this seems like a weird thought to me. its just a drum machine. (btw i love mine) but i still have to do things to it to get it to fit in a mix. like with every other drum machine… or synth. or any instrument. nothing comes out perfect to start. but maybe i reading this wrong?
This is awesome! Thank you!
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Sure, of course tweaking is needed to get anything fit into any mix. For me that stops at EQ and compression. I don’t see the point of having a 1k€+ sound source just to run it through a series of plugins. I feel that heavy processing will remove the character of the sound, ending up with something I’m not very satisfied with and I could have done way faster anyway, probably even better. The outboard gear I have usually makes it possible for me to use a single EQ plugin on anything I record, or none at all, like the Moog LP. This is what I miss from the AR’s kick.
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that’s exactly why I have and use outboard gear … and makes me pay much more money, compared to plug-ins.
Embracing the AR as a whole, I often use the mix of a synth engine and a sample. IMO this is, what the AR is supposed to do anyway. The kick synth can be really punchy at the low end - you can see the speakers go to pumping mode. What I often do, is spicing up the kick with one of my favorite unprocessed kick samples from real kits.
But I do not try often to get a specific sound … only a sound, which is sitting in the mix propperly and sounds good to my ears. This said … it’s very much about personal taste 
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I have to say that my relationship with Rytm’s BD is much better after the new machines came out. Before that, I also couldn’t get the sound I wanted: something rounder, not so sharp, but still present with a bunch of mid frequencies. I always used the BT channel for that, which sounds absolutely huge, but now I’m a fan of the Silky Machine. Somewhat short decay and also using the high pass filter technique to boost some of the low end while reducing a little the very deep low end. And for the destroyer sub, with no high content at all, BT.
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yeah and psytrance-vibe kicks all day by pinging the filter with the impulse machine 
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make sure to use the individual output for the kick… dont just run it thru the stereo output with everything else
its actually a pretty big deal
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Using the exponential LFO shape on ONE mode controlling the distortion/level in the Amp page can be a great way of having more control over the transient on Kicks. Generally I find I can get any kick to fit by making sure the balance between the transient and the body works with the mix.
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Most of Kick machines have some treble overtones…
If you don’t want them, use Silk machine.
So easy to dial some big boom bang !
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Hi,
Looking for that killer kick is a lifelong journey.
That being said, I think that the AR does deliver, here are my little tricks so far:
Spending 15€ on the AR 808 soundset is a great investment. You get 2 kicks that are really go to tools to start from.
You also dont need any BD engine or samples if you just ping the filter. Try cutoff at 23 and high resonance, and your subwoofer starts sucking in the family pets. Shape the sound with the filter env or a one shot lfo at the Filter.
Always use some distortion, but also add a bit of overdrive with the lfo at one shot exponential decay, and your kicks will cut it in any mix.
The highpass filter is great for removing excessive low end… A Bad kick can be one where there is too much bass.
If you use bd samples, try cutting them extremely short, just to add a bit of spice to the transient. Let any AR bd machine then do the heavy lifting.
In the end, putting a mastering compressor on the whole mix, just 2db of compression, almost always increases transparency. I use Tokio Dawn Kotelnikov (SP?) for this, the internal compressor is used at 30% at most.
The AR is great.
K
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The impulse machine, self-oscillating filter with a quick env can yield very nice kicks as an alternative
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layer the BT (for me the real BOOOM!!) with one of BD-engines to personal taste
use the LFO on pitch
use the filter and amp-envelope
HP and peak-filter
overdrive just a bit
be aware of the onboard-compressor, it`s a beast at certain settings
torture your neighbours, tell them it is a scientific approach on low frequencies
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This has been really really helpful in my kick-creating experiments. Thank you.
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Heya @IVAN_B really glad if I could help at all. Lots of great suggestions from people in this thread. If you wanna talk more come hang out in the IRC channel sometime. Myself and a few other people who have a huge love for the rytm are often there. Go to http://webchat.esper.net/ and join the channel #elektron.
I’m quite pleased with the kicks I’m getting lately. I’ve been using a layered synth engine + sample with some very careful tuning and some of the techniques I use above.
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Since I own the RYTM I’ve never touched my kick sample library. It’s so easy to dial in the “perfect kick drum” with this machine.
I mostly start my tracks with basslines, textures, leads or arpeggios and then adding the kick. It’s easier for me to paint the kick into an existing picture and not the other way round.
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If your working with Overbridge or analog inputs to a DAW where you’ll be recording your kick prior to mixing, it may be handy to invest in a good transient plugin, because you may need to alter the decay of a sample without the AR controls. Besides this, they are also good for adding punch and click, this gives you a bit more control over the dynamics of both DAW samples and sounds you are editing in your AR. I use Sonnox Envolution, it also has a warmth knob that can add a bit of fatness to your kick.
a great receipe! you can also add a bit ov reverb (15 to 20, no predelay, dec 5, hpf around 64, lpf at 127), and some distortion (amt 25)
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Thanks @goatofneptune I’ll give your suggestions a try 
I find I do tend to put just a few ticks of reverb on everything nowadays, but you really need to tune it carefully so you don’t get those bass booms taking over the mix.
You need to use the hpf in the reverb, heavily, lest you want to totally clutter up the mix. Same with the delay.
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yes, thats right, you can also gate the reverb, when you sample the kick in a daw, so that you still gate a sharp shape of the kick.