The kick drum is an integral part of electronic dance music. You can’t call yourself a good sound engineer unless your kicks sound hard-hitting in electronic music. There are a few common mistakes that make your kick drum sound dull. The question is, how to make the kick sound punchier? If the kick doesn’t sound punchy in your track, the main reason for this may be the low-quality drum samples on your DAW. The quality of the kick in a track determines how skilled a sound engineer is. No matter which DAW you use, the tips will make your dancing track better.
Pay Attention to Your Samples
In most cases, the reason for your kick sounding dull in a track may be low-quality samples. If you want to achieve the best quality results in mastering and want to make your kick hit hard, choose the right drum samples that sound good in quality and should not create distortion when the volume level is boosted. If it happens, it means that you are working with low-quality samples.
Saturation
Saturation plays a key role in improving the frequencies. You can use a plugin to increase the saturation to make the kick sound louder. Even free DAWs come with an in-built saturation tool. If you want a free tool for saturation, Saturation Knob developed by Softtube will be a great free option for you.
Layering
Layering can prove helpful in order to add richness to your kick drum. You can layer a bassy drum kick so that your kick gets more power. Layering should be done if you are happy about the results; otherwise, the whole track would sound dull. Keep it in mind that you can’t create a punchy kick without properly layering kicks. You can layer High Tom to make the sound louder if it fits your track. Choose the appropriate Tom so that it fits the track properly.
EQ
EQ is thought to be important for mastering. You can enhance the quality of your drum samples by applying EQ to them. While adding EQ to the kick drum, enhance the bass level, and keep the treble according to your tastes. Every DAW comes with an EQ plugin. If you are not happy about the in-built EQ plugin on your DAW, either Voxengo SPAN or NOVA may be right for you. Both are the free EQ plugins.
Limiting
Limiter plugins can be a lot useful if you want to push your kick out of speakers. The limiter can do an excellent job of boosting or reducing the dB. The limiter is a mastering plugin that can be found on every DAW. Use it if necessary.
Sidechain Compression
Sidechain Compression is a process in which the bass comes down when the kick hits. One has to manually adjust the bass and other bassy instruments to maintain the intensity of the kick. When bass and kick are played together, the kick loses its intensity owing to the high frequency of bass. The professional sound engineers always keep the bass at a low level when the kick hits. The process is generally known as sidechain compression. Sidechain compressor plugins are found in the newer versions of DAWs. If you are using any older versions of DAW, You must upgrade to newer versions of DAW to take advantage of this feature. FL Studio comes with an in-built sidechain compressor.
FabFilter Pro G
Fabfilter Pro G can make a huge difference in the way your kick sounds. The thing you have to do is open the FabFilter Pro G, boost “Range” up to 65dB, boost “Attack” according to your choice. You can adjust Ratio, Lookahead, Threshold, and different settings to make kick hard-hitting. It offers useful features, such as sidechain compression and expander.
Most of the beginners in the arena of music production face the problem where the kicks fall flat. The tips mentioned above are great and will make it easy for a beginner to process the kick drum easily.
Hi, I’m Kinsley. I am working as an IT professional I’m a web developer living in Pontiac, USA. I Interested in web development, programming, and entrepreneurship. also interested in innovation With new creativity. You can read my blog with a click on the button above.
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