Got a Killer kick drum but now it's cancelling my synth sounds

[sleepcircle]

I would take that as a sign that you don't actually have a good kick drum

I'm afraid I cannot agree with you, there; all kick drums will have frequencies at which they interfere or cloud other sounds. Actually all SOUNDS have that, it's just more noticeable on very low frequency sounds. I think the other advice he's gotten is much better.

Although, that said, there are a couple other things one can do with a kick drum. there are some very deep sounds which can be left-over sometimes after the first "thump" which provide no impact but do clog up the bass area a bit. If he has a multi-band gate, he can--as well as the side-chaining already suggested--make it so that the frequencies below anywhere between 60hz to 100hz drop out WAY FASTER than all the other frequencies in the kick drum. They won't be heard after the initial impact anyway.

[claudedefaren]

...

[dblock]

Seriously OP, swap out your kick for a raw 909 kick. No compression or EQ, just the raw sample. If there's no more phasing issues, your original kick just wasn't good. That is the first thing to test from a troubleshooting perspective.

I'll experiment with that idea. Thanks!

[Kinh]

Seriously OP, swap out your kick for a raw 909 kick. No compression or EQ, just the raw sample. If there's no more phasing issues, your original kick just wasn't good. That is the first thing to test from a troubleshooting perspective.

wha-choo-on-about mate?

[dark_virus]

Try to find the kick root note and see how it relates to the simultaneous synth notes. Sometimes pitch shifting the kick just 1 semitone or even a few cents fixes it.

Besides, I can only think about sidechaining. Is it an EDM track? Don't be affraid of being heavy on the sidechain if it's the case. If the conflicting parts are kick and bass, you must decide which one will be the bottom end of your frequency spectrum. You can't have both.

Finally, how about your monitoring system? Maybe you think the kick is perfect, but it can have some undesired/useless low frequencies. How about cutting these frequencies a bit?

[dblock]

Try to find the kick root note and see how it relates to the simultaneous synth notes. Sometimes pitch shifting the kick just 1 semitone or even a few cents fixes it.

Besides, I can only think about sidechaining. Is it an EDM track? Don't be affraid of being heavy on the sidechain if it's the case. If the conflicting parts are kick and bass, you must decide which one will be the bottom end of your frequency spectrum. You can't have both.

Finally, how about your monitoring system? Maybe you think the kick is perfect, but it can have some undesired/useless low frequencies. How about cutting these frequencies a bit?

Thanks for the great suggestions dark_virus. Makes sense to me. Will check them out.

[ramseysounds]

Just try a different kick

[JoseC.]

Is the kick in tune with the rest of the song?

[a_Scientist]

You have to try reversing vertically, meaning amplitude.

[Choega]

Can either be that your kick drum isn't the right choice, your stereo separation is not set accordingly (low frequencies not in mono) or that you are not sidechaining efficiently.