Ok so i've been paying close attention to waveforms in songs i put on serato and noticing the waveforms on the kicks.

I'm getting into producing so i've been trying to figure out how to EQ things correctly and things like that..

look at the waveform of the track in this picture (sorry I don't know how to edit pictures on a mac like you can on 'paint' on a pc, so this will have to do..) .




-the waveform is inbetween where the intro is and where the heavier, bassy part of the song is. notice the different waveforms on the kicks? (p.s. the song on the waveform isn't the one on the playlist so don't try listening to it to answer my question haha)
btw please look at the close-up waveform not the whole-song one..

Are the kicks that are on the left the same as the kicks that are on the right (but the kicks on the right EQ'd to sound a bit fatter)? or what's going on there?

thanks!

You should post the snippet of audio...

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quote:

Originally posted by dj_alfi change your avatar for fucks sake.

That looks like compression, limiting, and maybe a little bit of phasing, if that's a mix between two tracks, caused by similar co-occurring frequencies amplifying one another.

The kick on the left looks like it's been make-up gained with a slow attack, but I honestly can't be sure because I'm not familiar with the software you're using or either of the original tracks.

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Now with extra singles!
my old stuff, not quite up to snuff - but I still dig it - UPDATED 9/23/2012

0:28-0:29 is the same exact spot I took the screenshot of the waveform at.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y00cN6ETLgM

thats the song ^

you can't really tell on that waveform, you need one more expanded, the kick has 3 parts mainly:

-Low End
-Body
-Release Clip

The low end is the part between 20hz-100hz this is what makes the kick sound like "Boom Boom Boom "

-Body, difficult to describe, what is is not the low end nor the release clip

-Release clip, sounds like a "clip" it's the high pitched part of the kick, done by boosting the ~5khz frequencies.

So, when you see on a waveform a wave that starts filling all the waveform it means that that particular kick has a prominent release clip, if the wave is expanded to the right a lot it means it has a deep low end.

As for sounding different, the kick interacts with the bassline a lot, a kick with and without bassline sounds completely different, keep in mind that they share a lot of frequencies so this could be the same as if you layer different snares, the result will sound different than the previous ones.

That's the amplitude of the bass-lead, which seems to be over-powering or taking the place of the kick, in that time-frame. That's only what I can derive from hearing a YouTube, which doesn't do a lot for a song with well-honed dynamics. I suspect, the two plosives, before the lead comes in, is where you're actually looking at the kick part of the wave-form. After that, you're seeing the bass-lead, which pretty much eclipses the kick as it pumps a master(ing) limiter.

___________________

Now with extra singles!
my old stuff, not quite up to snuff - but I still dig it - UPDATED 9/23/2012

quote:

Originally posted by utdarsenal 0:28-0:29 is the same exact spot I took the screenshot of the waveform at. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y00cN6ETLgM thats the song ^

if you use your ears theres no kick at 28-29sec. its called a transition.

may i ask why the hell you wonder about this? if you your curious on "whats going on" just listen to the track. the human ears are about 400 times more exact than the eye.

thanks for the replies everyone!

so you think it's the same kick he's using with no modifications to it? he just added a one note- bass in the same key as the kick that hits everytime the kick does? or whaat?

cause listening to it on a laptop, it sounds almost the same (the kick from the beginning and the kick when it gets a bit bassier) .. ican just hear a slight difference, it sounds a bit fatter.. i'm sure on a sound system though you can tell the difference a lot though..

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quote:

if you use your ears theres no kick at 28-29sec. its called a transition. may i ask why the hell you wonder about this? if you your curious on "whats going on" just listen to the track. the human ears are about 400 times more exact than the eye.

umm, i'm not talking about what's going on in the transition. i'm talking about the kicks, if you look there's kicks before and after that little transition, that's what i want you to look at. and I want to know so I know what I should do when EQing.

use your ears when it comes to eqing. theres a bigger snare coming in after the transition which could affect the kick, and if theres actually a baseline coming in then i dont understand why you even ask - the answer is VERY obvious. it doesnt matter, dont worry about it. cue it in your headphones and adjust eq and level to what sounds decent.

the snare isn't hitting when the kick is though..

i want to get that fat sound out of a kick. i'm a beginner at producing and I want to figure out what exactly he's doing to get that sound. IF it is the kick he's messing with. because that's why i'm asking, I don't know if it's a bassline or not or if it's just an eq'd kick or what.

thanks though.

quote:

Originally posted by utdarsenal thanks for the replies everyone! so you think it's the same kick he's using with no modifications to it? he just added a one note- bass in the same key as the kick that hits everytime the kick does? or whaat?

Yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying. If there's anything happening to the kick it's because of an audio phenomena called phase modulation which occurs when two similar wave-forms are co-occurring causing what can be an exponential amplitude increase in the sum of both. In some cases, it can nullify the amplitude in a phenomena known as phase cancellation. What you might be hearing, since the bass-lead has kind of a low roll-off (the deliberate cutting through the use of a high-pass filter and shelving, of frequencies below a certain threshold in the spectrum) is some spectral phasing (a collection of frequencies which are co-occurring imparting spectral hues to emerge that would not be as prominent otherwise).

___________________

Now with extra singles!
my old stuff, not quite up to snuff - but I still dig it - UPDATED 9/23/2012

quote:

Originally posted by EddieZilker Yeah. That's exactly what I'm saying. If there's anything happening to the kick it's because of an audio phenomena called phase modulation which occurs when two similar wave-forms are co-occurring causing what can be an exponential amplitude increase in the sum of both. In some cases, it can nullify the amplitude in a phenomena known as phase cancellation. What you might be hearing, since the bass-lead has kind of a low roll-off (the deliberate cutting through the use of a high-pass filter and shelving, of frequencies below a certain threshold in the spectrum) is some spectral phasing (a collection of frequencies which are co-occurring imparting spectral hues to emerge that would not be as prominent otherwise).

daamn you know your shit man. haha thanks a lot! gonna try testing some of that out..