it,now its easy to spot the bull**** but now you have to sift through tons of it to get to the goods.this is prevalent on sites like kvr for example and even gearslutz from time to time.i had a great weekend by the way
[quote]jpgetty2win (11/04/2010)[hr][quote]bobby lupo (11/04/2010)[hr]
now slam it so mostly youre hearing the knock of your kick(s) and everything else sounds really pumping,grooving ,at this point i might even add a transparent limiter, only to catch excessive peaks because of the nature of how the g comp behaves,and generally [/quote]
slam as in how much db reduction?
[quote]bobby lupo (11/04/2010)[hr]
generally i never go over a 10-30 percent compressed signal mix.[/quote]
what do you mean by this? you only play the compressed version at 10% volume in comparison to the other uncomp track?
thanks[/quote]
slam it as however much reduction it takes to get the desired effect,dont turn up the make up gain.usually somewhere from 8-16dbs.
and yes to your second question.youll know the right mix dry wet mix ratio by ear,i set the cap at 30 percent because its very easy to over do things for people that have only ever known mixing itb that dont understand stage gaining and havent had a lot of experience.
lol im please you had a good weekend
at what stage would you do this parallel comp? say if youve got a master chain going. would you disable the lot, bounce the track reimport applay the parallel comp then let the whole thing go thru the master chain?
or have i missed something? or confused myself? sorry. this just sounds like some priceless info and i want to make sure ive got it right.
thanks
[quote]jpgetty2win (11/04/2010)[hr]lol im please you had a good weekend
at what stage would you do this parallel comp? say if youve got a master chain going. would you disable the lot, bounce the track reimport applay the parallel comp then let the whole thing go thru the master chain?
or have i missed something? or confused myself? sorry. this just sounds like some priceless info and i want to make sure ive got it right.
thanks[/quote]
yes i would do this before any sort of mastering chain(if thats what you mean)i would get my mix sounding as good as i can possibly get it,i use a linearphase broadband eq or sonnox eq to roll of the bottom most freqs,anything below 30hz,and rolloff above around 17 k.then i bounce that,and do the technique i suggested.then youre ready to master.actually this trick is what most mastering houses specializing in edm do when you send them a mix that hasnt had it applied already
[quote]bobby lupo (11/04/2010)[hr][quote]jpgetty2win (11/04/2010)[hr]lol im please you had a good weekend
at what stage would you do this parallel comp? say if youve got a master chain going. would you disable the lot, bounce the track reimport applay the parallel comp then let the whole thing go thru the master chain?
or have i missed something? or confused myself? sorry. this just sounds like some priceless info and i want to make sure ive got it right.
thanks[/quote]
yes i would do this before any sort of mastering chain(if thats what you mean)i would get my mix sounding as good as i can possibly get it,i use a linearphase broadband eq or sonnox eq to roll of the bottom most freqs,anything below 30hz,and rolloff above around 17 k.then i bounce that,and do the technique i suggested.then youre ready to master.actually this trick is what most mastering houses specializing in edm do when you send them a mix that hasnt had it applied already[/quote]
very interesting. thank you
oh btw, one thing i always worry about (stupidly?) is phase issues with doing parallel comp?
[quote]jpgetty2win (11/04/2010)[hr][quote]bobby lupo (11/04/2010)[hr][quote]jpgetty2win (11/04/2010)[hr]lol im please you had a good weekend
at what stage would you do this parallel comp? say if youve got a master chain going. would you disable the lot, bounce the track reimport applay the parallel comp then let the whole thing go thru the master chain?
or have i missed something? or confused myself? sorry. this just sounds like some priceless info and i want to make sure ive got it right.
thanks[/quote]
yes i would do this before any sort of mastering chain(if thats what you mean)i would get my mix sounding as good as i can possibly get it,i use a linearphase broadband eq or sonnox eq to roll of the bottom most freqs,anything below 30hz,and rolloff above around 17 k.then i bounce that,and do the technique i suggested.then youre ready to master.actually this trick is what most mastering houses specializing in edm do when you send them a mix that hasnt had it applied already[/quote]
very interesting. thank you
oh btw, one thing i always worry about (stupidly?) is phase issues with doing parallel comp?[/quote]
there wont be any because its just a double of the exact same file.
thank you invaluable info!
one thing i forgot to mention is after i make those eq cuts i sometimes rolloff anything from just the stereo signal using bxdigital somewhere below the 100 hz mark before bouncing as well
[quote]bobby lupo (11/04/2010)[hr]one thing i forgot to mention is after i make those eq cuts i normally make sure my bottom freqs(usually below around 190 hz)are mono using bx digital and i might rolloff anything from the stereo signal side of the plugin below around that same freq,maybe a little bit lower somehwre below the 100 hz mark before bouncing[/quote]thats interesting. i do the same regarding making sure the bottom end is mono but not the cutting on the stereo side… hmmm
[quote]jpgetty2win (12/04/2010)[hr][quote]bobby lupo (11/04/2010)[hr]one thing i forgot to mention is after i make those eq cuts i normally make sure my bottom freqs(usually below around 190 hz)are mono using bx digital and i might rolloff anything from the stereo signal side of the plugin below around that same freq,maybe a little bit lower somehwre below the 100 hz mark before bouncing[/quote]thats interesting. i do the same regarding making sure the bottom end is mono but not the cutting on the stereo side… hmmm ;)[/quote]the mono maker is basically taking both signals and making them both mono,for me im not looking to keep whatever may be going on in the stereo signal below a certain point.sometimes i do both and mono out whatevers happening around 190 and below but maybe cut the high signal below 90 hz.