Sonic Academy Kick v2 Available now!

[Wildfunk]

Feature request: A Highpass-knob for the "Click"-section. I know there is a Pitch-knob but...

[ObsoleteAcc99]

It's good that the click is level editable, (as it's very clicky as are most presets), but the plugin is rather simple at the end of the day, i think it might be a bit unfair to call metrum "it's closest competitor". For some reason i am not getting the oomph i heard in the video. Was any extra processing used?

I noticed every preset peaks at 0db, so there's no real room to add anything. Well one can lower the volume, but what i mean is there's not really any dynamic headroom.

It's very easy to use, even for drum editing noobs, but personally i just can't get anywhere near the punch and depth of metrum out of this, not from editing, not from the presets, and in fact, i think even microtonic and RP punch have a bit more oomph.

For house, minimal, this will be fine for sure. Good actually. For trance and harder styles, maybe even pop dance/hands up, i am not sure it can do the job.

I wanted a non dongle alternative to metrum that i can have simultaneously on both machines, and always when the laptop is on my lap in bed at night i like to unplug the dongle, but so far i'm not sure. Will play with it alot more during the day, and see what i can come up with,

For the silly comments regarding the logo, you don't even notice it when using it, i forgot it was even there or who endorsed it, i just didn't notice it. I found it a bit odd to complain about that. The most important thing is the sound.

[Everglide]

Thank you TheoM for your review, strangely enough I was waiting for your response.

Regarding the logo and marketing in general, whether you notice it or not it seeps into your subconscious.

Derren Brown demonstrates this perfectly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqEqCNaxFVc

I agree, Nicky is a nice guy. He's also a brand name selling a product

[aquar]

Very interesting Synth.

The biggest downer for me about 'Kick' is the complete lack of precision.
When adjusting the pitch I notice for example 'Kick' uses very course jumps indeed.

G1 49 hz
A1 54 hz
B1 60 hz

What happened to G1# 51.9131 hz?
A#1 58.2705 hz?
And so on.

This makes creating Key Labeled Kick Drums a nightmare.
I do hope at some point Sonic Academy address this issue because
it completely ruins the Synth for me.

Please remove the limitation and allow users to select their own frequency.

[HcDoom]

Very interesting Synth.

The biggest downer for me about 'Kick' is the complete lack of precision.
When adjusting the pitch I notice for example 'Kick' uses very course jumps indeed.

G1 49 hz
A1 54 hz
B1 60 hz

What happened to G1# 51.9131 hz?
A#1 58.2705 hz?
And so on.

This makes creating Key Labeled Kick Drums a nightmare.
I do hope at some point Sonic Academy address this issue because
it completely ruins the Synth for me.

Please remove the limitation and allow users to select their own frequency.

Agree!!!

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Thank you TheoM for your review, strangely enough I was waiting for your response.

Regarding the logo and marketing in general, whether you notice it or not it seeps into your subconscious.

Derren Brown demonstrates this perfectly

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqEqCNaxFVc

I agree, Nicky is a nice guy. He's also a brand name selling a product

Don't get me wrong, it's good - ish, but it's more a you pay for what you get. Metrum is in a sort of different league with versatility. Like for example i went through 100 kicks in a row in "Kick" and they were all really more or less similar/same.

And it can't do a big sound (and the distortion algorithm isn't quite right, it doesn't seem to add anything rather than a long distortion effect that sounds separated from the kick itself, rather than beefing and saturating it).

I have listened to Nicky's music as a guide to his style, and for that, this plugin is *perfect* if that's what you like writing.. It just can't do the bigger kicks required for some EDM genres, not possible. Ren bass helps alot, but you really need to dial down the input and output. It's like a very simple editor for a kick n click, similar to say something like one part of a full drum synth (ok not tattoo, that's very simple and the kicks are not as good as this but at least in tattoo the compressor and distortion really work), but say punch (which doesn't have the graphic envelopes though like this does, but ultimately it's the sound that counts)

I put it side by side to metrum playing a 4 by 4 and going through various presets and tweaking my own from scratch or from others.

What i can't understand is that on the very same speakers, i listened to the youtube video and thought it was impressive. Then my face dropped a bit when i played it in Logic. I regret it, for me it was pointless as metrum is so much better which I have, but that's the risk of no demo.

I actually told myself after sonimus and satson and their tilt EQ (which i never use compared to softube tilt, and no, they don't null, softube is totally different), and the Klanghelm stuff (ditto) i'd never buy something without a demo again unless there was a clear refund or transfer policy. So it's completely my fault, 100%, as i was allured to a dongle free cheap kick ass em, kick plugin. Anyway it was good in a way, as $43 is $43, and it's served as a lesson that i simply won't do it again, no matter what, so I am kind of glad i bought it to remind me that, "demo demo demo!". I'm going to find out what the transfer policy is and if it's allowed, i will sell it and donate 50% of the sale price to Bernie's cancer operation fund, so hopefully some good will come out of it, and i know alot of you guys are reading this, so if you want it, and i can sell it, you will get it for a great price hehe. Will find out. Cheers.

[Wildfunk]

Metrum is in a sort of different league with versatility. Like for example i went through 100 kicks in a row in "Kick" and they were all really more or less similar/same.

Why you've bought "Kick" when you're already happy with Metrum?!

Both plugins aren't very similar, also Metrum has 2 more layers etc.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Metrum is in a sort of different league with versatility. Like for example i went through 100 kicks in a row in "Kick" and they were all really more or less similar/same.

Why you've bought "Kick" when you're already happy with Metrum?!

Both plugins aren't very similar, also Metrum has 2 more layers etc.

I think I said that before, that because i pull the laptop off the desk at night time and put it on my bed (and i have 2 indoor cats also) and like to move it around, i was in my "hope of hoping" that this would be a real alternative to metrum that didn't require the dongle (which i am planning to just leave permanently plugged into the desktop).
That way i could at least move projects between the comps easily and not worry about the dongle.
There was never even the slightest intention of selling metrum as i use it too much.
But i rely on it (and usually vengeance and some other sample packs) for ALL my kicks, so it would have been nice to have an alternative just dedicated to kicks regardless. You know, a different "vibe"

But unfortunately this isn't something i can *personally* use as i don't write those styles, but I am sure many house writers here will use it. It feels to me like basically the one sound with some minor variation. But you are right, but don't we all make some mistakes? Its like saying why buy Alchemy if you are happy with omnisphere..or why buy an Arturia mini if you are happy with minimosntah? the point is that they can both give you totally different results.. In this case it just happens to be results i can't personally see myself using, as i do hard dance when i DO write dance, and this isn't suitable (imo).

I wasn't really the one that compared them, the dev said metrum was their closest competitor and cost 5x as much, but metrum is 5x as versatile, and not a competitor, it's a different thing altogether. I kind of thought "closest competitor" would mean that it was possibly in metrum's league for a fraction of the cost. Well that's what I was hoping.

Anyway, i am the only one so far disappointed in it, so i'm probably in the minority, so by all means don't listen to me, give it a try if you think it's for you!

Hope that answered your question. Be well

[aquar]

Very interesting Synth.

The biggest downer for me about 'Kick' is the complete lack of precision.
When adjusting the pitch I notice for example 'Kick' uses very course jumps indeed.

G1 49 hz
A1 54 hz
B1 60 hz

What happened to G1# 51.9131 hz?
A#1 58.2705 hz?
And so on.

This makes creating Key Labeled Kick Drums a nightmare.
I do hope at some point Sonic Academy address this issue because
it completely ruins the Synth for me.

Please remove the limitation and allow users to select their own frequency.

Agree!!!

I stand corrected.
It seems changing the pitch slider allows more control.

a direct way to add frequency by keyboard input would be nice.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Also, holding shift whilst changing the pitch slider allows ultra fine control

Yeah i was kind of confused about that one for a second, but the pitch control is actually very good. Very cool way and more intuitive to tune the kick to the song than metrum, imo

Actually, after spending more time with it, i realise i shouldn't have just gone by the factory presets as they seem geared towards Nicky.. i think the strength in this is to make one's own kicks.. I'm getting better results now...

[Wildfunk]

Actually, after spending more time with it, i realise i shouldn't have just gone by the factory presets as they seem geared towards Nicky.. i think the strength in this is to make one's own kicks.. I'm getting better results now...

We're waiting for the "TheoM Kick Patches"

For me it's the perfect replacement for 808/909/Linn-style kicks.

[ObsoleteAcc99]

I won't share my kicks sorry, if i create one or more I use, that's a very personal thing to me if it's something for my particular song Cheers

[Phil Sonic Academy]

Hi TheoM, Can you give me some examples of Kicks you cant make.. maybe youtube or spotify links and i will post up some presets... there are very few kicks im having difficulty making.

[SeeingInMidi]

Hi TheoM, Can you give me some examples of Kicks you cant make.. maybe youtube or spotify links and i will post up some presets... there are very few kicks im having difficulty making.

You can't really make hardstyle kicks in Kick without processing such as this one, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaiHTvifGt0

The distortion unit just isn't suited for hardstyle types of kicks.

I don't make hardstyle but I wish the distortion was a bit more flexible and versatile. As I mentioned earlier in this thread, at least allow us to route the sub and click separately in our DAW's mixer so we can process the hell out of the sub for these hardstyle types of kicks.

other than that, kick is perfect for my needs. The only things I wish I can do in kick that i can't do right now is straightening the bezier curves with right click and selecting multiple joints to be moved at once. ...just some suggestions that i'd like to see in a future release

[ObsoleteAcc99]

Hi TheoM, Can you give me some examples of Kicks you cant make.. maybe youtube or spotify links and i will post up some presets... there are very few kicks im having difficulty making.

Sure, i was planning to use voxengo beeper and apple AU roger over a few kicks (so they can't be sampled in sequence to show you metrum punch kicks vs SA kick. IS that what you mean? I'm happy to do that