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I've been listening to a lot of house recently and in songs by Guetta and such artists I usually hear these massive soft kicks that sound really great. They sound very real (not realistic, but real). Anybody have an idea how to achieve this? When I try mixing the ones I have they either start sounding muddy or just lacking of something. Tried combining different kicks and get the same result. So anybody have an idea?

You mean kicks with lots of high-end?

What I do is get a huge-ass kick. Cut out the mud with bandfilter, (somewhere between 100/350.. depends on the kick), saturate or mildly distort, EQ, etc. I like using fabfilter Saturn for this recently. I open two bands. One low, one high.. after I EQ'd the kick already. Keep the low band clean and miiildly turn down its volume, and saturate the high band.

Genevieve wrote:You mean kicks with lots of high-end?

What I do is get a huge-ass kick. Cut out the mud with bandfilter, (somewhere between 100/350.. depends on the kick), saturate or mildly distort, EQ, etc. I like using fabfilter Saturn for this recently. I open two bands. One low, one high.. after I EQ'd the kick already. Keep the low band clean and miiildly turn down its volume, and saturate the high band.

Kinda like the kick here:
http://youtu.be/JRfuAukYTKg <- kicks in at about 1.18. It sounds really like a standard kick but it sounds so soft at the same not muddy; if you know what I mean? It doesn't sound electronic at all either. Just very humanish. Can you give an example of one of your kicks? Like in a track if you don't want to share a sample?

IF you're going to go on a quest, you need a good map. Get a spectrum analyzer and check out what and when those kicks are doing. Where do they slide, how long do they last, do they have upper harmonic information. While you're doing that, see how all of the sound is responding around the kick. This will teach you and your ears a lot.

Happen to be analyzing something right now:


Other than that I've got a Lockness Monster swimming in my mix, there is all kinds of useful information here.

that looks like a fence made out of penises

Honestly didn't see that... until now. Thanks bro.

rayman612 wrote:that looks like a fence made out of penises

I was about to post exactly that.

nowaysj wrote:Honestly didn't see that... until now. Thanks bro.

rayman612 wrote:that looks like a fence made out of penises

nowaysj wrote:Happen to be analyzing something right now:


Other than that I've got a Lockness Monster swimming in my mix, there is all kinds of useful information here.

That must be hell of a kick!

One thing I've been doing recently to 'soften' drum sounds.

For a more obvious softening. Use high quality filters to lowpass around the 12-15 KHz mark (things like bi-filter, volcano and moog/neve/ssl emulations are good for this)

For a more subtle sound look into the high-shelf attenuation on a pultec EQ plugin (I'm using the UAD version but I know waves do one as well) this set around the 5 - 10Khz mark rolled off slightly can really help get a kick to sit in with the rest of the mix without obviously deadening it.

Forgot to mention this technique is good for vengeance and other 'aggressive' sample packs. I'd much rather start with something that has too much and take away rather than try to take a lifeless sound and try to make it livelier.

Collyer wrote:

rayman612 wrote:that looks like a fence made out of penises

I was about to post exactly that.

you guys have very strange shaped penises

Electric_Head wrote:

Collyer wrote:

rayman612 wrote:that looks like a fence made out of penises

I was about to post exactly that.

you guys have very strange shaped penises

It's because they run 'em through a brickwall limiter from the looks of it I keep tellin em, it's not how loud your penis is that matters

Electric_Head wrote:

Collyer wrote:

rayman612 wrote:that looks like a fence made out of penises

I was about to post exactly that.

you guys have very strange shaped penises

idk a lot of people agree wit me that it looks like penis...
maybe u have a weird penis


ever think about that

roll back the attack a hair in the sampler or with a transient designer? also depends on the sonic context im guessing

Haven't looked at this but I swear shlomo does this, he gets a kick, and he sidechain compresses the whole mix with it, just slams the mix, but then the fucker turns the kick down. So like the whole mix ducks, and usually you've got this big fat kick coming in but with some of his tracks, the whole mix ducks, and there is like a little puffy kick there. Creates a really unique kind of vibe.

rayman612 wrote:that looks like a fence made out of penises

spot on as always

nowaysj wrote:Haven't looked at this but I swear shlomo does this, he gets a kick, and he sidechain compresses the whole mix with it, just slams the mix, but then the fucker turns the kick down. So like the whole mix ducks, and usually you've got this big fat kick coming in but with some of his tracks, the whole mix ducks, and there is like a little puffy kick there. Creates a really unique kind of vibe.

this effect is much easier accomplished by using a separate "triggering track" that uses a PFL send to the compressor sidechain input. this trigger track has its mixer fader all the way down so it does not go to the master out. a basic white noise on a synth works well as a trigger, and ducking can be controlled by the compressor and noise envelope. gives you independence to duck when you want and how you want