If you can't find a kick sample with enough thump, is it ok to eq the sample and slightly boost the bass on the kick? This is before the mixdown stage by the way.

Cheers.

Or.. You can cut from others..

.. or you can add a sidechain gate to a sine wave at the right frequency, using the kick to trigger the gate.
Careful though

There are enough reasonably priced, good quality sample libraries out there that you shouldn't need to do this.

If you're finding you need to add more than about 2dB of boost, I'd recommend looking for a more appropriate sample.

Of course, if in the end it sounds good, it's fine. In my experience however, boosting a kick's low end doesn't work well in the majority of cases.

do not boost bass. cut mids and highs and relevel if needed.

quote:

Originally posted by nankervis If you can't find a kick sample with enough thump, is it ok to eq the sample and slightly boost the bass on the kick? This is before the mixdown stage by the way. Cheers.

who the hell taught you that?

I have to say one thing here...

This whole bullshit about subtractive eq is quite damaging to the new producer.

I was told never to boost on eq, always cut other areas. The result until you know what you are trying to achieve is almost always very undesirable. At least it was for me.

If you are boosting a section of a kick, just to give it a bit more bass, what is the issue?

Do what sounds good. A few pointers however if I may:

- Generally the punch you are after isn't actually in the bass frequencies, its in the mid areas, so try a boost around 450-500Hz.

- The thump of most kicks is in the tail usually this is on the off beat , so watch how this interacts with your bassline, may cause more muddiness.

- Watch your level, and make sure that overall you don't have a bass heavy track that clips and may sound a) really shit. or b) fuck your sound up.

- Enjoy.

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Good video on kick drum EQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mk6jVLhPe-I

quote:

Originally posted by Lunar Phase 7 I have to say one thing here... This whole bullshit about subtractive eq is quite damaging to the new producer. I was told never to boost on eq, always cut other areas. The result until you know what you are trying to achieve is almost always very undesirable. At least it was for me. If you are boosting a section of a kick, just to give it a bit more bass, what is the issue? Do what sounds good. A few pointers however if I may: - Generally the punch you are after isn't actually in the bass frequencies, its in the mid areas, so try a boost around 450-500Hz. - The thump of most kicks is in the tail usually this is on the off beat , so watch how this interacts with your bassline, may cause more muddiness. - Watch your level, and make sure that overall you don't have a bass heavy track that clips and may sound a) really shit. or b) fuck your sound up. - Enjoy.

The subtractive EQ thing is not a bad idea for the beginner for the simple reason that someone that doens;t know exactly what they are doing has far more chance of fuckinh things up by boosting frequencies than cutting them. Also, it makes you concentrate on picking the right sounds in the first place rather than trying to make sounds that aren;t great work together.

Of course, boosting frequencies is an incredibly useful tool but suggesting to a beginner that they should concentrate more on cutting frequencies is not that bad advice IMO.

I think the diff between a beginner and a more experienced producer is that, beginners tend to always be boosting and turning everything up (i certainly did) where as the more you do the more subtracting and cutting you do.

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quote:

Originally posted by Sonic_c I think the diff between a beginner and a more experienced producer is that, beginners tend to always be boosting and turning everything up (i certainly did) where as the more you do the more subtracting and cutting you do.

I think you're generally right. On a related note, I'm pretty sure that having a background in live audio also tends to make people think more in terms of subtractive EQing because, when working with mics/PA systems, you typically want to reduce frequencies in order to minimize feedback. However, that said, it's not uncommon to boost some of the lows/low-mids in a kick drum for 'thump' and in the highs to add some 'click'. But, as a general rule of thumb, you'll get a cleaner sound and less feedback by carving out space for each instrument using a subtractive EQing approach.

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When I started out my first instinct was always to boost frequencies. The mindset was "I want to hear more of this instrument in this frequency range".

In time, though, I've learned that the mixes get a lot cleaner, a lot better sounding, by cutting out the frequencies that aren't required/ that are muddying things up.

I doubt there are many producers who NEVER boost - absolutely, it's a very useful technique for many situations. However, the sound will benefit from thinking "cut" first.

I can imagine a nice mix coming together using only EQ cuts. It's hard to imagine a nice mix coming together using only EQ boosts.