Ableton Forum

If the sound isn't the same every time you trigger it, it usually means that the osciallator isn't resetting. I don't know
anything about Massive, but if you have Operator, I'd definitely give it a try - it's absolutely awesome for stuff like
this. Either way: a general tip is to play around with the pitch envelope when you're creating kicks.

don't forget pitch envelope. I can get a usable kick in 15 seconds in operator and not even touch the actual osc envelope. just the pitch envelope on a sine wave.

Also, you might want to try the pitch envelope...

sporkles wrote:Also, you might want to try the pitch envelope...

Sorry. Reading is hard.

operator is rediculous for kicks.

fix freq. on osc A,

tune it,

crank pitch envelope,

DONE.


you can use osc b to add a transient, and osc b level and tone to customize the sound.

did you know you can use the pitch envelope to create kicks?

i find using an adsr to control osc frequency can help too

Pro tip: mess around a bit with the pitch envelope and see what you can crank out!

oh.. Let me get this straight. You mean i can use pitch envelopes to create kick drums on synths?

I would also add that, if the sound isn't the same every time you trigger it, it usually means that the osciallator isn't resetting.

lots of valuable info in this thread

route one of the envelopes to the pitch of the oscilator (different env. than use on amp) and drag until you've got the right amount of pitch change... a longer decay on the pitch env. will make more of a kick drum your hear in hardcore music where you can actually hear the pitch chance... turning the decay down on the pitch makes it snappier at the beginning and bassier at the end, more like a boomy hip hop drum (depending on the decay of ur amp env., a long decay makes a boomy kick and short makes it snappy

to get a good snap, turn on the noise osc and set it to white noise (maybe even brown or paper for different sounds).... set a third envelope to the amp on the noise oscilator, turn attack and decay all the way down or close to it until you can hear a pop sound at the beginning that would sound like the drum head hitting the drum, to help it cut through other frequencies and be heard on smaller speakers... if you change ur original waveform you will get different timbres, with a sine it sounds more like a typical synth drum like in hip hop and house, with a triangle it sounds a little more hollow like a real drum would but still kind of synthetic, if you use a sawtooth or square it will be a very harsh gritty drum more like in hardcore... when using saw/square/triangle waves it is good to use a filter envelope to keep the lower end bassy and without the higher harmonics... EXTRA TRICK FOR MORE BASS take the env that is controlling your pitch and put it to the frequency cutoff on a LP filt., turn the resonance up a little and move the cutoff knob and envelope to match the frequency... go from high to low on the cutoff to keep the snap at the beginning and make it more smooth at the end....

After this try running it through a compressor (a good kick recipe for compression is : threshold -8 to -12, ratio between 2 & 3, attack between 50ms and 120ms depenind on how snappy, relase between 120ms and 1k depending on how long decay on amp... this isn't the only way to compress a kick, just something that works for me), some saturation, maybe a dynamic tube or some overdrive... this is just to make it more present sounding and help it cut through a mix


.... I like making kicks : )

Yes the pitch envelope is probably your best bet, best way to make a kick in a synth, although there are other ways using layering...

you could try a low tom under the kick, might help for a more boomy sound, but make sure if your kick is already a long decay that the freqencies of the tail end of the tom dont phase with the ones from the tail of the kick (if you can get the tail end freqs a "perfect fifth" apart, you will get the most slappin kick you will ever make)... but putting a low tom under a really snappy short kick could be really awesome if done right

a tutorial for makin a kick with the nice & free synth 1

http://sonictransfer.com/synthesizer-pr ... drum.shtml

cheers
T

By the way, when you mentioned the sound changing sometimes... Massive has been doing that to me... Ill have a sub that will play one or two notes and some of them will be half volume... which I know is not a filt/res problem (as in the filter not matching sub harmonic) because i can sit there with my keyboard and press the note five times and at least once, the volume will be cut in half

is this what you are talking about? it has been not very often but happens enough to be annoying... i actually have to record each sub note into it's own sampler now so that I can prevent the harmonic going outside of the filter and losing volume... i have more control this way though I must say