Thicker Kicks

[Ace of Dubs]

So I did a search and came up empty on this. I have bass drum samples out the wazoo but none of them really sound that punchy in the mix. Any of you guys have some in-the-box techniques to mangle a kik into speaker thumping frequencies?

[JHOOKS]

have you ever tried stacking your kicks??? or you can try this lil trick, in your daw editor if you dont have one in your drum sample editor. take an 808 deep kick sound and cut off the initial attack abit and shorten the release, now lower the volume on the 808. then take another kick and try to match it up with the deep sub sound. sort of as you linking the two. the 808 is giving that low sub fequency while the 2 kick gives you more of an attack. another words you get a thicker kick. but be careful becuz if you get it 2 thick the bass is going to have a hard time living in the same song. hope this helps

[moon_unit]

Originally Posted by Ace of Dubs

I have bass drum samples out the wazoo but none of them really sound that punchy in the mix.

I think it might be time to try using better samples, then.

.

[max cooper]

How are you processing them? In some cases, I've heard too much comp and EQ take the punch out of kick and snare drums.

How do they sound with nothing on them?

[primo]

Originally Posted by Ace of Dubs

So I did a search and came up empty on this. I have bass drum samples out the wazoo but none of them really sound that punchy in the mix. Any of you guys have some in-the-box techniques to mangle a kik into speaker thumping frequencies?

try running them trough a impulse of an LA 2A that works 4 methumbsup

[guerillamixer]

This is 'cheating' but try looking at the waveform of kik sounds you like in a track,
then compare it to the waveforms of the kiks you commonly use in a track.

The waveform envelope of the kik can give you real clues as to the attack and
release times of compressors used across the track.


or you could just sample the kiks you like...

[Improv]

Sony Dynamics Full with the warmth control, or Cranesong Phoenix. Waves Rbass or MaxBass can beef up a weak signal.

But really, if you're using samples that bang to begin with, then it's all in your mixing style. Try parallel compression (either on a drum subroup or the whole mix) so your kick doesn't make the whole thing smaller. Compression, I think, is the key. Try some slower attack times to let more boom through, but combine this with an unprocessed signal so the "suck" isn't so noticeable.

[Tom VDH]

Apulsoft "Aptrigga" is a very cheap and amazing tool for stacking samples and coming up with good sounding yet original drums.

Also, try to finetune your kick sound with the bass playing 'cause those 2 could almost be considered 1 instrument and sometimes a small kick is just what's needed with an opulent bass.

Best,

[junior]

Originally Posted by JHOOKS

have you ever tried stacking your kicks??? or you can try this lil trick, in your daw editor if you dont have one in your drum sample editor. take an 808 deep kick sound and cut off the initial attack abit and shorten the release, now lower the volume on the 808. then take another kick and try to match it up with the deep sub sound. sort of as you linking the two. the 808 is giving that low sub fequency while the 2 kick gives you more of an attack. another words you get a thicker kick. but be careful becuz if you get it 2 thick the bass is going to have a hard time living in the same song. hope this helps

you could also use a transient processor (like dominion) to increase the kick's sustain without having to do surgery on your samples. it's pretty good at thickening up anemic kicks and snares.

http://digitalfishphones.com/main.php?item=2&subItem=4

good luck

[theblue1]

Originally Posted by Ace of Dubs

So I did a search and came up empty on this. I have bass drum samples out the wazoo but none of them really sound that punchy in the mix. Any of you guys have some in-the-box techniques to mangle a kik into speaker thumping frequencies?

The most common way of sampling 'naturalistic' drum kits (as opposed to special-purpose and/or electronic kits, etc) is to capture as much of the full sound of the drum as possible and let the engineer/producer EQ, compress, etc, to taste.

As always, seems to me, reading what others suggest can be helpful -- but it seems much more direct to whip out the EQ (and/or compression, even delay -- NOT my thing but some folks use various delay tricks to fatten, thin, phase, etc, kicks) and adjust until it sounds right to you.

Now, that said, I would also recommend NOT spending time with the kick solo'd while you're tweaking it. Throw it in the mix, get the bass fixed the way you want it and then adjust the kick until it plays nice with the bass.

[prismtheory]

Something that I do when drums suck. (In Pro Tools) I rewire reaason into a mono aux input. Then I pull up redrum with some of my favorite kits from the amazing acoustic drum kits refill...and I will play the song and go through kicks until I find one that work best with the song.

Next, I ad an audio track assign the output of the aux into the input of the aux and record a single hit. Zoom in and strip the silence and bounce the hit to my desktop....and then I take soundreplacer and replace the sound onto a seperate track and blend in or completely replace the old kick with the new.


It's a cool trick and I have found it fairly useful.

-Christopher

[wallace]

A couple things that might help your problem:

1.) Stereo samples

Are your samples mono or stereo? Lately I've been using stereo samples and I think they provide a little more dimension.

2.) Stereo Buss Compression

I think this should solve your problem. Buss your sample to a stereo aux buss and put a stereo compressor on it. Something like an 1176 with a long release will beef up the sound. Blend that with the uncompressed sample for the full effect.


3.) Better samples

Enough said. A better EQ approach also might help. EQ from other instruments might be interfering also, so cut the nasty frequencies from all other tracks.

What about "Chuck Taylors"

[Improv]

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