KVR Audio

Eclectrophonic · Post by **Eclectrophonic** » Mon Jan 19, 2026 3:43 pm

Hi All!

So I decided to make an electronic genre I think I can make without too much trouble. I decided on Tech House (my normal genre is old skool house). Listened to a few tracks and thought they don't sound too difficult although not exactly dead easy but I have studied music production at college and uni so should be able to create a half decent track and I'm a good musician, have a good ear for music (play guitar, write songs etc).

I start by setting up a folder with a software drum machine in it and assign each drum to a separate track. I go through some kicks (these were Vengeance House house kicks but some sounded suitable.) I get a kick that I think suits tech house, hard-ish but not too bad. I boost a part (as I was trying to remove a kind of fade out hiss at the end of the kick originally) and was scanning to find it, anyway, the boost sounded goodin the low end so kept it. Then time to remove that hiss, trying to remove the hiss also changed the kick sound to something I didn't like and couldn't stop that no matter how steep a slope I used etc so ended up leaving the hiss in.

Anyway, I now think the kick sounds awful and wanna scrap it.

I just don't get it, I've done 3 years at college doing music tech and a year at uni and know all about frequencies, how sound works, all about filters, compression etc etc but can't make a decent sounding track save my life. I just don't know why I can't make a decent track. What's people's thoughts?

Thanks!

enCiphered · Post by **enCiphered** » Mon Jan 19, 2026 3:57 pm

Hello, I think people would like to help out but it’s hard to be this disappointed in silence.

CinningBao · Post by **CinningBao** » Mon Jan 19, 2026 4:22 pm

Find a track you like the sound of and would like to imitate, and copy it. Deconstruct it; listen to the kick, use all your audio education to pick a kick which is similar, one you won't have to do much work on to get it to fit, and use that.

Maybe you'd be better off synthesising a kick since that's where all the control is. Do you have enough synth knowledge to achieve this?

Something you're also learning is that no matter how much eduction you have, you only really learn by trying and failing, and trying again.

Raddler1 · Post by **Raddler1** » Tue Feb 03, 2026 9:29 pm

I would suggest you approach things less with your college degree and more with your heart. Picking any random genre cause it's 'less trouble' is a bad start. You need to produce in a genre you are passionate about.

thecontrolcentre · Post by **thecontrolcentre** » Tue Feb 03, 2026 10:04 pm

How are you monitoring your tracks?
Can you post an example of your music?

ksandvik · Post by **ksandvik** » Tue Feb 03, 2026 10:16 pm

Believe it or not, selecting good samples, kick sounds et rest, is a good start for a good mix. A mix will not fix that. And there's plenty of good sounding kick samples out there.

Benedict · Post by **Benedict** » Tue Feb 03, 2026 11:32 pm

Music, esp feel-driven things like EDM are effectively impossible to come at head-on. See, people think it is like a recipe, so much that they think that words will get them there, ie no music posted to help responders point out what may be happening in THIS track. Therefore, no actual dialogue is possible. Worse, will probably be shunned (yes I expect this post will be ignored or demeaned - I make it only for those few who might take the time to understand and change).

The idea of a recipe, eg, seven pinches of sample X through 47 kingabilks of splaturation, baked for 67dB in a sofclipping limitator. Insta-perfect sponge-cake that never falls. Yay! Easy to do, seeing essentially all of DAWville - the whole world probably - is like this now.

When the reality is that there is no exact formula. Even Music Theory, when properly taught, is based on the core understanding that these are not a) prescriptive rules but b) observational understandings of why something works or not.

Twisted logic can pretend that if you follow the rulez you become Wolfgang Sibalius Bach. The reality is that while what Lemmy (Motorhead) and Liam (The Prodigy) do is technically simpler than Mozart (not enough notes lol), the music is complex in other ways. Ways that are: Come at Sideways.

We can explain Lemmy using Psychology far better than we can with 4-Part Harmony.

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Wed Feb 04, 2026 7:58 am

You say your mixes sound bad, but your project is empty - still in the stage of selecting the kick !?

This must be a parody thread.

VariKusBrainZ · Post by **VariKusBrainZ** » Wed Feb 04, 2026 8:41 am

ksandvik wrote: Tue Feb 03, 2026 10:16 pm Believe it or not, selecting good samples, kick sounds et rest, is a good start for a good mix. A mix will not fix that. And there's plenty of good sounding kick samples out there.

Drum samples

Zeisner · Post by **Zeisner** » Sat Feb 07, 2026 5:17 pm

Slapping a static lowpass filter onto the kick to remove the hiss won't get you anywhere because it will mess up the transient (which is high frequency content). Instead:

-> Edit the ADSR curve to remove the hiss section at the end. The easiest solution.

-> Or use a (multi-band) noise gate to get rid of the hiss. Also easy.

-> Or use some auto-filter - a lowpass with a cutoff frequency set to maximum, triggered by input level. The lower the level, the lower the cutoff frequency. Carefully tuned it can sound very transparent and "musical".

-> Or use a special de-noiser plugin (usually FFT-based). It's a hit and miss with those though, some sound good while others introduce too many artifacts.

AsPeeXXXVIII · Post by **AsPeeXXXVIII** » Fri Feb 27, 2026 9:14 am

CinningBao wrote: Mon Jan 19, 2026 4:22 pm no matter how much eduction you have, you only really learn by trying and failing, and trying again.

This. Knowing the theory behind something is one thing, but applying that knowledge in practice is another.

HAL76 · Post by **HAL76** » Sat Mar 07, 2026 12:15 am

How to say? I mean all these good looking stars sound great, while all those nerds from the 70 sound pale and thin not to mention all those other bedroom stars nobody ever sees at daylight.

Can you maybe post a photo so we can see what the problem might be?

DCrown · Post by **DCrown** » Wed Mar 11, 2026 6:44 am

A good, creative song is more important than mix quality. Mix quality is overrated

Zeisner · Post by **Zeisner** » Wed Mar 11, 2026 11:30 am

DCrown wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 6:44 am A good, creative song is more important than mix quality. Mix quality is overrated

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Everything matters.

DCrown · Post by **DCrown** » Wed Mar 11, 2026 12:22 pm

Zeisner wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 11:30 am
DCrown wrote: Wed Mar 11, 2026 6:44 am A good, creative song is more important than mix quality. Mix quality is overrated
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Everything matters.

The music I like best often has quite mediocre sound, it is all about the song, the vibe, the groove, soul etc
This proverb can't be applied for music as far as I am concerned.
Today's standard is very polished, compressed, loud mixes, some may call it good sound, but the vibe arrangement , creativity and the lyrics of a lot of songs, well, that's a different topic

Why Do My Mixes Sound Awful?