Hey not sure if anyone uses this method but Ive been mucking around with it for the past few weeks, and im hoping for some feedback.

ok so basically ive always been looking for ways to improve a .wav drum sample, ive tryed layering many times and have gotten decent results but alot of times finding the right mix tends to be much too time consuming.

Anyways so if i find a sample that sounds good and has some decay but i want the boom factor to last a bit longer. What I have started doing is cutting(/draw a volume envelope) the initial transient out and sliced the decay portion to a separate channel added a low pass filter around 500hz maybe less and compressed the 2 channels together slightly.


On certain samples I have used I feel the results have been excellent, mind you it does take some leveling to get the feel right.

Any thoughts?

Make your own samples? If you want really huge kicks, you might think about it anyway, most kicks I find too clipped, although there are some good ones in the wave alchemy drum machines series.

Also, I feel your pain. I don't understand why most sample manufacturers don't include longer decays. They don't seem to realise that its a lot easier to work with the ADSR envelope to chop a decay slightly, than it is to lengthen a decay which isn't there

___________________
New Mix: March 2010 Promo
Soundcloud|Facebook

A compressor will do this for you. Play with the release until the tail is lengthened.

___________________
Soundcloud

you don't want big booms in dance (tempo <12x BPM) doesn't work floods the space between the kicks, you can decay them a bit, but you need to gate radically to compensate for the longer tail...

___________________
Analogue Mastering
Esoteric sound for the discerning ear

Tell that to a techno producer.

___________________
New Mix: March 2010 Promo
Soundcloud|Facebook

Last edited by kitphillips on Jan-14-2011 at 12:42

What was i thinking

nowadays it's all crossovers in style anyway, so do what you fancy, your audience will tell you

___________________
Analogue Mastering
Esoteric sound for the discerning ear

yeah i dunno ive tryed a few compressors, currently im using cytomic the glue but the fastest release is 100ms which i find useless, and the other compressors ive used don't add that sort of decay im looking for. The only other method that can really big up your kick I find is limiting it by like 3-4db, but thats also a little hit and miss. The problem with the above method is that it doesnt work with all samples some waveforms I am finding are incompatible with my method.

You can synthesize your own 808ish kick to add some decay, but the tonality of the kick might not mesh well with what you already have. Or, layer a timestretched kick on top of your unstretched one to give to illusion of a falling pitch.

___________________
My Soundcloud
My Bandcamp

quote:

Originally posted by Scrittah You can synthesize your own 808ish kick to add some decay, but the tonality of the kick might not mesh well with what you already have. Or, layer a timestretched kick on top of your unstretched one to give to illusion of a falling pitch.

what would be a good program for time stretching?

I have ableton live right now, is it possible to do in this?

quote:

Originally posted by DJ TL what would be a good program for time stretching? I have ableton live right now, is it possible to do in this?

Ableton Live is the absolute best program when it comes to sample editing, so yes it is possible. You can warp your sample properly, then edit the tempo according to the tempo you have for your song. Let's say you have a song at 140 BPM and want something to play at half speed, just warp the sample to 140 BPM then change the sample tempo to 280 BPM.

You can also use Sampler/Simpler. Simpler comes with all versions of Ableton Live but if you have the full version you also get Sampler. Either one of these will allow you a lot of control over your sample. Just load a sample into one of them and you, at the most basic level, get an ADSR, stretching, looping, tuning, etc.

Seriously though, if you use Ableton Live you should have no problem doing anything you want with a sample. If there's something you don't think you can do, I can almost guarantee you can, you just haven't found out how to do it yet. Sampler is most definitely the greatest plug-in I have ever used. With enough tweaking, you can do anything.

___________________
"I pay no attention whatever to anybody's praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings." -Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Soundcloud

hard trance at least the german variety had some rather long kicks that took up quite a bit of space.

___________________
"This is why Superman works alone." GC
old stuff from days gone by (2001-2004)
Mad For Brad's gay little contest

I HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATE this track with a PASSION but that kick drum sounds ridiculous live.

___________________

Download my song Survive or I'll cut your ass.