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-- How do you make your kicks?
How do you make your kicks?
Hi everyone!
So ive search the net for some tutorials regarding making a powerful kick drum / bass drum. I have found alot of general tips and tricks.
But finally i need to ask everyone here, how do YOU do it? i know im not the only one having trouble getting the kick sound COMPACT and PUNCHY.
Im working on a project, and all "parts" is the way i want it. And i really think im on to something this time 
. BUT my kicks are killing the whole thing, becuse they are to lame and weak!
Please share your knowlege!
Thanx! 
http://www.tranceaddict.com/forums/...ht=perfect+kick this could help
I know 
Thanx!
But how do YOU do it? Thats what i wanna know. sharing is careing!
lol!
really GOOD samples are the way to go 
| quote: |
| Originally posted by qiushiming really GOOD samples are the way to go |
Ok..ok... hmmm.. is there anyone out there who would like to share a more specifik way to do a kick?
well, its either you dont have any good kick samples or you want to start from scratch. The truth is, little things like kicks and bass are already premade, so you wont brake your little head making one
its the other elements that require most of the work spent when working on a project. You have to understand that kicks that are premade are made and recorded by pros, if you get your hands on really good ones, the chances are - they wont have any "garbage frequencies". personally i have like a few hundred of those. but if you still want to make your own, keep in mind that its the "pitch" you're dealing with, i bet your interested in the process itself, well you need to read some music books then, cuz its pretty difficult to explain in words, it would be better if i'd show you how.
It's gonna be way easier to just use a nice kick sample and EQ it as needed 
Infected-Mushroom Kick tutorial
You can try that way with soundforge. You can experiement different ways with this. also filtering our freq and layering a snare,hat or sumtn.
Pretty much what everyone has said already is true. Leave enough room in the lower frequencies for the kick to work in and try not to trigger bass notes when you kick is playing. I personally like to have my bass and kick active in different frequencies to separate them further, but everyones different.
The click part of the kick will also be where most of the character of the kick is. Less click and it will feel more thumpy, like an 808... more click and it will start to dominate. I also find that when I'm layering/eqing, I'll separate out the main click using eq. I can then move it back and forth along the composition. Even just a few miliseconds sooner or later can change the feel of a kick from fast and punchy to more sluggish.
all i use is good samples and tweak them with a equalizer to the more low frequency sounds.
its really that simple and specific, this thread should really help you in your question.
also if you have a great sounding kick! sample it if you want too?
make sure it is good quality. when you have sampled that shot of the kick, just import it in your sampler or redrum.......
I use samples, layer the two together to get that "round" sound, maybe add some distortion, and then EQ to make it a bit brighter. Sometimes I do different midi notes, but I don't really like that.
Does this mean that most people don't compress the kick? I find it very difficult to get a good bite without compressing it, even if I sample direct from a really good kick on a vinyl. Whether that's because I'm losing some of the quality when I sample I'm not sure, but I can't get a professional sound without adding compressions, then (tiny amount of) distortion and reverb.
oh yeah i forgot to mention that i have compressed my kicks before!
if sound is native..like 909 then i compress..but if kick is ready made..then i dont copress it.. becouse it's 99% sure allready compressed
I prefer to use samples. Synthesizing kicks for every track makes me kinda tired. In Fruity Loops, the "pogo" knob in the sample editor helps pretty much with kicks if you want to soften or harden them a little.
Sometimes I use Rhythms BD which is a pretty cool Bass Drum synthesizer.
I usually take two (sometimes) three kick samples and layer them - tweaking until it's just right - just what everyone else said. for me it's mostly hit or miss, though. I haven't found a tried-and-true way yet of getting a great kick, but usually with some persistence and a bit of tweaking I get a great sound.
I usually do a touch of compression, but not that much. One of my friends told me to do the bass and the kick together - haven't tried that yet, though. 
I replied to a similar thread a while back HERE
This is my way of producing decent punchy kicks:
I tend to layer two kicks - a punchy kick coupled with a subish kick to make it breath a little and add depth, (use the in and out dials - �precomputed effects� in the channel settings on a sample instance in FL). These vary the amount of volume either at the start or end of the sample - very helpful! You have to be very careful when you choose your kicks when you layer them. You can�t choose any old kicks. What happens is the two bass frequencies of the kicks cancel each other out resulting in a dip (rather than a tapered waveform) which sounds mashy and real crap! When you've got a nice tapered waveform kick you can add rim shots which add a little punch or add a hi hat to give it that �tiss� sound at the start of the kick (G&M Project style).
I use that cheeky little plugin in FL Studio called 'Fruity Blood Overdrive'! My advice to anyone programming kicks is not to overdrive a kick sample too much because the kick starts to sound 'skwishy' (pardon the expression) and you lose the punchness.
Generally that�s how I program kicks, basically explained in a nutshell! Sometimes I layer 5-6 different samples and render them many times to get a kick I like so, patience is a virtue!
I always start from a raw kickdrum sample I can find, either on the net or from a sample cd. Then I process it in GoldWave, getting rid of all unnecessary noise and artefacts. I also make sure it is saved as mono.
That's all there is too it on my side. I RARELY ever layer kicks, because I don't want the sound to become unstable inside my sequencer. I sometimes has some phase cancellations because of it. Of course, sometimes I did make a completely new kick out of a couple outside FL Studio (GoldWave once more).
Battery is nice because you can layer the kicks and preview them...that way in a quickness you'll know what will work and what won't.
909 boom + real drum sampled from a disco record....
Slightly off-topic, but is it necessary to have the snare in mono too? I think I've heard tunes when the snares are deliberately in wide angle stereo - this doesn't have a negative effect when it's pressed or anything does it (ie. like spreading the bass makes the needle skip)?
I still find I have to compress the samples even if they're from another tune in order to get a good drum sound that cuts through the rest of the instruments. Ah well, whatever works I guess.
KICK AND SNARE ALWAYS MONO!!
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