909 kick

Affiliation · Post by **Affiliation** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 5:14 pm

hi,

when looking a the a recorded kick drum wave on the editor, we see a very sharp peak followed by a lower frequency sinusoidal shape. The peak is only on one side of the line (positive vs negative).

my question is: does anyone know if it makes a difference in the mastered track weather this peak is above or below the line? I can't tell by listening on my modest speaker system/studio room.
thanks for any insights,

chapelier fou · Post by **chapelier fou** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 5:24 pm

I guess it doesn't matter

Meef Chaloin · Post by **Meef Chaloin** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 6:27 pm

it needs to sit in the middle, try removing dc offset

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 7:56 pm

No, he is refering to click at the start of the kick. Since it is a very short pulse, it will only be on one side.

I think you want it on the upside. My first though was that it shouldn't matter, but then I started thinking. The waveform you see is really how the speaker cone moves. Having it on the upside means the speaker cone moves outwards at the start, pushing air towards you. No idea if it really matters, but possibly.

kaffein · Post by **kaffein** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:09 pm

Having the attack peak being synthetically abrupt is a common aesthetic value used in minimal... Does it look anything like the following?

If so thats fine if you like the sound... It really just gives the kick a nice click to stand out in the mix. Boost 10k around 3db or so for some extra presence.

Affiliation · Post by **Affiliation** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 8:58 pm

yes. there is even a little HF thingy at the very peak of that thing. It really looks like someone actually hand drew it. I am boosting 7.6k out of worries that the mp3

conversion will do funny things at 10k. I am also inverting this wave (for the moment) in my mix thinking that maybee it should be at the top but really I have no idea what I am doing with this. I need opinions.

kaffein · Post by **kaffein** » Sun Feb 25, 2007 9:12 pm

I usually keep/cut the peak at the top to keep my kicks uniform. But whatever works for you.

Michael-SW · Post by **Michael-SW** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 12:07 pm

Be careful if you layer with another percussive sample that starts on the upside. You might get cancellation if you are unlucky.

rbmonosylabik · Post by **rbmonosylabik** » Mon Feb 26, 2007 12:19 pm

with that waveform shape, I'm guessing it just adds click to the kick. If you remove it, it will leave just the tail of the kick. Leave it or cut it depending on what you want your kick to sound like.