I’m curious, how much does everyone process their kickdrums?
So far I’ve just been relying on decent samples which I then EQ a little and compress to get that click at the start to really punch through.
Other than a little reverb, anyone else use any sort of processsing? With house music this does me fine but when it comes to electro my kicks do lack a little as they aren’t ‘phat’ enough. I’m thinking of just messing about with the multiband compressor and pumping up the low end abit.
Anybody got any suggestions or tricks they wanna share when trying to get those really phat kicks for electro or even bigger (dutch house).
Thanks in advance.
Great sample to start with
Minimal EQ for Excessive Frequencies
Minimal Compression
Thats it.
Some times i pitch shift to get into key.
Mark
I usually layer kick samples. Like a higher frequency kick with a short punchy transient, and then a more subbier longer kick. Then compress the samples you use. I usually send them to a buss compressor and sometimes also send the bass to the same buss to gel it all.
[quote]soundmagus (27/08/2011)[hr]Great sample to start with
Minimal EQ for Excessive Frequencies
Minimal Compression
Thats it.
Some times i pitch shift to get into key.
Mark[/quote]
Are there videos of this on your blog?
If there are videos… Can I buy them from your website?
Is this theright address?
Its not clear from your sig. Thought it was something dodgy. Do you accept Paypal?
[quote]ICN (29/08/2011)[hr]If there are videos… Can I buy them from your website?
Is this theright address?
http://music-production-videos.com/blog/
Its not clear from your sig. Thought it was something dodgy. Do you accept Paypal?[/quote]
Yes, I’m keen to learn more about your music production tutorial business where you teach people about music production through the medium of video tutorials. Can you teach me how to sound like Jan Hammer? How much does it cost to sound like Howard Jones?
I usually do the following
1. Find a good sample to start or maybe mix 2 kicks, one with nice snappy attack and one more subby… If i cant find a nice subby bass, i make my own with a sine wave and mix it with a top end kick sample…
2. Eq both kicks so they sit well together, then compress a little
Agree with that.
The more I fk around with things, I think its best to get a good sample or kick from a synth - lightly compress - then EQ.
If its compressed too much - it seems to fall apart once you start compressing the master. I know theres ways around it, in terms of multiband compression - but I think I prefer to keep some clarity from the start & adjust the volumes of everything else to keep it up front.
Compressing it fk all - just a bit, with really low ratio & adjusting the attack / release - seems good enough to my ears. Dialling back the attack really brings the boom out. Mo’compression… possibly Mo’problems.
Depends what you want of course - but if you can start from a decent slate, then you’ll have less problems further on down the line IMO 
“Yeh, what I do is get six kicks; one for the front, one for the middle and one for the back, one for the sub, one for the mids and one for the highs”
Man… if someone has to go that far to sort a kick out they need to get a life. By the time you’ve sorted out what needs to be done to make it sound good you could have had a 16 bar basic foundation idea layed down across 6 instruments.
I know many ‘name’ producers who just lift kicks they like the sound of from released tunes - even 320mp3s. If it doesn’t work later on just change it.
bazzism is a major winner for kicks! it allows the kick to be perfectly shaped and tuned to fit with the bass and other elements in the track. its soul destroying plodding through hundreds of samples to find something that is close to what you want!
For starters you want to use a good quality EQ on your kick. You want to try and avoid using a linear phase eq as it can damage your low end when you boost it. You also want a good quality compressor that adds a bit of warmth to your kick as well as tightening it up. When you compress make sure you bypass the compressor and a/b it to make sure the relatife gain is the same with the compressor on or off. You wanna lower the threshold and aim for about 3-4db of gain reduction.
Make sure also your kicks are mono and when you add reverb make sure you use an aux verb so you can apply a high pass filter. You dont want reverb on the low end of your kick and you should be very subtle about how you apply the reverb. You wanna aim for a bit of ambience or in other words to make it seem your kick drum is in the same space as the other components of your track.
For sheer balls on a kick you should check out the Waves RBass and a Pultec EQ emulation. The RBass adds balls and weight but shouldnt be abused. The pultec adds a nice round warmness and can be applied to all your low end, but onde again dont go mad as it can quickly ruin your kick.
Remember this is all for processing your kick during mixdown. Shaping the basic sound of your kick is where you can use the ableton EQ, overdrive etc etc and is a completely different process.
[quote]jjdejong0 (01/09/2011)[hr]For starters you want to use a good quality EQ on your kick. You want to try and avoid using a linear phase eq as it can damage your low end when you boost it. You also want a good quality compressor that adds a bit of warmth to your kick as well as tightening it up. When you compress make sure you bypass the compressor and a/b it to make sure the relatife gain is the same with the compressor on or off. You wanna lower the threshold and aim for about 3-4db of gain reduction.
Make sure also your kicks are mono and when you add reverb make sure you use an aux verb so you can apply a high pass filter. You dont want reverb on the low end of your kick and you should be very subtle about how you apply the reverb. You wanna aim for a bit of ambience or in other words to make it seem your kick drum is in the same space as the other components of your track.
For sheer balls on a kick you should check out the Waves RBass and a Pultec EQ emulation. The RBass adds balls and weight but shouldnt be abused. The pultec adds a nice round warmness and can be applied to all your low end, but onde again dont go mad as it can quickly ruin your kick.
Remember this is all for processing your kick during mixdown. Shaping the basic sound of your kick is where you can use the ableton EQ, overdrive etc etc and is a completely different process.[/quote]
I used to put a 909 through my Ghost with the input gain to max and the fader low - sounded fantastic.
Drum synths ftw… at the moment 
[quote]ICN (01/09/2011)[hr]Drum synths ftw… at the moment :D[/quote]
I heard Magnus has a new one coming called “Drumtree”. You grow a kick drum from by adjusting the width, height and shape of the tree (eliptical/circular/irregular etc) and add texture by placing small insects on the trunk. You can also add sap, deer sick and etch your girlfriend (boyfriend in Roben’s case) and your initials into the bark for extra harmonic distortion.
If you wanna be hands on with your kick drum programming you should check out the Metrum from Vengeance. You can get some awesome kicks out of it for any style you may wanna make.
[quote]dom_moulton (01/09/2011)[hr]
I heard Magnus has a new one coming called “Drumtree”. You grow a kick drum from by adjusting the width, height and shape of the tree (eliptical/circular/irregular etc) and add texture by placing small insects on the trunk. You can also add sap, deer sick and etch your girlfriend (boyfriend in Roben’s case) and your initials into the bark for extra harmonic distortion.[/quote]
ROFFFFFLOL’n
That is the funniest thing I have ever read on these forums 
Should send that one to Synplant Dom 
Do you think we could get these features in V2?
Deciduous / Coniferous
Dog P!ss
Nests
Rot
Swampy
[quote]ICN (01/09/2011)[hr][quote]dom_moulton (01/09/2011)[hr]
I heard Magnus has a new one coming called “Drumtree”. You grow a kick drum from by adjusting the width, height and shape of the tree (eliptical/circular/irregular etc) and add texture by placing small insects on the trunk. You can also add sap, deer sick and etch your girlfriend (boyfriend in Roben’s case) and your initials into the bark for extra harmonic distortion.[/quote]
ROFFFFFLOL’n
That is the funniest thing I have ever read on these forums
Should send that one to Synplant Dom
Do you think we could get these features in V2?
Deciduous / Coniferous
Dog P!ss
Nests
Rot
Swampy[/quote]
wow !! lol u guys are a bunch of clowns. hahah
thanks for the tip Jan de Man . 
ICN - yeah thats my website, yes you can buy tutorials.
Also lots of free tutorials on these 2 pages:
www.youtube.com/cubaseguru
www.vimeo.com/cubaseguru
Mark
PS the tutorials arent just for Cubase lol