Alright, so it’s pretty common knowledge that the transient of any sound plays a big role in how the character of the sound is perceived. Especially since kick drums are mostly living a ‘harmonically sparse’ life somewhere in the sub-regions, the right transient helps the kick stand out much better in a full mix.
Thought of starting a thread, because lately I feel like I always end up tweaking my kick transients for waaayyy too long, so maybe some outside perspective could help. I’m working mostly with samples in a techno context, but I’m most certainly open to all sorts of input!
Maybe to get the ball rolling a little, here are some my favourite techniques:
Using two separate layers for the kick – one transient layer, one body layer – lets you have a nice amount of control. Sometimes when the mix gets a little empty, mute the transient layer, it calls for way too much attention. Later when the mix gets fuller again with synths and hihats, unmute the transient layer again to have the kick be a bit more efficient in grabbing attention.
When synthesizing a kick, having the oscillator start at the ‘peak’ of the wave always makes for a nice way to introduce a very bright click. Lowpass that further down the line to have the click sit nicely with the rest of the sound.
Sometimes, instead of putting more focus on the transient itself, I like to incorporate a bit of reverb/delay into the equation. To sort of ‘retroactively’ steer the attention back to the click of the kick.
So yeah.
How do you do it? Do you have some go-to methods that always work for you?
How do you do your synthesizing? Do you use synths for that, or drum machines?
The few times that I’ve tried to get a kick going in a box titled ‘synthesizer’, I never got the click to stay consistent. Sometimes it would click, sometimes not at all. Instead I’d always layer in a sample for the click and have the synth make some room with a slow amp envelope.
But yeah, my time with synthesizers is limited, I tend to do most of my work with samplers. So maybe there’s some functionality that I overlooked, I dunno.
Method 1: I like to use a super-fast envelope (who doesn’t?) and an audio amplifier to clip the transient at the start. This way, the distortion isn’t perceptible as nasty distortion, but it does add a considerable amount of emphasis at the start, which simulates:
Method 2: Somewhat akin to @Fin25’s method, I use a recording or sample of an actual kick drum, with blankets positioned inside to get the overall tone I want. I mic the inside of the drum (not outward-facing skin) with an RE20, and also the beater (usually with a an SM57) to pick up the crack of the beater head. I mix the two to taste. This can then be layered with a simple swept sine wave for added weight.
I like to make my kicks with a classic subtractive modular synth. This is my recipe: the sound source is the sine wave of a self oscillating filter, tuned to pretty low frequency; the sine wave goes into an exponencial VCA; an envelope drive the VCA amplitude, to obtain the ‘body’ of the sound; another very fast envelope modulate the filter’s frequency (pitch) to obtain a click; from the VCA the sound goes straight into the mixer, where I like to apply some EQ to my kick. Messing around with filter frequency, envelopes and EQ I usually achieve something I like.
Of course, this is a very synthetic and artificial kick’s sound, if you look for more natural kicks you need samples.
Thanks for the various responses, people! All good nuggets of insight.
I guess pitch modulation is a common theme here, obviously. Just a few days ago I also discovered that the curve of the pitch modulation has a great impact on the transient! A exponential pitch envelope sounds completely different than a linear envelope with the same ‘height’.
@Scot_Solida haha wow, certainly wouldn’t have expected any microphone related techniques, nice! Got any sounds/recordings/tracks of that method to share? I’d be curious to hear how that sounds!
Sure, here are four very different examples using the same technique. Four synthetic drum sounds from my ARP 2600 MkIII, layered with acoustic kick drums recordings I made as described above (the latter were initially recorded for my Polyend factory sound set).
The first, third and fourth examples are focused on the synthetic kick, with the acoustic kicks underneath to reinforce them. The second example is the other way around, focusing on the acoustic sound, with the 2600 kick adding some oomph.
Here are the four pre-layered sounds heard in the above file if you want them: LayeredKicks.zip (211.5 KB)
if i’m real lazy i will just trim the start of the sampled kick i made from my synth… this gets the phase thing happen… its not always working though
pitch env , filter env, and then env to distortion / overdive will do the trick for sure
or just cut a sample really short then pitch it maybe, most usually i will just use the snare (lazy again), so they get to glue nicely, maybe also use a bandpass after…
@Scot_Solida really cool, thanks for sharing!! I shamelessly loaded the samples right into my machines
Kinda surprised how well 2 sits in some of my current noodlings, but haha oh wow that scifi laser blaster sharp pitch envelope in 4 is also pretty sweet!
@uNAQ Hmm, bandpass afterwards for glue could be nice! For some reason I never thought of treating both layers – click and body – after they’ve been mixed together.
Yep. I just use what ever TR8-S ACB or FM sound works, and tweak it to taste. Usually a 606/707/808. Occasionally an FM tone.
Any other method is just way too time consuming, and ultimately it doesnt matter. Bass drums are not the focal point of my music, they are just the anchor for the drum pattern.
Occasionally I’ll make something on the MS20 or Digitone and sample it.
I dont think about “click” I dont layer any sounds. I spend more time on snares and hihats, since thats where the colour of the drum kit lies.
Two layers, one for the body, low end, low passed at something between 200 and 120hz. These can come from many sources. I like to use the super beefy kick drums I sampled from a Jomox Xbase888, a DFAM or what ever source.
The kicks are sometimes drowned in reverb.
On top I layer something short, really no limits, sometimes just a click, sometimes one of those heavily and heavenly reverberated kicks.
High passed at around 500 to 3000hz, depending on how much mud I want.
Both layers go into a set of compression, saturation to melt/ glue both layers together. EQs to clean and correct things. Order depends on the material.
@Microtribe yeah, I guess tweak once and move on is the most efficient workflow. You mentioned that bassdrums are not your focus point in your music. You know, that actually got me thinking – actually the only cases where I really get lost in endless kick tweaking are the 4-to-the-floor patterns.
For any broken patterns, I’m much more liberal about the kicks – the focus lies elsewhere, as you said.
@Andreas_R Glue for the layers seems to be a common theme here in this thread.
I find that the starting points/phase relation of these two layers is important for “marrying” them. Like cutting a few milliseconds from the start of the bass layer, until it doesn’t clash with the click layer. Or pushing the click backwards/forwards in time by just a tiny bit.
In my early days with the 1010 Blackbox I cut transient plus early waves of a sampled Snare then slowed it down, and melded it with an AR synth kick with no transient.
Needs tweaking when back in the AR to make it work/tune right.
Did this to get a better vibe in minimal tracks where I basically didn’t want to use any other percussion than the kick itself.
What about distorsion?
Once you’ve shaped and fine-tuned your transients for half an hour, do you “waste” your hard work with the right amount of distorsion that make your kick sound exactly like you need?
It happened to me more than once, I have to confess…
Another method of making kicks that i like is “pinging” a filter. I set the filter on the edge of self oscillation, and send a gate into the audio input. That gives it a natural decay and a nice click at the attack. I combine this with an envelope for a pitch decay.
