Your Favorite Overdrive/Distortion/Fuzz Hardware FX etc. For Kick Drums

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

EDIT:
I’ve changed the thread name, since the conversations would naturally transition over to other sound sources than kick drums anyways.

ORIGINAL TEXT:
Hey Everybody,

I was thinking on starting a dedicated thread on this topic, since I can barely find any good info and demos on the web about it.
What hardware do you prefer and what techniques will you apply?

Myself I haven’t figured much out yet, which is one of my reasons to start this thread and also because it could be a help to others in search of the same.

What I’ve figured out for now is that one distortion (I’ll use this term as an overall on saturation, overdrive, distortion, fuzz etc.) effect doesn’t necessarily sound good on 2 different kicks.

The Overdrive in the AR mk2 sounded pretty good when I had one.

Yesterday I got an EHX Hot Tubes that can sound pretty good on some. You can bypass the tone knob get a more full overdrive that you’d want in that type of sound.

I also watched a vid the other day where a guy used an EHX Platform to get a good sound:

The overdrive in the Erica Synths Bass Drum module also sounds pretty good.

What have you guys discovered and what hardware will you recommend to others?
Some audio demos to better help out would be great.

1 Like
#2

DOD Death Metal, Boss OD2r Turbo Overdrive or Earthbound Audio Throat Locust (Boss HM2 clone) are my favorites!

3 Likes
#3

Cool!

#4

In this video I’m using a Kick with Digitech Death Metal and Grunge:

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#5

You know, it’s an Elektron forum, so I have to say Analog Heat :slight_smile:

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#6

+1 on Analog Heat :heat:

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#7

Must be the PLAGUE BEARER :0

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#8

How about the overdrive from the Rytm itself?

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#9

HM-2 is the answer to any question about which distortion is best for anything

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#10

Personnally I have found the littledeformer3 from gotharman is very good to process kick and drums. You can chain different FX such as distortion, compressors, bit-reducer, filters, delay, … it can take you to a whole journey through sound !

1 Like
#11

…anther plus one for swedish heat…

i asked myself the same question for such a long time…

and the only things that did the trick for me were…

in soft…ohmfrce ohmicide…
in hard…oto bisquit AND the analog heat…

which is kind of final solution, since i don’t dig too obvious digital crisp destroying that much and often anymore…

heat does it all…glue, pump, warmth, destroy, cry, wheep…u name it…
in truu analog fashion…
and all in syncable lfo and envelope following fashion full on…
no matter if used on single instruments or full stems…even in a mastering chain…
my search came to an end with this box…

everybody who ever did’nt think so, was just not getting it right when it comes to proper gainstaging in first place…

1 Like
#12

Hehe, I was expecting several of you to mention the Heat, since a lot of people seems to like it :wink:
Personally I haven’t really liked the demos of it. I suspect that you also get the same or something very similar to the overdrive you get in the other Elektron products, which is a good thing when used in moderation. But the more obvious sounds I didn’t dig. Something about the harmonics I don’t find pleasing. But it is a good product since so many seems to like it.
I like the harmonics of the Hot Tubes and several other overdrive pedals a lot better, judging from guitar videos though, but I don’t like the Analog Heat and drive in guitar either, so it’s not that. It’s just a preference. Some don’t like the Hot Tubes because of its fuzzyness. To me the harmonics sounds different than that from a fuzz though. More pleasing imo.

#13

Step 1: buy an old Mackie mixer.

Step 2: pick a channel and connect your kick drum to it.

Step 3: turn the gain on the selected channel up past 3 o’clock.

Step 4: you’re welcome

9 Likes
#14

And yes gain staging is also a good point to bring up. The more output you set to an input, the more it’ll drive. So lowering the output can sometimes be beneficial to get a more subtle and pleasing result.

And Aarh yes, the Heat must be cool for screaming distortion (wouldn’t use that on kicks though. On sustained noise based sounds I would) since it has a filter build in, so that you can raise the resonance on certain frequencies. Is the filter before or after the distortion?

#15

Same applies for old Boss mixers.

7 Likes
#16

I just got a used 1642-VLZ3. I don’t know if it’s old enough, since it don’t use Onyx preamps. But I do know that I don’t like it on kicks, especially not after 3. I think that It can sound great on more sustained and higher frequency sounds though :slight_smile:

#17

Thanks for the demo.
Personally it was too much for me on the kick drum (sorry I’m picky hehe). But that sustained sound before it sounded great :slight_smile:

#18

I can’t seem to find a demo of it. What’s the company name? Is a clone of a vintage ProCo Rat or something?

#19

Now I don’t have a Rytm anymore, but yes I did like the sound of it on kicks when used subbtle. On other sounds I did like it sometimes, especially if you also used the Bit Reduction, It would create these harmonics that would stand out.

#20

That DOD Death Metal pedal was my very first ever. Wish I had kept it… such an awesome paint job.

1 Like