Ableton Forum

Hello guys,


I'm pretty newb here, trying to sort some things out. Getting a good kick is definitely one of them, and I've been mucking around with both Impulse and Simpler as my starting point.

I loaded the same kick drum sample into both Simpler and Impulse to hear the differences. I turned the velocity on both samples to it's maximum, and for some strange reason, the output from Impulse is WAY louder. Any ideas why?

I guess when it comes down to it, is there a clear cut answer as to which instrument is better to use for kicks? Is there something out there in general that is better?

Lastly, does anyone have a really good article that helped them get over their Kick troubles? I can't seem to get a kick to sound that good, and I don't really know much about compression...

-Jess

Isn't the default Simpler set at -12dB? Not sure about Impulse. Can't remember without looking. But that might have something to do with it.

As for kicks in general, what are you using? Bare samples? A drum machine of some description? Or recording a live kick drum?
Trial and error is usually the way for new sounds. Though, of course, the more you do something, the less error. Generally.

easiest way i've come to find good kicks is sampling them off vinyl....tweaking and layering an tweaked 808 underneath

So far I'm just using samples from a few samples packs I've bought over the last year. Haven't had much time to get down and dirty until recently unfortunately, so the samples have accumulated and now I have quite a few.

I doubt I'll be coming close to making my own samples that soon, so for now just bought samples.

i feel that. So your question is more about how to eq and compress? Or just keep searching for samples that require no work that you like...

eqing and compression are really a track to track basis, and all depends on what you want it to sound like with the bass you choose....imo

Mister36 wrote:Isn't the default Simpler set at -12dB? Not sure about Impulse. Can't remember without looking. But that might have something to do with it.

As for kicks in general, what are you using? Bare samples? A drum machine of some description? Or recording a live kick drum?
Trial and error is usually the way for new sounds. Though, of course, the more you do something, the less error. Generally.

Impulse is defaulted to 0 db
Simpler is defaulted to -12db

Adjusting the "velocity" to maximum, does NOT adjust the volume, it adjusts how much impact a the midi velocity will impact the notes volume.

Adjust the instruments gain/output to increase the overall volume
Adjust the A/D/S/R to make sure your kick sample is playing all the way through