Punchy Kick Drum

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I'm reasonably new to producing and would just like to ask if anyone would be so kind to share some of their techniques on how to get a reasonably punchy kick drum. So far I've learned that layering some other kick drums with either more high end and low end and a bit of eqing. Although the problem is I still don't entirley understand this method fully yet either. I know there are many different ways and techniques to add more punch to a kick but please just go easy on me, I'm still kinda new at this. Any other advice on creating and layering kicks is also very welcome as I'm always looking to expanding my skills and knowledge. Using FL Studio as my main DAW at the moment too and I'm currently using the standard fruity limiter/compressor/eq aswell as I don't want to invest in any expensive plugins until I know I have sufficient knowledge of my current ones. Any help will be highly appreciated, thanks (:

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Seriously, just use EKS Pro, nuff said.

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If you are looking to engineer a punchier sound - then you need to learn EQ and how it interacts via compression techniques. Great idea to learn the tools at your disposal. I'm sure whatever host you use will have several available. Layering sounds is a way to avoid engineering skills that you are better off just learning. Just experiment - keep track of the cause and effect of parameters you change. Compression isn't that tricky of a process - but it is critical to understand well - You are basically re processing the amplitude envelope based in the input signal.

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Sometimes gating makes things punchier.

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ok sorry, but after 15+ years of making them with synths, layering with samples, EQing, compressing (etc) i arrived at Eks Pro and very happy for it. But here goes...

To start off with synthesising them you need a few things...
A sine wave, a volume envelope, a pitch envelope, and another technique requires simply a filter capable of self resonance and an envelope to shape it...

1st technique, select sine wave oscillator... Either with your ( ala modulation matrix) routed free envelope or dedicated pitch envelope - modulate the oscillator with the envelope by about 2 octaves to start with. Set the pitch envelope to no attack, about quarter decay and no sustain or release. When you trigger the oscillator around 40-80 Hz you should hear a zappy type modulation that moves quicky from a high pitch to low pitch. Now you can fine tune the envelope with perhaps some sustain and release, and adjust the volume envelope to perhaps a tad longer than the pitch envelope...

Lesson 2 l8ers, i'm gonna get busted by the boss any second now :p

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Just good sample selection and careful processing.

http://www.evolutionmastering.com/mixdown001.html

That will give you some pointers :)

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Okay, thanks guys these have helped a lot (:

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Another thing that you could use is a transient shaper. That's assuming you've also done a good job with, layering, saturation and EQ.

Basically it increases the size of the transient - the punch at the start of a drum sound. Then you'd reduce the tail a bit so the punch really comes through.

They can also be used in other creative ways, but that's what you'd want for more attack with drums.

Flux do a decent free one called bitter sweet.
I will take the Lord's name in vain, whenever I want. Hail Satan! And his little goblins too. :lol:

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Find the right sample and move on.

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Unless you're really up for spending all that time layering and shit, honestly, EKS Pro, it sounds like it;s already layered and compressed and EQed and bla bla.

My friend Algernon (Mustard Tiger) gave me some pre-layered and effected kick drums a while back, and they're PH fat, I found it tough to match them, took a lot of messing around. When I finally checked out EKS-Pro, I discovered I could nail those kick drums and even SLAMINGER (yes that's a work now). I figure screw re-inventing the wheel when I barely get enough time to tweak anyway.

I will say though, samples are all good, but when you get into synthesis, [often, and in my heartfelt opinion] samples start to become a waste of time. Why shuffle through hundreds of samples when you can quickly make the perfect kick for the track...? [rhetorical question]

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BazzISM is also nice to create Kick.

http://www.ismism.de/bi_e.htm

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sqigls wrote:Unless you're really up for spending all that time layering and shit, honestly, EKS Pro, it sounds like it;s already layered and compressed and EQed and bla bla.
I checked out a demo of this after you mentioned it. Sounds pretty darn good...
I will take the Lord's name in vain, whenever I want. Hail Satan! And his little goblins too. :lol:

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VibraSound wrote:BazzISM is also nice to create Kick.

http://www.ismism.de/bi_e.htm

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Love this bad boy

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I made a how to on kicks if you want to try it.

Can work with any synth with a pitch envelope.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NyRKx1JVq7o

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EQ cuts at the right frequency (often around 250Hz) can also help with that - by removing some of the "mud" that makes the important parts more prominent.
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