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so iv been trying to get my drums nice and punchy but im having some difficulties. i was watching a dodge and fuski and a chase and status video and both of them seemed to think that layering kicks was sometimes a bad idea, for some reason it can take away some of the attack even if you have one high passed just for high end?

maybe im just not layering properly? do you guys think finding 1 good sample (at least for the kick) and just boosting it, waveshape/distort a tad, and compress? i just want some punchy drums.

lyons238 wrote:so iv been trying to get my drums nice and punchy but im having some difficulties. i was watching a dodge and fuski and a chase and status video and both of them seemed to think that layering kicks was sometimes a bad idea, for some reason it can take away some of the attack even if you have one high passed just for high end?

maybe im just not layering properly? do you guys think finding 1 good sample (at least for the kick) and just boosting it, waveshape/distort a tad, and compress? i just want some punchy drums.

I think layering isn't so much about "stacking things together till they are huge" and more about "I like the pop from this kick and the thud from this one"... So you'd layer them, Eq them so you get your favorite qualities out of them, and then lightly compress them to glue them together... shortening the attack to compensate for any loss that you might get in the process of layering.

Totally depends on the samples you have. Sometimes you feel you need to layer them in order to make them sound fat and sometimes you find a sample that's just on the spot.

if your drum sounds how you want already, don't add to it. if its lacking top end crunch, click, body, or bottom, look thru your samples and choose another. if neither have everything you want, but both offer part of what you want.... then you prob wanna layer. Its that simple. same with a snare. maybe its a good snare but you want high end from a clap over the top so it cuts through. Its almost more part of mixing than it is choosing/playing drums. mix engineers for many genres of music often swap in samples for drum hits, its kind of like this but you aren't swapping out, you add in order to make stuff cut thru your mix properly.

bottom line: If it aint broke don't fix

chase and status and the likes also bang presets like brutal electro all day, so you better unstack you kicks and load up them brutal presets mang = sr8t bangers!!!!

alright guys. thats how i was doing it. like i have a punchy kick thats like peaking at 90hz and then a kick that does have some low end punch but i liked the high end click/crunch on it so i high passed it and layered it ontop of the punchy kick. but the end result still isn't as punchy as i want. should i just boost and compress the fuck out of em and slap a bit of distortion on the high end click? iv seen people argue not too boost and some argue that they like boosting there kicks and subs to give them a bit of grit/color. can anyone comment on this thats more experienced?

also, thanks for the input.

lyons238 wrote:alright guys. thats how i was doing it. like i have a punchy kick thats like peaking at 90hz and then a kick that does have some low end punch but i liked the high end click/crunch on it so i high passed it and layered it ontop of the punchy kick. but the end result still isn't as punchy as i want. should i just boost and compress the fuck out of em and slap a bit of distortion on the high end click? iv seen people argue not too boost and some argue that they like boosting there kicks and subs to give them a bit of grit/color. can anyone comment on this thats more experienced?

also, thanks for the input.

Transient shaper + parallel compression

well, for me, I found that after watching the dodge and fuski tuts, bringing out the higher end content of my kick samples really helped. I spent a good deal of time going through kick samples to get an idea for which ones will have that higher end presence vs subby low end. Also Ascian's videos helped as well. It's basically all in the sample. Some have enough low end and top "click/knock" that you wouldn't need to layer anything. And usually for me, Id rather just stick with fewer samples. I don't know if it's just me being a newbie or what, but now I can get a single kick sample to sound as full and sharp enough to cut through the mix as having multiple samples.

Jacob15728 wrote:Transient shaper + parallel compression

^^^this. I hardly ever layer kicks. Transient shaper - eq - transient shaper

ill have to look up how to shape transients in reason. im pretty sure there is a way, but theres no dedicated transient shaper unit..

edit actually i think there actually is a transient shaper as an fx unit within kong. i dont really use kong anymore. im used to and stick with good ole redrum. i suppose i could route the kick from redrum to the transient shaper via kong with a cv though.