KICKS | General, Troubleshooting, etc

[Soundphase]

Big layers makes for a good kick. And layering Of small layers as well. Need to ude lots of distortion and make tightness in the low and then you can feel the kick or layer. Otherwise you're not feeling it.

Matter of taste I guess. I'm not a fan of too much layering. A bit ago I tried adding a sub to a bus and when I rose its volume, the bass became less due to phase cancellation - that was a funny situation. Some layering is necessary of course but that doesnt come close to describing why certain sounds are fat and others are not. i personally think it has to do with the different harmonics and overtones, how they are detuned and how they interact. But dunno.

The harmonics are an integral part in feeling a kick. But the processing is so important - a kick has to sound raw to the extent that it sounds musical, clear, and not muddy. The spectrum of a pro kick isn't saying much, because you don't know how much processing went in, how much distortion, reverbs, composite layers etc.

Like you could take a synth layer and overdrive it or squash it with a brickwall, then EQ it to have the same harmonics as a headhunterz kick. But it's weak and not rich enough, since it's only 1 layer and there was just 1 distortion processed. (It could potentially be a useful layer though if you were to combine it with other sounds).

I find that the lower you go into a frequency spectrum, the less processing is necessary. A sub needs nothing on it. Low frequencies after sub could be only 1 layer. Then the mid-high frequencies after 500Hz have to be very processed. Adding more processing means more mixer effects (dist/eq/verb) or layering, and/or both. It's whatever works.

[Soundphase]

I'll write here what someone never told me in the past... brickwall limiter is extremely important on layers. (And on a bus of numerous layers).
Some people use their daw mixer to push sounds into the red, and they clip the sounds that way. You work backwards in the mixer chain while the sound is contantly clipped. Ok nobody told me this in the past, and I was making weak layers back then all because they weren't clipped. My layers sounded like synthesizer sound.
Just experiment... Check out Dithers tutorial for making hardcore kicks. It doesn't matter if it's hardcore - It's such a great tutorial. I think one of the best kick tutorials out there for sure.

Know as well that some of the good distortions have built-in limiting, so it is clipping the sound automatically on the plugins output. In Destructor, you can toggle that limiter on or off.
If you use oldschool waveshapers, they most likely don't have built-in limiting.

[SNOOPP]

What do you guys think about my kick?

[The Knockout]

Hey i have a question.. does someone have a good tutorial to get a Rawstyle Kickdrumtail better swinging and pushing?

[derppanzer]

How do you guys layer the tok/attack and the kick?

I just made 2 kick tails, they are the first ones I have ever made. One is a typical hardstyle kick, while the other is more of a raw kick, somewhat similair to the ones regain makes.I watched a tutorial on making the tok/attack part of the kick. The dude told in the video to cut the sample of the tail you made into 2 parts. The clicky part 10-20 ms and a 100ms long part. He told to layer this with an 909 sample and group it together into one bus and add some effects. This would be the "punch".

I tried this with my hardstyle kick and it sounds alright ish I guess, for my first ever kick. He then said to layer this together with a sub and your tail, to get the final kick. He however did not explain how exactly to go about layering the tok with the tail. As of now, I just play them at the same time. How would you guys go on about doing this? And is there a fundamental difference for making raw and hardstyle kicks when it comes to layering? I would ultimately like to become a raw producer.

Keep in mind, I may learn fast, but I am completely new to producing, so try to explain in layman terms as much as possible.

[Riptide]

Hi

I am wondering how to use the phaser in making hardstyle kicks.

Should it be 0 hz on the lfos to avoid jumping around the pitch of the kick every beat?

Because otherwise there is no retrigger funktion to use.

[Soundphase]

Hi

I am wondering how to use the phaser in making hardstyle kicks.

Should it be 0 hz on the lfos to avoid jumping around the pitch of the kick every beat?

Because otherwise there is no retrigger funktion to use.

You know what a phaser is -> All-pass filter modulation(s).
So you want a retrigger-phaser setup, what you do is either sidechain the All-pass EQ parameter, or automate it with a LFO shape.

This is a good video for you to watch


(doesn't matter if you don't user Reaper daw)

[Shodan]

Can't remember exactly how but i think i used bassdrum, camelphat, maybe some eq and somehow i achieved a kick like the one Hatom uses lol

Big bump btw

[Digital Shifter]

Next to distortion, EQ, phasers etc. What else do you use to alter the character of the kick?

[Pinago]

Next to distortion, EQ, phasers etc. What else do you use to alter the character of the kick?

- two or three tails at once and tweak them all a little bit different from the other
- sound delay
- automation on the eq to get like a movement in the kick