Kick Drum

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luba0432
Posts: 15
Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:48 pm

Kick Drum

Post by luba0432 » Wed Feb 29, 2012 7:36 pm

Hi Ableton users,

What do you guys think is the best kick drum sample or sample pack for creating low, punchy kick drums? An example of the sound I want is pretty much all the kick drums used by Figure - his kicks punch straight through you and rock the whole house at the same time, specifically in his songs Werewolf and Beetlejuice are the kicks I really want to emulate. Thanks!

patrick.olson86
Posts: 160
Joined: Sat May 02, 2009 7:26 pm

Re: Kick Drum

Post by patrick.olson86 » Wed Feb 29, 2012 8:29 pm

A lot of the punchiness of kicks comes from proper EQing. That's a whole other topic, but basically you would want your kick to stand out beyond the bass so the two don't mud up together. Do a little googling on kick eq-ing. Compressors help add punchiness as well. Sorry, I don't have any particular samples I'd recommend.

galaksi
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Feb 27, 2012 8:09 pm

Re: Kick Drum

Post by galaksi » Thu Mar 01, 2012 3:01 am

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Last edited by galaksi on Wed May 24, 2023 4:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.

JuanSOLO
Posts: 3236
Joined: Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:21 am
Location: Shreveport LA, sometimes Dallas/Ft Worth TX

Re: Kick Drum

Post by JuanSOLO » Thu Mar 01, 2012 4:04 am

as previously stated, EQing and compression, maybe even side chain compression makes kick stand out.

However, I ditched using samples for kicks in favor of the "EKS Pro", by synapse. Way awesome kick synth plug.
http://www.synapse-audio.com/ekspro.html

Lokua
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Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2012 2:28 am
Contact:

Re: Kick Drum

Post by Lokua » Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:27 pm

http://www.heatercore.net/2010/02/kick-that-kick.html

<-- and do check the rest of the 365 tips. In the past two years I haven't found a more valuable resource.

kruko
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Location: Belgrade, Serbia
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Re: Kick Drum

Post by kruko » Thu Mar 01, 2012 1:33 pm

Layering all the way!

I recommend layering up to three kick drums for the best effect. One with the very low end (but cut below 30hz), mid range kick (warm and round), and transient one (snappy, clicky, whatever you like).

A little bit of EQ tweaking (if needed) for every one of them to make them blend nicely, and some compression if you like.

If you are not experienced with the compression, i recommend an easiest way to do it. Lower the threshold, ratio, and knee to minimum. This way you will immediately hear the effects of tweaking with attack and release. When you find the sound you like, raise threshold, knee, and ratio to desired levels.

sunray
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Oct 19, 2011 2:39 pm

Re: Kick Drum

Post by sunray » Thu Mar 01, 2012 1:42 pm

IMHO layering is the key, EQ and compression bring the pressure afterwards, but the acoustic of the kick is mainly defined before.
Try the following: search a sample with a muffled, powerfull sub-kick. Something that makes sub-woffer happy. Than look for a punchy kick, something that sound like the kick-drum of a real drummer, can have sub-pressture to, but shall have a strong punch arround 200-250Hz. Next look for a kick that sound like you want to be on the upper spectrum. Doesn't matter if it hasn't a lot of sub or punch, you areny only interested on the upper parts.
Now add filters. On the sub use a LP and cut arround 200HZ. On the punch aus a LP and cut somewhere in between 400-1kHz, maybe you also want to decrease everthing below the 200 a bit to not get missed up with the sub. In the piched sample use a HP and cut where the punch stops.
Now you have 3 button with play with: gain of sub, gain auf punch, gain of pitch. Play with it unitl the kick sounds like you want it to be.
Don't worry about pressure or volume right now, it's only about to define the acoustic pattern right now.
After you are happy with it, add an EQ and compressor go to optimize it. On the EQ push the parts where you interested in - 80-200 will give a sub-boost, 200-400 a punch boost. After it sound like should be, add a compressor to bring some volume into. Can be a multi-band, or you can also add a compressor to every single lane of the kick - kind of multi-band compression for free ;)

Created the kick at ~5:00 on http://soundcloud.com/mfr/preview-umpa-umpa-fullon the same way, this are actually 6 layered samples.

dna598
Posts: 888
Joined: Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:42 am

Re: Kick Drum

Post by dna598 » Thu Mar 01, 2012 1:49 pm

you can make a stonking bass kik with operator...seriously!


just experiment with the pitch and envelopes of the oscillators, keeping a low sine on osc 1 for the bottom end, and various high pitch short staccato oscillators for the high element.

loads of tonal variations are possible. it also potentially takes a minute or less.

just saying.
ctrl + left/right = select transient

ctrl + shift + left/right = select between transients

ctrl + space = play selection

Hermanus
Posts: 1659
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2009 7:47 pm
Location: Belgium

Re: Kick Drum

Post by Hermanus » Thu Mar 01, 2012 2:45 pm

operator is the best.

best of the best

tweakable, and you can have both kick and bassline thanks to the 4operators and a bit of tweaking on the enveloppe window

1.A.M.
Posts: 117
Joined: Fri Mar 25, 2011 9:05 am
Location: Cluburesti

Re: Kick Drum

Post by 1.A.M. » Thu Mar 01, 2012 7:57 pm

If you like their kicks so much why don't you just copy them from their tracks and eq/tune them just a little to suit your project and - BAM! - easyest way... :lol:
no waisted time and money and more time for actually creating music, just my 2c.
Cheers

H20nly
Posts: 16113
Joined: Sat Oct 27, 2007 9:15 pm
Location: The Wild West

Re: Kick Drum

Post by H20nly » Thu Mar 01, 2012 8:03 pm

*bookmark*

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