Ableton Forum

hello, i've got a problem with my kicks... i think.. and i have no clue at all how to fix it.

At the moment im making progressive/techno music. 1 (big) thing that bugs me is that when i compare my kicks to kicks from commercial tracks, my kicks sound to mono. I think that is the best way to describe it..

When i listen to commercial tracks through my speakers, the kicks almost embrace me, like its around me (same with headphones by the way). However, when i listen to my own kicks, they are simply only right in front of me..

I've bought a vengeance sample cd with kicks, because ive heard a few major producers saying they used those, however even with these kicks, (and they sound pretty kick) something seems to be missing. It sounds infront of me... empty, noobish...

Does anyone even know what im talking about? haha.. If so, could you please please please help me get my head around this? I need to treat the kick, but how i have no idea... tried everything i could think of..

Cant thank you enough however solves this for me.

If interested i could upload my kick....

well, is it mono?

try panning.

try layering a second kick or synth with the first.

or you could get exotic and double the kick track and use Utility from Live's effects to freak the sound. (gratuitous unnecessary complexity response)

/=

well..

you could try applying a stereo imaging plugin to it. I use the Waves S1 quite a bit, but more for percussion and hi hats than for kicks.

you could also try duplicating the kick track and panning one track hard to the left and the other to the right.

the idea of having kicks surrounding you is somewhat new and totally due to the fact that most music is only released digitally these days.

here's a link to a kick im using right now.

http://www.speedyshare.com/files/267739 ... xample.mp3

Its not bad in and of itself.. but when i compare it to pro producers kicks.. it sounds too empty... too mono...

also with tracks that are a couple years old.

Bit of reverb maybe?

most kicks are mono, infact alot of tracks are mono from around 150hz down. maybe u need compressions and eq to bring out the mid and high freq's more.

a lot of kicks have a mid/high layer, something like a hat, clap or other perc. hit. You can use the upper range to create more of a stereo image that strikes when the kick hits. I've seen kicks that create a vertical oval on a scope, so I'm thinking a spatial tool was used. It's already been mentioned though, for club music usually you want everything down under in mono.

Making punchy/big/etc. kicks and bass is like black magic. There's always more to learn and ways to be more effective. And the methods are esoteric and at times illogical.

Keep in mind that mastering plays a part, so if you're comparing your unfinished productions to finalized masters I recommend adding bus FX to your mix; maximization, comp., EQ and limiting.

if you're doing a house track, which is what your sample sounded like to me, then it's fine. move on!

fun way to get fat kicks... setup a keyboard with drum hit laid out. put the kicks in one section, snares in another, etc.

then start playing beats by haphazardly banging on groups of keys. your fingers will hit each key with a different velocity and slightly out of time. keep recording until you hear a sound you like then grab it.

or find a kick you like and try to find it raw in a song and sample it.

also lookup parallel compression for drums, great technique for fattening up your drums.


a mono kick is fine. the lower the frequency a sound is the more omnidirectional it is so panning a kick doesn't make much sense anyway.

sidechain compression

/thread

god you fuckers overthink things in here.

in my limited experience, and as everyone else says, compression compression compression. Helps to get that 'punch' you need.

jtdj wrote:most kicks are mono, infact alot of tracks are mono from around 150hz down. maybe u need compressions and eq to bring out the mid and high freq's more.

+1 If you start panning the kick you might end up with a hole in the middle.

Bassline is important too. Some kick don't work without a bassline.

I would say in most cases it's not the kick itself that makes a kick sound good, but everything else around it/out of it's way. So if you have a kick that sounds good on its own, it will be the other sounds you need to be working on.

Well get two of them and hard pan each :p

Else just stick a reverb on it if you would some space on the impact - but stick a low cut EQ before the reverb else your mix will get swamped.