What is going on with all the tracks lately with weak bass drums and just weak drums in general? I can remember even back when I was DJing regularly, going to the record shop and finding tracks that were well written but had weak drums, especially weak bass drums.

Now I see all this music touted on sites like beatportal and all of it has completely weak drums! There is an article here about this guy Robert Dietz, touting him as some new up and coming producer. The article is quoted as saying:

"Dietz seemed to arrive on the scene fully formed, showcasing his firm understanding of aesthetics through his chunky loop-based deep house/tech house tracks. "

SO when I go to the beatport player down at the bottom, I start going through these tracks and every one of them had a bass drum that is practically inaudible! I have noticed this with other producers as well that are touted as "great" producers. Ricardo Villalobos is another one that I see touted at a really great producer, but everytime I listen to his stuff, its just got weak bass drums and weak drums in general.

I have noticed this for a couple of years now, this trend towards weak drums. It this a new trend in production (I hope not)?

I'm always expecting good tracks to have bass drums like this track (house) or like
this track (the Dinka D.E.E.P. mix). Meaty and chunky, not, weak and invisible.


Is it just me, or does this bug anyone else?

Yeah i have noticed this too.

I dunno why but many seems to like this "minimal" sound, music with as few elements as possible.

Personally i cant stand it, but its quite popular.

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if we're talking club music than shame on them but if we're talking stuff like nu disco, indie house stuff then the percs aren't the focus. my favorite are the people who put stereo spreaders on their master and ruin an awesome kick. i don't know if even half the producers out there know what mono is.

There's a lot of dance music out there right now of which the main focus is not floor-stomping.

Plus, I think a lot of it has to do with the system you're listening to it on. I think a lot of current kick drums aren't necessarily weaker, but they are deeper... in that, they are EQed or filtered down to only let low frequencies through, to give a kind of "heart-beat" thump rather than a "smashing a plastic trash can with a baseball bat" thump.

I think each type has its place, but perhaps I'm not picking up on the type of kick drum you're referring to.

Ricardo Villalobos is a micro house producer, same shit basically as minimal.

Thing about it is there isn't much else going on in the track so the kick comes through loud. Plus as said above, they're really deep so you def hear them.

Check out gaiser, love this style. He's to blame for the current fascination with ableton delayed blips tho

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i kind of like this new weak drum trend, like a lot of pryda songs lately. all he puts is like one layer to his hats, or none at all sometimes. i also appreciate rock drums, like in most indie house tunes.

Weak percussions are the cancer of dance music.

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this is a question of taste. I'm like Eric J, I don't like it much either, but to be honest, it's great if it's the hype of the moment. Let's not get blinded by the shining of fame and hype.

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depends what kind of track it is.. i've always preferred melody, and solid bass to an in your face kick...

kicks are meant to keep the time, if the bass is doing that solidly enough......???

i guess i generally see percussion as a tool to display the actual quality of a tune (as mentioned above)... if the tune works on it's own percussion can get farked..

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i like using drums and percs ect in my tunes because i find it can help move the track along. but it can also leed to things becoming pigeon holed ie tribal. so this is why i think many producers opt for ways to comlement the track rather then over power it.

just comes down to preference in the end of the day. I, like echosystm, like the rock kits and sometimes even enjoy a bit of deep house (pretty minimal).

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im guilty in this myself. not intentional though and i try to be better at making the kick especialy stand out more. im not following the minimal trend...