Is this ever common practice? (adding a distortion layer to kick to pop it thru mix)

[Sirocco]

if a kick is being masked in a mix - Adding a overdriven distortion sound on top of a kick (not ur typical blob of distortion - a slick puncy mid-high layer thats being driven on a analog console for example), then the 2buss compression hits it againist the track, so u hear a smack, but no distortion on the kick.

just wondering if this is a common method? cause im having great success with it

i included this method in a clip.

-sirocco

[XHipHop]

maybe next time you can have a thread topic which actually lets people know a little bit about what your post is about. Just saying...

[Sirocco]

Originally Posted by Sirocco

if a kick is being masked in a mix - Adding a overdriven distortion sound on top of a kick (not ur typical blob of distortion - a slick puncy mid-high layer thats being driven on a analog console for example), then the 2buss compression hits it againist the track, so u hear a smack, but no distortion on the kick.

just wondering if this is a common method? cause im having great success with it

i included this method in a clip.

-sirocco

thanks for your stirring reply.

request granted.

[ShaneFontane]

yeah... dist will def help

[XHipHop]

Originally Posted by ShaneFontane

yeah... dist will def help

Yeah, mixing a distorted signal with any clean signal usually makes it much more audible...especially on small speakers that can't reproduce kicks well.

[XHipHop]

what distortion are you using anyway?

[atma]

i always overdrive all my drums to the cusp of distortion anyway.. no need for an additional layered bassdrum, generally.

[Zacchino]

Sirocco,

I tend to make my kicks clip to +3 db times to times, just with my sequencer's distortion ability. I love it, and sometime it gets better than any comp I can think of. I migh also just play with an eq so it distort with the color I need... HTH

[Alex Niedt]

Originally Posted by Zacchino

Sirocco,

I tend to make my kicks clip to +3 db times to times, just with my sequencer's distortion ability. I love it, and sometime it gets better than any comp I can think of. I migh also just play with an eq so it distort with the color I need... HTH

Hmmm...interesting. To me that's a BAD thing. Just sounds badly clipped. But more power to ya if you like that sound.

As for the original question, I'd imagine it's fairly common. Definitely works, so why not?

[fn86]

just a question out of curiosity: when you talking about a distorted layer, do you mean a copy of the kick used, where you'ved eq'ed out all of the lows and lowmids and added distortion?

[Sirocco]

Originally Posted by fn86

just a question out of curiosity: when you talking about a distorted layer, do you mean a copy of the kick used, where you'ved eq'ed out all of the lows and lowmids and added distortion?

i guess it can be the same thing, but usually i like to take a nice punch 808, very short decay, high pass it a bit, then distort it with a guitar amp, then compress it a small amount for punch if needed.

[Lowas]

Clipping digitally doesn't sound that bad anymore, beats many dist emulation plugins imo.
Dist/Clipping is very subjective tho.

[seanc]

umm..

It would really depend on the song and the type of music, but having to drive your kick to distorting for the sake of "getting it to poke through the mix" is something my personal experiences would tell me NOT to do.

If my kick was so absent from my mix, even a dense one I would explore recalibrating the entire mix or look at other low frequency sound that might be affecting the kick in a undesired way. If necessary, EQ might allow some breathing room, sometimes compression of another sound that occupies a similar dynamic/freq range.

Pushing something hard, until clipping or distortion maybe a concept I would explore in the search for the desired tone of my kick, but not as a corrective solution in mixing..

[khameln]

I use Guitar Rig for distortion. And yeah, listen to the Doctor's Advocate... It's crazy how distorted everything on that album is!

[ShaneFontane]

Originally Posted by XHipHop

what distortion are you using anyway?

either PREAMP in DP or TRASH... but you gotta be subtle as not to mash the kick into a glorified hardcore techno kick drum