Ableton Forum

Hey people! Iv been watching the David Guetta Master class and at the start he talks about kick drums saying you need a high and a low kick drum. In my productions I use a single kick sample and eq the low around 70hz, take out most the mids and add a peak around 11-12k. Iv experimented another way just by resampling a kick and pitching it up an octave and doubling the speed to create a sharper attack. This has helped create a more powerful kick. But my question is could this effect the mix in my productions? Could it interfere with other frequencies? Im fairly new to mixing so this may be a dumb question. Any advice or help would be much appreciated

Dan3JAY wrote:he talks about kick drums saying you need a high and a low kick drum.

After reading your post, I started watching the video too. He doesn't say that you NEED a high and low kick.

He starts by saying that everybody has different techniques, and that he always has a low and high kick.

That's his way of doing it, not the law! You don't have to do it that way because David Guetta said so!

He also mentions tuning the low kick to the key of the track. That would be one way to avoid it messing with other elements.

yeah sweet, Iv been researching lots on it as my kicks aren't really punching out recently, I'm not really trying to say that you have to do what he's saying, I'm just experimenting. Yeah I'll try that trick on my next one cheers =]

also, would tuning the rest of the drum samples help? like the snare, hats etc?

Use your ears.

Again, there's no rule that says you have to do this or that. You do what sounds right to you.

Keep an eye on the frequency of things. You can use the spectrum analyser to see the main freq of a hat or a snare etc. then if you dip that same freq on your other sounds (pad, bassline, whatever) it will create a hole for the drum/perc sound to sit in.

Ok, you mentioned tuning, how/where are you tuning? I usually just go try and find the right sounding sample that works for my ears...I haven't mucked around under the hood much, so this is interesting to me. Do tell!

Here's one way to do it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gOoRNG1QCVk

If you look up for something like "ableton tuning drums" on youtube you'll find other tutorials.

forget all that, just relax and have fun.

for playing drums on a keyboard (this can be applied to other controllers too) it's fun to group drum types in sections of keys. for example, put kicks on the left end, put snares on the next group of keys and hit hats on the black keys. then just relax and play the drum keys with your palms, hitting multiple keys at once. you'll soon feel out groups of drums that sound good together, which keys you hit harder than others.

the advice you read applies but I do that stuff later on. adding a low end drum to a high end drum can fill out the sound. in the Mastering phase you can use Spectrum to find instruments that are fighting each other and separate them with an EQ. all that applies but don't let it get in the way of the creative process. IMO.

To reproduce sounds like a kickdrum it is better to study the basics of such sounds. Listen to different sounds, try to split it into portions like attack-, sutain-, relase- sound. There is nothing magic, its just a question of how much you like to learn more about music stuff instead of just copying things. Experimenting, doing some sound science is the key to understand it in a easy and more faster way.

have fun
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