Kick Stagnation

[BRIGGS]

Hey Guys,

I'm getting tired of the factory kick sounds (Kong folder). I would like to get back into making my own, and I'm just wondering what you all do to add variety to your kick sounds. Do you do layering, processing, or any outboard software or gear?

Regards,
Briggs

[aRiver]

you can use anything as a starting kit for a kick. any sound. playing with decay and then just stacking sound ( parallel compression and stuff) can turn anything into a kick.

[Exowildebeest]

You can make a basic synth kick with any synth, and then layer that with a sample. FM4 is nice for kicks, excellent envelopes and the option to add sharp transients with FM modulation.

[Benedict]

This may help you learn a thing or two,

[willowman]

worth every penny imo

[satyr32]

Most of the time I start with samples from classic drum machines (this one is a good deal: http://www.jiggery-pokery.com/kok.html), sometimes layering with a tambourine, percussion, noise or hi-hat and then process it. The processing can sometimes be very mild and sometimes massive. There can be EQ, Compressor, Saturation, Distortion (usually mild), Bitcrushing (especially D16 since I got it), ...
Layering a 909 or 808 with a natuaral bass drum can work also very well.

[BRIGGS]

thanks!!!

I feel a bit overwhelmed to all the options, when it comes to layering/parallel processing.

Layering different kicks (low/top kicks) is not getting me the sound I'm looking for.

I wish I had an example but, I'm looking for that huge earthquake sound... a kind of rumble/movement in the low end.

I'm wondering what those factory kicks would sound like through 4 parallel scream units!

Any ideas would be welcome.

[LABONERECORDINGS]

For deep low end you'll need stuff like low pass filtered squarewaves (to create a sinewave with harmonics when you 'carve' out the upper freqs), maybe use a mixture of a couple of analog kicks for the 'character' sound and the low end under it.

Easiest way is to maybe use something like a Subtractor or Thor for the low end 'boom', but have attack up a touch to get rid of the click of the waveform, then a longer decay (to bring out the tail more) - you'll also need to do some pitch enveloping so higher pitch first decaying down to the harmonic (root note) of your sub end - when we say sub we mean ~100Hz and below for the really beefy body. Trigger the note you want the kick to be tuned to, and once you have the sub end the way you want it, lift up sustain to maximum, release up a touch to fade out - now export that single hit as a sample triggered for say 1 second - this way you have a longer tail for any pitches upwards / downwards without having to go back and resample higher pitches.

For the mid to upper sounds you can use anything really, hitting an empty plastic bucket or dustbin like a bongo, or washing machine door slamming, garage door for a bit more metallic 'boom' edge, literally anything. Take a few hits you like and string them up as other samples, make sure all the initial transient (the 'spike' of the hit) is at the start of the sample, and have them all hitting the same direction ie: if you have your first hit triggered and you see the samples ramping upwards, make sure the other transients do the same thing - if not flip / invert those ones so all your initial transients work in 'phase' (alignment) with each other - again this 'science' comes in later, main reason for doing this is to ensure you get a good solid front - if you have one sample playback starting ramp up and another ramp down and both play, they may cancel out, making a weaker front.

Simple maths really...


/\ << kick 1 transient

mixed with

\/ << kick 2 transient (inverted in this example, aka 'out of phase')

equals

-- phase cancelled weak front


This goes for kicks that are all going to be layered and there's no 'leading' transient - if you want 2 or more transients to mix, they must not cancel at the start else the ear will hear the weakness of the hit even being tiny ms or µs, it all makes a difference.

Ok back on track.... Now we see a video on CM Mag with Black Sun Empire.... what they do is pick 1 main kick (or even snares this works), and that's the lead transient - all the others they have in a sampler which they like and tweak and simply lift the attack up on everything else a touch so when everything plays together, the other transients don't "smear" the first, and you get a full on kick/snare AND the characteristics of everything else you want too. You could fade the sub end in anyway, to get the upper pitch effect of a real kick (Noisia mentions similar methods described here too in another video with FM Mag).

On the mixer outputs or buss channel put a compressor to 'glue' the sound together better, and to help control any level differences.

Each sample in the NNXT / NN19 or even Redrum* / NN-Nano needs to be on it's own note, so that you can triggering each one separately. You'll get different hit sounds simply by shifting some of the hits out of alignment with each other (we're talking tiny tiny difference) as well as directly in-sync, so you might have Kick 1 leading square on the grid, Kick 2 boxy-sounding shift just after (and attack-faded so no double transient), Kick 3 the crunchy sound you like shifted again (and attack-faded), and the sub end in line with Kick 1.

Kick 1
.Kick 2
...Kick 3
Sub end

or

Kick 1
..Kick 2
.Kick 3
Sub

Or other variants - just adjust the AD controls on the ADSR for each sample based on your decision for leading Kick sounds.

* Redrum of course doesn't have the ADSR controls but you can mimic by using level automation instead if you prefer, as ADSRs linked to the AMP control the volume

Final option - get a real kick drum sound, and layer with an 808 / low sinewave / low triwave (for added harmonics) and simply level those two sounds to start with - the 'mixed' kick will have a lot more low end because the sinewave adds a root harmonic where you choose, so you can drive more bass - this is like EQing in a way but instead of boosting a signal, you're simply adding two together to create a new phat sound

These again are simply more ideas, we might put some videos together showing how we would approach this. We use Reason 8, but you can apply the same logic in any version really.

[Stranger.]

ΣΣΣ

[VHS]

[Rason]

Hey, what about EDS06s Drum Synth by Ochen K ? Give it a go. All in one box. It is sad that it is not on the madness discount.

[FGL]

A few more tips:

Kong is very good to generate drums. Especially when you superimposing several layers. To do that you can link Pads together. For example try three BD together with shorter decay or mix a synth drum with some sample. One can also very well extract drum sounds from any audio, which helps when you're looking for something special. For extracting some drums it is also very good to take a look into Rex slices.

With various Ipad programs some can also be easily and quickly import drum tracks, from which can then extracted individual drums for further processing.

Very good are also the impulses into the RV7000 for some spice. But it is some kind of endless Mission once you have started with it.