For those music producers

On March 20 2011 11:58 xLethargicax wrote:
My advice, if you want a deep luscious kick, the best thing to do is to make it yourself. Otherwise you will never find a kick that is exactly what you want. Heres my mini tutorial for you,

A kick, especially dance kick, is comprised of a few elements, the max frequency, the minimum frequency, frequency decay, amplitude decay, click, and distortion. A kick is essentially a basic sine-wave that starts at a higher frequency, say, 250Hz, and lowers itself quite quickly to, say for the record, 80Hz.

The speed at which it drops between frequency is it's frequency decay. Generally speaking, you would like a relatively fast frequency decay, as this gives you the "punchy" sound. The next thing you need to worry about is the amp decay, this is how long the note persists after it reaches the lowest standing frequency. For a huge kick that rattles subs, you would probably want this to be slower so the standing frequency has open air to oscillate. For dance, it really depends on what you'd like. The click is a fast pulse that occurs when the note is hit, you shouldn't really worry about this unless you have a kick production program that includes it. The last element is the distortion, which is pretty obvious, is the excess noise that is added.

You can turn almost any basic wave-table/additive/subtractive synth into a kick. Just automate a pitch drop, and set the volume envelope and you should be ready to go. You can get creative by layering these with light snare hits or open hats that decay with the kick.

Added tip;

If you are insistent in using patch banks and you find a punchy kick you really like but it doesn't have a dance feel, layer a low sine-wave into it that decays quickly.

Hope it helps! If you are curious about anything else, feel free to message me.
-------

Edit; I read through your blog and you are bit more educated then I originally assumed from the small snippet you posted in your OP. Sorry if I beraided your intellect, but I still hope something helped. And if you still can't get a big club banger kick. I'll help out as previously mentioned till you can.

On March 20 2011 11:57 red.venom wrote:
download vengeance club sounds vol1. bam instant contemporary dance kicks. like no joke most tracks just use that cd or another vengeance cd

On March 20 2011 13:39 red.venom wrote:
the only reason i throw that out there is because music producers at this time have to work fast and sound similar to everyone else on a production level or they have trouble getting attention. Its not the end all and lots of people use their own sounds but you would be surprised what tracks use vengeance material. From house to trance to dnb. I personally find them good for layering just because they are so ridiculously overlimited and eq'd and I find myself leaning towards very thin sounds just stylistically so if i want other people to appreciate my tunes ill try to get things popping more with them

Anyway your thing is a cool idea. If anyone here is on soundcloud and wants to add me and ill add you back im at www.soundcloud.com/jamesd

On March 20 2011 16:31 xLethargicax wrote:
I feel as if you are overlooking the post production against his kick. His actual instrumental kick is not what gives it that huge pushing sound, it's his post production. I saw you mentioned side-chaining in your blog, but you then explained it in a really strange way. Perhaps your idea of side-chaining is a bit incorrect because Deadmau5's kick really isn't THAT huge in that. It sounds like a fairly simple, large decay kick with a low top frequency. The main characteristic of it is how ridiculously side-chained it is.

I see you are using FLStudio, have you ever thought of side-chaining through FLimiter? The compressor mode has a GREAT side-chain option.

On March 20 2011 23:04 alexpnd wrote:




I'm not well versed in side chaining. I didn't know about FLimiter side chaining. What I am using is a controller that moves with the kicks amplitude, and that controls the ducked channel volume. Anything I want ducked during the kick I put in that channel. It works but I really don't know if it's normal lol. You're both right about post production, I'm thinking too simply of it. I'm taking a look at your blog.

On March 21 2011 00:19 Starparty wrote:
dont forget about the hardware aswell. Without a proper soundcard and some semi-decent headphones/monitors youre never gonna get the sound youre after. When i finally installed my monitors in november my production quality went up 300% over night.

it is an amazing thing to actually hear properly what it is youre doing.

On March 21 2011 01:28 alexpnd wrote:
I don't want new ones just better room setup. I use Behringer Truth B2030A, $250 each so they are lower bracket but not shit, pretty good imo. I use the MAudio Delta 66 sound card and it's great for all intents and purposes. I have a question about how much is sampled and how much is sequenced in your songs. I have a feeling I'm doing way to much in the sequencer and not enough in the editor. Do you sequence a particular riff/melody or rhythm , mix down, then work it in the wav editor? Also I need a wav editor, Edison seems alright but it can be a little unresponsive and the small window sucks. What do you guys use? K, spring cleaning is kicking my ass here gotta go.