KVR Audio

mikeyai · Post by **mikeyai** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:12 am

I have always been very curious to create a "twangy" sounding kick that comes up into the treble - i.e. you can hear the bass over laptop speakers. Three songs that immediately come to mind when I think about this twangy kick are:
DJ -Snake Turn Down For What - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLBJZuao17o
Blasterjaxx - Miami - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLiTQi7rnSs
Blasterjaxx - Mystica - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Qm-q6mgCTs

and many trap/rap songs have a similar bass as well. I've attempted to recreate this sound by distorting a low frequency sine wave (using a nice multi-band distortion VST like Maul) but the result is always "too" distorted and "electronic-sounding" when these basses seem very organic/natural. Additionally, I've tried taking the sub-kicks provided in several sound packages such as Vengeance Essential Clubsounds volume 4 and processing them with similar distortion to no avail.

Any help/guidance would be greatly appreciated!

cron · Post by **cron** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 1:30 am

I dunno if it necessarily sounds like your examples, but I've had good success using straight triangle waves for this task. They've got a very sine like tone, but are audible a little higher up without the 'cheese' factor of filtered saw/square type sounds.

No_Use · Post by **No_Use** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 2:17 am

Yes, basically you need harmonics.

As said, using a triangle (as opposed to a sine) achieves this, other ways would be distorting or saturating a sine.
I can only watch the second video you linked here, but that kick/subbass clearly sounds distorted to me.

mikeyai · Post by **mikeyai** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 3:00 am

Thanks for the quick replies; I tried this and it still sounds nothing like the basses I had in mind; perhaps I'm not processing them right? I feel like there is something else I'm missing here.

pololas · Post by **pololas** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 11:57 am

Your friend is: sine shaper.

comodo · Post by **comodo** » Tue Apr 22, 2014 10:36 pm

If you're using a sine or triangle wave, try layering a 2nd oscillator that's an octave higher with the amp turned down to about half. Then spread that 2nd oscillator across the stereo field.
When you are happy with the sound, add distortion and compress.

mikeyai · Post by **mikeyai** » Wed Apr 23, 2014 9:24 pm

The sine shaper is very cool, I think I can hear the bass coming through like I want; thank you so much! Any other tips or recommendations are still appreciated!

dcfac73 · Post by **dcfac73** » Sun Apr 27, 2014 8:32 am

Have u tried using saturation?

mikeyai · Post by **mikeyai** » Sat May 24, 2014 5:06 pm

Unfortunately I haven't since I don't believe Logic has a saturation plugin - I'm open to opinions about 3rd party VST's though!

Booming Kicks (Subass?)