Massive techno kick (RYTMII)?

Hi, I am so desperate. I try now for 2 months to build a reasonable techno kick with the rytm but just do not get it like in the examples (youtubelink). I am a total thinker and never satisfied: D so I hope to help with a few tips that help me further. I would be very grateful. I work with the singleouts, so I do not have all the effects available. great would be a detailed guide: kick? tune? click? filter? etc. I am aware that there is not the one kick that is best but I would just like to have a reason with which I can continue working. I’m looking forward to tipps :))

kick

…stop thinking in bigger is better…and start to think in layers…
whenever i was impressed by just a single kik only, there was not only one single kik involved…
layering and all different sorts of sidechaining options does the masking trick ur looking for, end of the day…always…music is all about the question how well things go TOGETHER to become one thing, and in best case…single elements working together to compliment each other to be more than just another sum of it all…

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I hear you, but personally I have a hard time with this layering approach. I understand the reason for layering to be able to sculpt the desired sound.
But on the rytm I really didn’t get that far. On the MD it’s much easier as you can co-trigger other tracks to form the perfect sound out of some tracks and samples. And you have 16 of them. :slight_smile:
On the rytm with only 1 analog synth and 1 sample per track I was not that successful.

You could use the whole bottom row on the rytm for kick and snare also so not just one track. I struggled a bit at first making big kicks but now seem to struggle to tame them hah! But using samples on synth is definitely the most satisfying. Good samples seems to be key. I cant explain how I tune synth parts as I just tweak each machine according to the params available an just use my ear. The amp and filter pages give you a huge sonic scope. Inspektor gadget has some awesome big kicks https://www.inspektorgadjet.com/item/free-psytrance-kicks/
Also a lot of other cool things on his site :grinning:

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everyone’s input is definitely the direction you need to go…layer multiple machines (2-4). when building up big kicks like those I rarely use samples, just layers of analog sounds.

i’d suggest using the BT for the big low depth underneath: keep that one relatively simple and clean. add a BD of your choice and maybe another on the bottom row to fill out the kick. make sure at least one of these has some high end and a little bit of movement (my first suggestion would be a touch of reverb but you’re working without the effects…) a touch of noise in that mid-high range of frequencies is of course necessary, though a sample may also serve you here.

definitely work on getting the sounds to gel together and hit together naturally, you’ll likely have to bounce back and forth between machines and tweak the attack times on the Synth, Filter, and Amp sections on each.

I’ve seen a few decent tutorials on YouTube for creating big techno kicks, though these are almost always done in software, the ideas should translate over to Rytm for you :slight_smile:

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  • LFO (to inject vibration)

  • LAYERING top sample (but they need to be prepare before to layered on top) and use machine synth as your root key. (you can process your top layers to give colors like reverse reverb, distortion etc…)

  • PROCESSING is very important so if you route the kick external inputs fast, you miss the end of the processing chain on your RYTM… if you don’t have audio processor between the kick and the mixer/daw you need to process your kick.
    (regarding processing don’t forget the MKII can resample and it’s open-up a whole new processing possibilities… don’t forget to meter the process to not overdo it)

  • MIXING the kick with the rest of the song, is also very important, it’s also there you qualified a kick as “massive”… Reset EQ and processing and finally the kick is not as massive as it is with the whole mixing chain…

Also, a Massive Techno kick is qualified as “massive” in fact because how the kick is mixed to the rest of the rhythmical, melodical elements … if it’s very nice mixed ! it’s a massive kick but IF the mix is bad you can barely notice the kick except by giving it too much presence in dB … A lot of sound engineer return bad feedback on newbies on their mix to told them the kick is too high in dB opposed to the rest of the track.

Also, to my experience it’s a bad idea to run firstly after a massive kick. Why? because when you get it, it will suck everything on your audio spectrum. Also not every track need a massive kick.
I prefer to start with a basic kick well tuned. And if the track need the kick to be more “massive” you can get it at some point. (by processing, mixing, layering eventually the kick and make it better/massive if the track require a kick with this strong characteristic “in the mix”)

Also sometime people goes to compressor directly and sucked the spectrum too… (sucked the life of the kick as well) Sometimes a more transients approach with saturation/distortion is more the key of the processing opposed to compression.

Everything is like building a real House, start with foundations, isolation, room colors and decoration/make-up at the end… otherwise it can failed and fall like a card castle

they are really fine touches added on top of each other : rather than designing/processing on a solo element that will works … it only works in relation to the other elements of the final piece

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Maybe its not helpfull for you but for me every bd of the rytm is massive enough for my techno tracks. The bigger they are the more muddy is the mix at the end.
The deepnes comes from the button deep fq and the impact from the transient as a click or the pitch env. Both together with ab bit of distortion makes a good kick imo.

But there have to be enough airnes in the kick to let your bass fq come through.
So every element in a techno track has got its own fq range.
A very boomy kick puts the rest of the track in the Background.

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GoldBaby release a good collection with Layers
http://www.goldbaby.co.nz/dirtandlayers.html

There’s also good enhancers into "Sonic Specialists Urban Fire Bundle "

Some things labelled Top Kicks, BD Enhancers… can really help to understand how a Kick Layer is prepared.

I just seen Headless Horseman live, it’s mind blowing how he gets those massive, stomping kicks. I would like to know how he does it. Think I seen an OT, Dtakt and Dtone up there.

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It might be worth you reading some previous discussions on the forum:
https://www.elektronauts.com/search?q=rytm%20kick

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I like an extra pad with noise, own volume enveloppe with slow attack, low pitch
Makes it sound like a big reverb, without using it

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Raw kicks need some work. Process it.

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Some great tips here about layering.

Judging from the specific link you posted, this kick is best (but not necessarily “only”) made in a tightly controlled DAW environment.

What you want is to add some rumble with a mono reverberated decay extension such as in this track:


(skip to the 1:00 mark)

For this kick ^^,
I took a basic kick drum and sent it to a reverb aux in Live to make the rumble. In that return channel, I then mono’d it, and filtered out all but the exact frequencies I wanted to reverberate. Then compressed the result with the side chain input being the kick itself, tuned to its core frequency. This allows the rumble to get out of the way when the kick is actually hitting, and then swell when the original kick decay has faded.


(click to enlarge, zoom)

I recommend doing this and sampling the result into your Rytm if you want “that sound”, since Rytm’s reverb/comp/eq scheme isn’t as configurable.
OT can get much closer to this sound on it its own, thanks to neighbor routing and insert FX diversity.

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Jeff Mills would disagree!

disclaimer: I do not know Jeff Mills

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You can make good kick without layering just need proper mix down.You need Waves or UAD plugins and will make very good kick

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I think the RYTM is awesome at massive techno kicks. I always end up using a bit of overdrive, the master compressor, master distortion, and tweaking the filter a little though.

I feel like with kicks, too much time is spent on making it “boomy” with lots of low end. I thinks that’s the easiest part. The part I always focus on is the impact - gotta make it hit you in the chest. A really fast 1-shot LFO on the tune to give it a really sharp sweep helps. I almost always add overdrive (juuuust a little, usually less than a value of 10). This gives some extra high end and roughs up the low end just a little bit. The ‘tick’ or whatever is to taste, depending on how clicky you want the impact. Bring the base tuning of the BD down to wherever you want it to rumble, and adjust the shape/speed/depth of that 1-shot LFO. The LFO combined with the sweep depth and sweep time (on the [synth] page) allow you to really shape the impact. It may seem redundant to have them both, but it does make a difference in the shape of the modulation. I also usually keep the decay on the [synth] page up all the way, and instead adjust the envelope on the VCA page - turn off ‘auto’ on the ‘hold’ parameter, then adjust the hold and decay to taste

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Try blending BDFM and BDplastic (give up the rimshot track or something) I have gotten very good techno kicks this way then I throw a Machinedrum kick sample. Also try filtering out kick layers and matching pitches helps too. I’ve also been using like DNB vynl kicks and using the filter to make it more sub like.

Also turn hold all the way up and overdrive at 99%!