Do you need to boost every high hat? You probably dont have to boost them if any at all. Remove the eq's on all and see how the track plays. If all is ok add processing to each hat 1 at a time but only if its needed, if you add it to all and its not needed then the over processing will naturally cause problems with so much going on in that frequency range.

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Originally posted by alanzo It's like sifting through cat shit to find a penny. In the end, it wasn't worth the effort.

I figured it'd involve resonance, but I've never gotten an effect like that. Designing patches has always been my weakness. That's pretty cool that you did all of the porta manually, though. Thanks guys.

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Originally posted by DJ Robby Rox I think I do it because I can never get the actual depth or low end that I want in a kick so I compensate by boosting the highs and occassionally the 150-200 region. I find when I boost the highs it sometimes makes the kick sound thumpier, adding more contrast to its low end, and when I boost the 150-200 region its usually to break through the rest of the hats. Im most likely just overdoing it will have to watch out for it next time.

your hats should rarely hit when your kick is hitting. for depth in the kick, put some sine waves in there. mess with automating the pitch of that specific sine wave to get rhythmic movement in the actual kick, however quick the sample might be. a lot of older trance has a sine wave in the kick that quickly free falls in pitch which gives it that oomph sound. again, be careful with the hi hats and kick together. i would highly recommend reading "mixing audio" Roey Izhaki and the "Dance Music Manual" by Rick Snoman if you're that interested in learning more about this stuff.

a lot of what i have read here is in complete contrast to what they say and used to be old habits of mine. by following what this book has taught me i have found my music to be much cleaner from a mixing perspective. composition just takes practice practice practice but with engineering you can read a lot and save yourself from a lot of practice. i have actually gone through both books, highlighted everything i thought was important, re-typed it, and then printed the notes i wrote out and i leave them here on my studio desk. somewhat of a "cookbook" for mixing i have made, although it's never a black and white situation.

I disagree with the hihat not happening on the kick. I think this is actually crucial to give the kick a little high end to make it cut. You just need to adjust velocities so that the hit on the downbeats are not as loud and take away the transient if it conflicts with the kick's own attack. This is really a technique everyone should do in that you should control your dynamics as much as you can before applying any sort of compression.

Very often , it is the things that are barely audible that can drastically change the groove of a rhythmic pattern. A drummer, for example does things called ghost notes that are played on the snare. They aren't really meant to be heard but rather felt. Not to say they are there if you have a good ear and listen carefully but you know what i'm saying.

Last edited by Looney4Clooney on Aug-17-2010 at 15:51

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Originally posted by Mad for Brad Very often , it is the things that are barely audible that can drastically change the groove of a rhythmic pattern. A drummer, for example does things called ghost notes...

That's a good point. Bassists/guitarist do something similar using muted notes and it adds a lot of rhythmic complexity and groove. It's an essential part of bass slap-style playing.

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Originally posted by DjStephenWiley your hats should rarely hit when your kick is hitting.

Completely disagree. Like MFB said hi-hats can fill up those upper frequencies without having to boost the frequencies of the kick.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AegD38ZkO7g

Say what you want about the track but it's got a pretty driving kick, and most of the reason for that is the hi-hat that's layered over it, which you can hear when the kick drops out in the beginning. Without it the kick wouldn't have the same kind of impact, I don't think.

you could throw a signal generator on a separate track, 40hz, put a gate on it and set the key input as your track so it triggers whenever the kick is hitting

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Originally posted by Mad for Brad I disagree with the hihat not happening on the kick. I think this is actually crucial to give the kick a little high end to make it cut. You just need to adjust velocities so that the hit on the downbeats are not as loud and take away the transient if it conflicts with the kick's own attack. This is really a technique everyone should do in that you should control your dynamics as much as you can before applying any sort of compression. Very often , it is the things that are barely audible that can drastically change the groove of a rhythmic pattern. A drummer, for example does things called ghost notes that are played on the snare. They aren't really meant to be heard but rather felt. Not to say they are there if you have a good ear and listen carefully but you know what i'm saying.

One thing that I hear a lot is reverse claps leading up to claps. It's kind of the same thing and can add some groove. Just don't put it on every single clap or else it sounds stale. Put the reverse clap on before the 4 in a bar, or before the 4 on a larger section.

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Originally posted by dj_alfi change your avatar for fucks sake.

basically anything that sort of pushes toward the backbeat. I find reverse claps unless considerably changed sound too how do you say, overused ? My feeling regarding dance is that emphasis should always be on 2 and 4. This has pretty much been the same for dancing music in western music post waltz. The focus on on 2 and 4 should be the clap or snare, not the kick. This is just my opinion from someone that writes music and also likes to dance. I can't crip walk if there is no backbeat. lol Of course there are the glow stick wielding E-tard flaylers that just wave their hands in the air. I suppose those retards don't need that 2 4 emphasis.

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Originally posted by Mad for Brad basically anything that sort of pushes toward the backbeat. I find reverse claps unless considerably changed sound too how do you say, overused ? My feeling regarding dance is that emphasis should always be on 2 and 4. This has pretty much been the same for dancing music in western music post waltz. The focus on on 2 and 4 should be the clap or snare, not the kick. This is just my opinion from someone that writes music and also likes to dance. I can't crip walk if there is no backbeat. lol Of course there are the glow stick wielding E-tard flaylers that just wave their hands in the air. I suppose those retards don't need that 2 4 emphasis.

I'm not saying put the rev clap in place of the clap, it's there to accent the clap that's already there on the 4.

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Originally posted by dj_alfi change your avatar for fucks sake.

thats what I assumed you meant. I find any sort of resolving rhythmic push works on all 4 beats and of course the 2 and 4 will be more salient as the main clap/snare will sound. It sort of combines the entire bar into a rhymical phrase or pulse that is felt rather than heard.