Achieving Fat Kicks

[[voodoopony]]

I'd make a video tutorial but no.

I have a drum fetish and strive to learn the ways of those I look up to as "beat pioneers" [nominees include Boards of Canada, Thievery Corporation, Dj Shadow, Dead Maw Five, etc]

This is a technique I sometimes use when aiming for a fat acoustic house sort of kick. I sample a cool sounding kick off some old motown song or something. The kick sounds cool and all, but dirty and weak. Lettuce fix that.

I use the noise gate in Logic to cut off any ugly tail that follows the kick. I set the decay so it fades out smoothly and sounds natural. Ramp off most freqs below 250 and lower around the 200 range to get rid of the muddiness [though this is the freq that strengthens the snare]. Boost around 5 to 10 to get some crispness, or notch it to enhance the snare. 12 is a good freq to boost for crisp hats. A lot of the eqing depends on the kick you're working with so it's best to know what the song calls for rather than listen to me.

Layer that shit with a 909 kick and bam. You may need to tweak the higher freqs of the bassy, meatier 909 kick to where you can't quite tell it apart from the acoustic kick, and make them blend together smoothlier. I often call this the 'low' kick, as it gives it the bass needed to make the wimmins squeal.

After the basics I like to start messing with the acoustic [high] kick. I like to add a stereo spread or make it somehow cover the stereo spectrum to give it a wider sound and add a dab of overdrive [your kick will sound more like a dead maw five kick like that]. If the kick is too quick and clean try increasing the delay of the 909 longer as well as the release on the noise gate. I'm not going to get into reverb but if done right it means a stones throw difference.

Snares are easier to work with imo... it's easier to make snares compliment the drums. The 200 range for snares gives it it's meatiness but try to not let it interfere with the kick [Personally I mostly ramp off everything under 200 ish if it's not a kick or bass]. Layer a few claps and time them just a tinsy bit before the 'boom' of the kick, add a quick sidechain to duck the snare, and you got yourself a bitchin house beat. An example of me using a similar technique to this can be heard here.

Be sure to add compression to things that need to be compressed, and if you don't know much about compression, learn it. Parallel compression also helps with the punchiness.

There's a lot I didn't cover but there is no strict formula to achieving this sound, this is just what I've come up with over the past few years of trying things out. I hear buzz generators are good but I don't have FL studio and it's hard to find em nowadays.

How are some ways you like to make kicks?

Here are more examples where I used a similar technique as above. Has anyone noticed how delicious a dab of flange juice sounds on hihats? Mmm~
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLjKR-GNFxM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Wjv7UY8kqo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSVl5P8Kl38 - The ending bit.

[Aussie]

SO MANY LAYERSES

And yes, that's two Izotope Ozones. No, I don't know what I'm doing.

[bartekko]

Aussie, how about taking a punchy kick and making it FUCKING LOUD? :3

[Aussie]

Aussie, how about taking a punchy kick and making it FUCKING LOUD? :3

[bartekko]

how about: taking one kick and fattening it using effects in one chain
?

[ArtAttack]

Making good kicks the ArtAttack way:

>Take three good kicks, one boomy, 2 punchy
>Play at the same time
>Soundgoodizer/Maximus
>Eq as needed.

[Icky]

I make all my kicks in Hydra, where I start out with a basic 909 sound. I then add some EQ and Distortion, and also link the sound to a second channel where I make a high pitched "tok" sound using even more distortion and some overdrive. I also mess around in hydra, tweaking the different settings on the kick.

When Im finally satisfied I export the kick as a .wav and I open it again in FL Sampler.
This time I add EQ, FL Multiband Compressor, Blood overdrive and Bitcrusher.

The result, after about 10 hours of messing around and tweaking:
http://soundcloud.com/keeponrockingbrony/ohai-phat-kick

[Versilaryan]

Gah. Now I'm spending just as long obsessing over kicks as I am obsessing over synths. Thank you so much for effectively halving my production speed. xD

[PinkieGuy]

Whilst my kicks are nowhere as stunning as some other peoples on the forums, one suggestion I will make is this (and I feel it applies to everything in music):

The biggest impact on an output sound is the quality of the input sound.

Whilst layering kicks can create a great effect, if you're layering multiple samples to make up for the deficiencies in one or more of them, it's not as effective as simply hunting for better samples. I only ever use 1-2 kick drums in my stuff, and then Eq to make sure they have a niche to fit in so that they stand out/punch.



(Tangentially, this rule applies much more with recording guitars. No matter how much work you do, if the initial recording quality is poor, your output will be poor).

[Mox]

I layer a few samples... I'll keep the lows on the punchiest and high pass the rest. EQ and compression. I love the FabFilter mastering suite (Hint: The compressor has some sick percussion presets). High pass the entire track at 90-100ish.

[MYCUTIEMARKISAGUN]

Whilst layering kicks can create a great effect, if you're layering multiple samples to make up for the deficiencies in one or more of them, it's not as effective as simply hunting for better samples.

Imma co-sign this.

I tend to go H.A.M with layering drums, but 90% of the time the really crazy shit (12+ samples for one snare, TOO MUCH) gets replaced with something more simple & effective.

Honestly, I'm surprised you guys are thinking about the sound of your drums as much as you are. I mean....w/ hip-hop music, drums are literally the most important element of the beat. There are lots of classically trained phenoms that epic fail hard at Hip-Hop production because they don't understand this.

[Facade]

I make all my kicks in Hydra, where I start out with a basic 909 sound. I then add some EQ and Distortion, and also link the sound to a second channel where I make a high pitched "tok" sound using even more distortion and some overdrive. I also mess around in hydra, tweaking the different settings on the kick.

When Im finally satisfied I export the kick as a .wav and I open it again in FL Sampler.
This time I add EQ, FL Multiband Compressor, Blood overdrive and Bitcrusher.

The result, after about 10 hours of messing around and tweaking:
http://soundcloud.com/keeponrockingbrony/ohai-phat-kick

wow thats alot harder then i thought i did the main part now to tweak it for like 20 hours >.>
and then i have to learn how to write hardstyle melodies : P

[[voodoopony]]

It's true that layering too much can make it sound dirty. If done properly though it can be a lot more efficient than working with a single sample. 99% of the time I don't end up with exactly what I'm looking for, I always throw in some sort of compresserdistortdriveequalizerphlange stuff depending on what it needs.

Though it's probably just my urge to make most of it home grown.