Hi everybody, I have a few kick samples, and i use heavy compression on my kicks to get them to sound punchy in a mix, but i want a synth or something that can make really hard hitting, trance style drums for that 4/4 pounding feeling. any recommendations? I'm sick of tweaking samples so much! for the sound i want, listen to tiesto's mixes, or crush by paul van dyk to see what i mean.

Thanks!

PVD is hardly someone I'd consider in having a nice kick in his tracks, he's used the same sound for the last 6 years...

As for the 'best' kicks, do what everybody else does, sample kicks from tracks you like.

Actually, by compressing the kicks you are probably taking the wallop out of them. What you want is a distinctive attack to the kick, and by compressing it and raising its overall volume you loose that. The bottom end of the kick should still be audible, or you have to much crap going on in the lower range.

If there is no "thin" there can be no "thick". Whatever you want to create in a mix, you must allow its exact opposite... sort of. Its a yin yang kind of thing. Its truly an art to hear these things though.

So, to give the kicks more punsh, you probably just want to make more space for them in the mix. For example, let the kick be alone below 80 hz. Let kick and bass be alone together below 200. Youse HP filters to remove everything else from that space.

hmm, i will try the filter thing
Is there an easy way to assign hp filters to everything BUT kicks without having to put in a new filter in each fx channel? ( i use fl studio) Also, using an hp filter at 80 hz on the bass takes it ALL out... no bass at all?

Sorry The frequencies were just random examples. Finding the right ones will take a bit of experimentation. It depends on the bass sound and the key and stuff.

Also, some mixes work best with the bass dominating below 100 and the kick above, others work best the other way around.

The idea is not to have them mingle perceptually so to speak. (errm, well, that can work too, if they are playing in rythmic unison or combine into a distinct rythmic figure.)

Aeros wrote:

I have a few kick samples, and i use heavy compression on my kicks to get them to sound punchy in a mix, but i want a synth or something that can make really hard hitting, trance style drums for that 4/4 pounding feeling.

I've sent a little care-package to your Hotmail address. If you don't get it, PM me here, and we'll work it out.

(stu.macQ)

EDIT: It bounced back. Do you have an email address that I could send a 5MB file to?

Ok, so I'll be the first to mention Drumatic . Try that, with that you should be able to create the kind of kick you like.
Or you can try any of the other drum synths http://www.kvr-vst.com/get.php?mode=results&st=adv&soft=i&type=31&f=0& fe=0&win=1&mac=1&osx=1&free=1&com=1&un=1&sf=0&sort=1&rpp=15&Submit=Sea rch
I think ErsDrums and Attack (which is of course not free) are quite good as well.

Cheers, Jo

www.soniccharge.com microtonic drum synth. I like it esp. for kicks but other drum sounds as well.

Aeros wrote:

Hi everybody, I have a few kick samples, and i use heavy compression on my kicks to get them to sound punchy in a mix, but i want a synth or something that can make really hard hitting, trance style drums for that 4/4 pounding feeling. any recommendations? I'm sick of tweaking samples so much! for the sound i want, listen to tiesto's mixes, or crush by paul van dyk to see what i mean. Thanks!

Did you see my post below about Free Trance drum samples? You can get exactly what you are looking for at:
http://www.time4base.com/vipzone/index_en.html

Those kicks already processed, and don't need any compression or tweaking. I bought a few sample CDs (Techno Trance Essentials and Total Trance), but had to layer those kick to get a good sound. Trust me, those free samples are exactly what you are looking for.

kick at..

Aeros wrote:

hmm, i will try the filter thing Is there an easy way to assign hp filters to everything BUT kicks without having to put in a new filter in each fx channel? ( i use fl studio) Also, using an hp filter at 80 hz on the bass takes it ALL out... no bass at all?

CamelPhat has a nice set of tools for setting specific cutoff frequencies as well as adding some common tweaks to drum sounds. See this link for details:

http://www.camelaudio.com/products.htm

It will process any sound, not just drums, so you could route all your non-drum sounds to a sub-bus and then apply the lowPass/hiPass to those channels as a group. Then apply individual instances of CamelPhat to particular drums. It works well for this, and it's not terribly expensive. Good luck!

-Shane

Muzys' MuZynth is great for kicks because of its extensive envelopes ...
I use the "FM Synthesis" feature in Sound Forge to make psy kicks(which IMO need even more careful tweaking than other type of trance)
after that just a lot of careful EQ'ing, and you just gotta try this plugin: http://www.kvr-vst.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=32804
punches up the oomph nicely