Help in getting my kick drum to sound deep and punchy

Trying to make my kicks very punchy and at the same time deep. I tried compression ratios and also cuting 40hz and boosting at 130-150, if there is another way or some one has a good trick for me please let me know. Z

You need to layer the drums, if u havent already done so. Get about 4 or 5 kicks going at once.
Get rid of compression maybe,( if u cant use it well you will take richness out of the drums).
You could try using a gate. But u also wanna make sure u use the right samples as well i guess...

Ok, here is what I do:

first, I take a deep bass drum. I cut upward frequencies (all above 400Hz). Then I take a high bass drum (which is very fast, has big punch and takes no frequencies below 300Hz. Or I make a drum to sound like that).

Then I layer these two to fire at the same time. I make sure the both are audible enuf.
I put them in a same mixer window (FL Studio) and add a compressor. I set the compressor to fire up them, but to cut prolonged increasing of their power.

My compressor settings are usualy like this:
Treshold - 0dB or -5dB
Attack time - Very fast, 15 or less miliseconds
Release time - Quite fast like 30-70 miliseconds
Ratio - to 0.4 or 1
and
Gain (most important) - +3dB or little more.

With this you can achieve fast, deep, punchy kick drum. Hope that helped.

PS
Also helps if you take a deep kick drum, add much distorsion and cut a bit of the high frequencies that are created by the distortion.

Here, hope that helped

add friuty fast dist..

ok having a punchy or deep drum sound is easy.....the problem is wether its still punchy when the bass drops in.....

for punchy you want a compressor, waves c4 or renaissance compressor is what i would recommend.......or psp mixbass. and when you layer kicks dont just layer any old thing, you want a deep, mid range and then treble style kick....think about it from the point of view of how you would the full frequency range of a whole tune....yknow low, mid and high.

when the bass comes in is where the real test of your kick is......the best thing to do is to use a severe q on the eq, and completely drop out 125 hz on the bass, no other bass/sub freq just 125hz, you need a decent eq to do this accurately...waves q10 is capable. this will leave a gap in the bass where the punchy part of your kick will be. voila!!! your kick is still punchy and wont dissapear when the tune drops.

quote:

Originally posted by Friscko add friuty fast dist..

Try the Fruity WaveShaper instead, it's much better than the fast dist.

i dont have that in my fl 3.56, and no i dont want the 5, i've told the story enyf, it doesnt work on my pc.

quote:

Originally posted by MUNKI C ok having a punchy or deep drum sound is easy.....the problem is wether its still punchy when the bass drops in.....

I have noticed that my technique works with any kind of bassline! Strange but true...

quote:

Originally posted by muaddib quote: Originally posted by MUNKI C ok having a punchy or deep drum sound is easy.....the problem is wether its still punchy when the bass drops in..... I have noticed that my technique works with any kind of bassline! Strange but true...

Probably because you are carving a notch in the spectrum for the bass between your two kicks.

quote:

Originally posted by Nick ZZ Trying to make my kicks very punchy and at the same time deep. I tried compression ratios and also cuting 40hz and boosting at 130-150, if there is another way or some one has a good trick for me please let me know. Z

Number one...what samples are oyu using...You cant polish a sample if it already soundsliek shit..so make sure youre using a nice solid Kick...orther wise there is nothing you can do...

2..dont busst 130-150...thats only good for click...not punch...so instead boost it 2-3db at 90-110hz

3rd is to make sure your bass's are eq'd properly... Cut your bass leads at about 90-200, and your sub at 80-above...

thast it...

quote:

Originally posted by Friscko add friuty fast dist..

that will only distort...not make it more punchy...

its all about the right samples and the right eq'ing...

quote:

Originally posted by muaddib My compressor settings are usualy like this: Treshold - 0dB or -5dB Attack time - Very fast, 15 or less miliseconds Release time - Quite fast like 30-70 miliseconds Ratio - to 0.4 or 1 and Gain (most important) - +3dB or little more. Here, hope that helped

make youre ratio 2:1 not .4 otherwise youre getting a gate...not a compression...

also you dont need 3db for a gain 1 or 2 should be enough...onyl go to 3 if needed...

let's say his is a base, work from that....

This is a fast method to make drum sounds more punchy :
Threshold maximum , attack and release minimum , Ratio maximum , Gain makeup 0 . Right now you hear no change in sound .
Turn down the threshold level . Now you should hear the sound go softer , compensate for that with the gain makeup . At this stage the life is sucked out off the drumsound . It has no clear attack and is breathing heavy .
Turn up the attack until you hear a nice attack .
Turn up the release until you hear no more breathing but not so far that it is puching away the second drumsound ( That is called pumping )
Now it is time to fine tune the threshold and ratio . Make some final adjustments to all controls and there you go . Don't forget to puch the bypass knob so you can hear that you are making an improvement .

Greetings Dirk .

that's basicly a saturation.

quote:

Originally posted by Surora23 quote: Originally posted by Friscko add friuty fast dist.. that will only distort...not make it more punchy...

just a little bit, we're not makin hardcore, are we?

the way i get a nice deep kick is to add a 909 kik sample alongside any other kicks and cut it (or high pass)at approx 60-70Hz then a little boost at about 80-100hz don't know if thats a great way to do it but it works for me.
if it clogs up the bass use a side-chain compressor and gate the sidechain with the kick.
this will drop the level in bass slightly and allow your kick to punch through.

I allways apply some blood overdrive on all my beats, a standard fruity plugin it boosts drums without distorting them

quote:

Originally posted by Dj Jimmy C the way i get a nice deep kick is to add a 909 kik sample alongside any other kicks and cut it (or high pass)at approx 60-70Hz then a little boost at about 80-100hz don't know if thats a great way to do it but it works for me. if it clogs up the bass use a side-chain compressor and gate the sidechain with the kick. this will drop the level in bass slightly and allow your kick to punch through.

fl oh ya, fl has a peak controller plugin that takes basslevels and you can use that as a side-chain by just hooking it up to a high pass filter on the basslines, after it reads a high kick note it will turnt he high pass up....

i always thougth that setting the ratio high (infinite actually), gives you a plain limiter, not a gate

also, make-up gain just controls the volume after the compressor. compression lowers the volume (by reducing dynamics). to compensates for that, you can just as well turn up the volume of the channel and leave the make-up gain at zero. so it's setting doesn't seem important at all (last button you touch, to increase volume, avoid clipping)

get a more 'visual' compressor (i use waves c1), gives you an instant idea what's going on, when you reduce and how much/fast.

just set ratio 2:1 or something, reduce threshold till the other parts become louder, sounds more squeezed (don't overdo). attack time depends on what you want: short attack (fast reponse) will make the initial 'snap' disappear, and give a more 'thuddy' kick (more jump up kicks, not really natural sounding sometimes imo), slow attacks will let part of the snap pass through untouched.


anyway, better yet, don't try compression.
find a different kick, layer a thuddy kick (which you perhaps made by heavily compressing one) with a more snappy one. don't overdo layering (I can't believe that 5 kicks at the same time sounds good).

to get a snappy kick, load your wave editor and cut away the part of the kick before it's highest amplitude, hence reducing it's attack time

to finalise, try analogue clipping (cut transients), or some mild (tape) saturation. or better yet; search for the free vst plugin comprimere, and increase the 'fat' button (it should emulate analogue clipping)