Author Topic: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times  (Read 13117 times)

Droptopus

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Sometimes I feel like screaming. Sometimes I want to break all of my studio equipment and run off and live in the forest. There is only thing that makes me feel this way, and its getting a good sounding kick. I can nail everything else and am really confident in my production and even low end mixing, however getting a good top end kick that sits on the mix and feels powerful yet not too snappy and in your face is just not something I'm capable of figuring out on my own. I've been trying ceaselessly for YEARS.

It's not the sub of the kick, I'm fine with that. I make dirty dutch/melbourne bounce, so It's the top layer. How the fuck do artists get this sounding good so consistently? When I try to use samples, I can never get it to sound punchy enough with the frequencies still sounding relaxed and 'small'. When I try to use clicks from banks like nicky romero's kick, It sounds much too small to produce the mid 'umf' that is the most important part of a strong kick for melbourne bounce. Any amount of overdrive/compression/EQ attempts to get a sound closer just further convinces me that I'm starting with a bad sound to begin with.

I'm starting to think that there is some tried and true way to make melbourne bounce kicks and I'm just not in the loop. Because I'm a competent producer, I really am. But as far as the top end of my kick goes, I don't even think it can get in the ballpark. I just can't get it to have weight without being a snapping mess.

Please, if you have sound design advice, I would love to know. But more importantly, if anyone knows of the samples that artists like SCNDL, Will Sparks, and Deorro use to get their top kick sounds, please let me know. I'm tired. So, so tired.

wayfinder

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #1 on: January 11, 2016, 09:38:38 am »
Can you post a few examples of their kicks and yours?

Snow

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #2 on: January 11, 2016, 11:25:58 am »
Well, if you really tried many different samples already, I think your problem is in the mixdown. Do you sidechain everything?

Droptopus

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #3 on: January 11, 2016, 11:56:46 am »
Well, if you really tried many different samples already, I think your problem is in the mixdown. Do you sidechain everything?

I do sidechain everything, and It's not in the mixdown because I can't recreate the affect with solo'd professional kicks just literally trying to recreate it. I have 10,000 kick samples from probably 30 different sample packs, everything from vengeance to vandalism to singomakers and black octopus, and all the high end on the 'tight' kicks have this super acute high end that doesn't exist in the professional kick i'm trying to emulate. Their kicks have this warmth, like all the high end is there, just really quiet compared to the thud of the kick. And forget about filters and EQ, when I try to tame the clickiness on the kicks it drains the energy straight out of them.... I feel hopeless!

Snow

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #4 on: January 11, 2016, 12:04:03 pm »
Maybe the kicks you want to recreate are analog? Can you post an example?

VOIID

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #5 on: January 11, 2016, 12:04:32 pm »
Why don't you just sample those kicks you wanna imitate and then layer them with something else? lol

Droptopus

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #6 on: January 11, 2016, 12:33:06 pm »
Why don't you just sample those kicks you wanna imitate and then layer them with something else? lol

because I'm not interested in being limited to the kicks that professional producers are able to create on their own, that I manage to get my hands on. All the kicks are very different, but all have similarities that I can't seem to re-create. The two main things hard to emulate is the powerful 'umf' in the mid, and avoiding the overbearing snappy noise on the transient while still having it slam.

Miles Dominic

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #7 on: January 11, 2016, 12:37:58 pm »
Why don't you just sample those kicks you wanna imitate and then layer them with something else? lol

because I'm not interested in being limited to the kicks that professional producers are able to create on their own, that I manage to get my hands on. All the kicks are very different, but all have similarities that I can't seem to re-create. The two main things hard to emulate is the powerful 'umf' in the mid, and avoiding the overbearing snappy noise on the transient while still having it slam.

a lot of professional producers make their own kicks though. Most of them use samples straight out of the pack and process them to fit in the mix or layer 2/3 samples together. (Nothing wrong with making themyourself though. Its good fun).
Srsly though, if you have over 10.000 kick samples and there's not one in there that sounds professional to you, its probably either that you're looking in the wrong sample packs or you should mix them/process them better.
« Last Edit: January 11, 2016, 12:55:53 pm by Miles Dominic »

Snow

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #8 on: January 11, 2016, 12:41:38 pm »
Please post multiple examples. We can't help you this way.

Droptopus

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #9 on: January 11, 2016, 04:43:35 pm »
Please post multiple examples. We can't help you this way.

Here are some of the kick qualities I'm trying to achieve. Notice that while they all sound different, the common factor is that they punch and don't have an irritatingly clicky high end. they are soft, almost thuddy, but have power and clarity still. If you observe them on an EQ you will see the high end rolling off steadily. Sucks because from a listen it seems like there is nothing special about them:

https://clyp.it/qs4cvhb3


This next one has 2 bars of only the high end kick and 2 bars of the low end kick before playing them together.

https://clyp.it/lptesafb


This last one is the 'clickiest' of the three, yet still lacks the overly aggressive high-end that I find present in almost all kicks in sample packs that have this type of mega-short click sound for the top end.

https://clyp.it/2m2hul2q


 
Dutch house is difficult for me when I cannot achieve these sounding kicks because the clickiness can steal all the energy from the synth, but if the kick doesn't have impact the track is worthless on the dance floor. It's a constant battle between 'irritating' and 'limp' when I try to proccess my own kicks from packs, sometimes spending as long as 10 hours trying to get it right. When I throw one of these 'professional' kicks sampled from songs onto my track, it sounds incredible compared to my sample pack kick processing and I don't have to do much else but set volume.


Miles Dominic

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #10 on: January 11, 2016, 05:49:39 pm »
Can you post one of your tracks? Maybe there's other stuff that is taking away from the kicks you use..?

wayfinder

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #11 on: January 11, 2016, 07:04:25 pm »
This clyp.it site keeps timing out for me.

Snow

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #12 on: January 11, 2016, 08:04:07 pm »
What do you think of the kicks in this free sample pack? http://hyperbitsmusic.com/samplepack/

Soundness

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Re: getting a good kick - yes I know it's been posted a million times
« Reply #13 on: January 13, 2016, 02:23:23 am »
Why don't you just sample those kicks you wanna imitate and then layer them with something else? lol

because I'm not interested in being limited to the kicks that professional producers are able to create on their own, that I manage to get my hands on. All the kicks are very different, but all have similarities that I can't seem to re-create. The two main things hard to emulate is the powerful 'umf' in the mid, and avoiding the overbearing snappy noise on the transient while still having it slam.

a lot of professional producers make their own kicks though. Most of them use samples straight out of the pack and process them to fit in the mix or layer 2/3 samples together. (Nothing wrong with making themyourself though. Its good fun).
Srsly though, if you have over 10.000 kick samples and there's not one in there that sounds professional to you, its probably either that you're looking in the wrong sample packs or you should mix them/process them better.

You know that most electronic music producers use samples in their drums right? And mostly Vengance, there are only a few who doesn't and Deorro is not one of them m8