How do you make your kicks?

[Dr. Fluffenstein]

Just wondering out of curiosity. How do those of you that make your kicks from scratch go about doing it? I've seen and tried a lot of different methods. e.g. pitch swept sine (duh), FM, self oscillating filters, waveform layering, etc. Obviously everyone who's invested a lot of time into one of these methods will have a different way of doing it, devil's in the details . So I was hoping to hear some fresh ideas.


Weird little method I came across while trying to replicate a kick was to use one sine oscillator on full sustain with a slow attack. And another one with a fast attack/decay + pitch sweep, overdrive, and foldback distortion. Came out sounding like a whip hitting a cardboard box, only with more bass.

[Dr. Fluffenstein]

So many views and no replies? Anyone?

[ashtonron]

drop an SM 57 on some hard rubber... add various things to the surface for a unique twist... e.g Jelly.

[MPGK]

For his latest project (recording and "remixing" Kenyan folk music), a friend and teacher of mine did most of his kick drums by tapping against his plasterboard walls at home, mic'ing the tapping sound from a short distance. The bigger the wall, the deeper the kick.

Check it out.

No Dubstep.

[marconk]

No Dubstep.

[3phase]

with synthezisers or drumachines

[McQ714]

layering samples.

[MPGK]

Also, this.

[Tone Deft]

layering samples with synthezisers or drumachines

[BoddAH]

With a synth:

1. Simple sine wave oscillator.

2. Volume envelope: quick attack, no decay and quick release (with short midi notes).

3. Pitch envelope: envelope reducing the pitch of an initially higher note fast over a couple octaves.

4. ???

5. Profit

You’re welcome.

[stonee]

kicks can be pretty tricky to dial in.

usually, i will start off with an operator, sine pitch mod etc. the standard. I'll add in a few other oscillators with a short attack to give a good punch.

the finicky part i find at this point is tuning the kick. which for me consists of a balence between adjusting pitch envelope, tone and the kick frequency.

after that, a good part of the sound shaping comes from post effects. usually, I will throw a compressor and a saturator.

often too I'll layer this really synthetic sounding kick with a nice whompy sample.

[leedsquietman]

Whatever it takes to get it sounding good.

Sometimes a sample such as the Drum Machines sounds tweaked up a bit with EQ/compression/saturation, sometimes synthesized by analogue or FM synths, sometimes layered combinations of any of the above.

One thing for sure - you don't always need to layer and layering for the sake of it, much like blindly applying the same EQ cut or boost regardless of the program material, can be detrimental. It doesn't always add punch or depth to a track, it can work against you sometimes.

Then again, certain sounds, especially 808/909 kicks based on sine waves, sometimes need a little extra help from a sample etc. to cut through.

There are many ways to skin a cat, as the saying goes ...

[Trypset]

layering mainly no more than 3 pieces of seperate kicks to make one new kick.

[posssu]

Good answers for you:
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=147867
http://forum.ableton.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=148016

[Tweaking Knobs]

layering mainly no more than 3 pieces of seperate kicks to make one new kick.

that is so 80's


make your own man !

sinewave + amp env + pitch env + eq'ing + compressing + maybe overdrive , eq again maybe ...


check this tutorial :

http://www.musictechtutorials.com/sound ... tyle-kick/

luck !