i was experimenting with base drums and i ended up putting some reverb on the top end of the kick... i was like wow that sound pretty good. i know your not supposed to put reverb on the kick... so whats your professional opinion on the issue?

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Just don't do it. May sound good on your home speakers, car speakers, maybe even studio monitors. But when you hear it on a Club PA system you'll understand why not to do it.

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quote:

Originally posted by State of Matter Just don't do it. May sound good on your home speakers, car speakers, maybe even studio monitors. But when you hear it on a Club PA system you'll understand why not to do it.

im aplying reverb only to the high frequencies ... there is atmosphere even though the only instrument is the kick. it was my understanding that you arent supposed to apply reverb to the lows... should it still not be done?

its basicly the same thing as putting a hi hat on top of your drum and putting some reverb on that hi hat.

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Last edited by Bondor on Nov-04-2003 at 01:01

Plenty of German trancers do it. Uberdruk use to do it all the time. He had a kick and reverb instead of a kick and bassline. It worked and sounded fine.

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Lots of people do it. It can make the kick sound massive or just add a little depth if done right. If done wrong, it will destroy your entire mix...

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I would say, just use the samples, but test it on a good system/monitors. Just check whether it sounds good and also make sure to have a look at the correlation meter.

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A reverb on the kick can work wonders sometimes... It's good to use when you have not too much going on in your track and you want to fill the "space" in a bit more (note: i'm not talking about headspace or frequencies)

Generally, though, make sure the reverb is from about 1000 hz upwards.. or else it'll destroy the track...

I've heard some awesome tracks with reverbs on their kicks, like S.O. Project - Direkt Dizko

I guess if you do it with extreme moderation, and you only apply it to the highs, that's fine. Reverb on low frequencies repeated over and over again sounds terrible on a loud system.

The way I see it is the kick is the only thing keeping order in a trance track. All other percussions, basses, synths, etc can do whatever they want but the kick is the constant beat that's keeping everything in line, should be clear at all times and predictable. This is why I'd just rather not put effects on it at all, other than compression and eq.

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Most recent tracks:
1) Ilan Bluestone - Spheres (State of Matter Eleventh Hour Mix)
2) MK-S - Illuminate (State of Matter Revival Mix)
3) Scarab - Vagabond (State of Matter Revival Mix)
4) Ferry Corsten & The Thrillseekers - Sublime (State of Matter Revival Mix)
5) State of Matter - Saving Icarus (Original Mix)

https://soundcloud.com/stateofmattermusic

quote:

Originally posted by State of Matter I guess if you do it with extreme moderation, and you only apply it to the highs, that's fine. Reverb on low frequencies repeated over and over again sounds terrible on a loud system. The way I see it is the kick is the only thing keeping order in a trance track. All other percussions, basses, synths, etc can do whatever they want but the kick is the constant beat that's keeping everything in line, should be clear at all times and predictable. This is why I'd just rather not put effects on it at all, other than compression and eq.

in addition, when you add reverb to everything it cancles itself out and you are left without any envinonment. but using this method is interesting because half of the sound doesnt have any reverb and the other half does.

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There's many, many types of reverb. Quite often, for example, a reverb on a kick used as a bassline will be a 'reverse' reverb, where the reverb tail increases in level from 0 to max after the initial sound. Often used in techno and hard trance...

Sometimes just some early reflections are used to give the sound a bit of a stereo image and presence without muddying up the mix... Or a very short tail is used for the same reasons.

Here's something to try. Take one of your favourite tracks and load it into your sampling package. Select one channel (stereo left or right) and do a phase inversion. (It turns the waveform upside down).

Now, mix these channels together with equal volume. (If you have a decent desk, you can do this with the mixing facilities and phase buttons supplied).

This will effectively remove everything that's purely mono. You'll be left with panned sounds and reverb tails.

Find out how many of these tracks have audible kicks after that process. If so, either they are using stereo samples / synthesis or they are reverbing the kick. You should be able to tell by the quality of the sound. (Reverb sounds will have a longer attack made up of the early reflections, and a smeared quality).

While you're there, have a good listen to the way all the reverbed sounds interact. Listen for stuff you couldn't hear before (stereo techniques can be shown up this way). You can really find out some interesting stuff.

The other rhing you can do is run just the kick sound (if there is a part of the track with the kick on its own) through a vectorscope (phasescope). If you get a purely vertical line it's mono. Any sideways spread indicates it's stereo, and probably reverbed.

These days I instinctively place an EQ after each reverb with a high-pass filter to cut out the bass frequencies. This cleans things up nicely.

Also, try taking the sub bass out of your kicks for even more clarity & punch. A high-pass filter at about 20-25Hz should do it.

T*

Wow,this I didn't know! Really interesting and you can indeed find out a lot about the stereo image/reverb used in other tracks.

I also tried it on some of my own tracks and I discovered some problems quite easily and was able to resolve those problems.

thanx for the great tip!!!

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