The most important part is choosing the right sample. There's a whole lot of crappy kick samples out there. And most good ones just won't fit in your track.
There aren't really any set rules on what frequencies to EQ since it differs so much between tracks and the samples themselves. Be careful with boosting frequencies by alot though. Cutting is preferred rather than boosting, there's less chance of messing up the sound.

quote:

Originally posted by Eldritch The most important part is choosing the right sample. There's a whole lot of crappy kick samples out there. And most good ones just won't fit in your track. There aren't really any set rules on what frequencies to EQ since it differs so much between tracks and the samples themselves. Be careful with boosting frequencies by alot though. Cutting is preferred rather than boosting, there's less chance of messing up the sound.

Yes i understand that cutting the freq is better. But now as far as the Kick goes. I know you can make the kick sound better than it is though Using low shelving. What bout the compression and side chaining.. How can i really really use it to make everything sound tight.. I know there isnt any magical way to do it, but i want to know what you would do from the start. or as u go

With compression I usually adjust the input gain, threshhold and ratio until it sounds good. Almost always with a long attack time. The long attack really gives the kick more punch.

I personally love richg's kicks and he once told me that 20ms for an attack time is pretty good. It also really depends on the sample though. Read a little bit more and learn and then practice practice practice.

quote:

I can make a simple dumb beat 4 on floor in Fl studio and it will sound way better than logic.

wtf?

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quote:

Originally posted by mysticalninja wtf?

Just giving an example dude. Saying that the quality sounds different in FL studio than LOgic. I dont know why u said WTF

I dont compress my kicks, but i have i great set of kick samples, so they dont need it! But i do eq them a bit. Cut around 30, a small boost around 35, Cut around 150 - 200, small boost around 2500.

I know this i verry general, but on the other hand, its a verry general question. It often depens on how your kick sounds!

Cheers
C

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Here's my take:

First of all: You NEED to make sure you have good monitoring conditions. Otherwise you won't be able to hear what your plugs are doing to the sound. This is VERY important. Good monitoring means good monitors, but it also means good environment.

Then, as has already been suggested in this thread, make sure you are using a good kick sample to begin with! You can waste hours and hours trying to eq and compress a bad sample and you will never get anywhere. Seriously, try experiementing a little bit and audition different kick-samples together with the bass. When you find the right kick sample, you should be able to hear it - and then it probably only needs a little bit of tweaking with an eq if any at all.

However, sometimes you also need to tighten the bass. Obviously it depends on the sound (and the pattern), but here are some suggestions to try.
Cut (using HP-filter) anything below 25-30 hz. Sometimes you'll also want to low shelf in the area from 30 (or whatever cutoff you used) to approx 200-300, just a little bit to get rid of some mudness.
Another thing you can try, to tighten up the very bottom end, is to put a multiband compressor on the bass channel. Make sure that none of the bands are doing anything at all, except for the compressor for the lowest band. You will need to adjust the area, attack, release, threshold etc. for this band in a manner that makes the compressor work on the "problematic" area (i.e. the area that is causing the mix to sound muddy). This will tighten up the bottom.

If you find that the kick and the bass both sound good seperately but not together, you could try to do the following.
Put an analyzer (could be Waves PAZ if you have that) on both channels and try to get a visual idea of where the energy is in each track. (This will be the area where the line is dancing the most). Then you'll apply EQ to the tracks and cut in each track, trying to make room for the other (i.e. cut the kick a little bit in the area where the bass has its energy and vice versa). Ofcourse you should only do this as long as it SOUNDS good, but the analysing part often can be a very good idea to lead you in the direction of what areas are causing problems and where to cut (and sometimes boost).

Another thing you can do, is to sidechain the bass with the kick. This way the bass won't prevent the kick from cutting through the mix.

If you need the advice to be more specific, I think you'll have to give information about your kick and bass-pattern as well as a sample of each. Otherwise it's hard to tell you what to do. As you said yourself - no hard rules here...

Regards

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RiValMan

- Pumping the bits using:
My beloved MacBook Pro, Logic Pro X, UAD hardware and software and tons of plug-ins...

quote:

Originally posted by RivalMan Here's my take Regards

Dude. That was great. I really apprecaite you taking the time out to write that for us..

I started changing around the Kicks. Doubling up the Kicks and so on..

BTW I am using my Mackie HR824 speakers to monitor. Which in my opinion are pretty good..

Kick is starting a little better. Bass still messing around with.. Now i feel as if when i hear tracks today. The percussion and hats and such. Are really tight and flush with everything else. They sound like they really sit right. In Logic when i work on percussion and things to that nature. the Sound is really dry and dead( it could also just be me). I will post a sample of something really simple to show you what i mean...

If you can here or really notice anything that you can hear wrong or not right please PLEASE PLEASE PLease criticize me as muich as possible. I will try to post 2 tracks

Last edited by Biatchzxz on Aug-31-2006 at 01:35

Here is the Samples of what it sounds like now.

[[ LINK REMOVED ]]


It has really nothing in it. Just something you can listen to . Just so you can get an idea of what i am talking about

[[ LINK REMOVED ]]


Thats another track i am working on.. Listen to them and see what you can input me on. I love to hear what you guys have to say. It really helps me a lot and i am sure tons of people out there.


Thanks again

I'm on my laptop right now. Will have a listen when I get to my studio later today.

I think the Mackies are great. I've never mixed on them myself, but a friend of mine who's been working professionally in audio production for a decade swears to these monitors. It's all personal, but he can't live without these monitors - and he has great golden ears! So I think it's fair to assume that the monitors are very good...

Anyway, I'll get back to you once I've had a chance of listening to your samples on my monitors.

Regards

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RiValMan

- Pumping the bits using:
My beloved MacBook Pro, Logic Pro X, UAD hardware and software and tons of plug-ins...