Bass House Kicks - Punchiness and the revolving percussion

[vudumusic]

Hi,

This thread should hopefully bring together those of you who are interested in bass house music production,

I myself have been producing it for around 6 months and still don't know a lot of the theory behind compressing Kicks and other parts of the track.

I have the right sounding basses and counterparts but when added together there still seems to be an emptiness to tracks..

Do any of you have links to use of FX in songs?

It would be useful to be able to get the full potential out of OTT also, as I usually fiddle around with it but don't know the theoretical side to it.

I have linked a few songs I take inspiration from and if any of you can explain the composition of the songs, I would be glad





Any bass house comments or help would be appreciated!

Many thanks,

Ethan

 

[scrapheaper]

Move everything except the kick out the way using EQ or short release sidechain compression so you can achieve maximum loudness.

A touch of EQ works wonders as well, if you know what to listen for.

Post your track and we'll have a better idea of what's wrong with it...

 

[Vozhali33]

Here's a few things that work for me:

1. Sidechain Compression
-This is the most obvious & most ubiquitous technique, especially in house music. Throw a compressor on your bass track, sidechain it to the kick. Give it a fast attack and a short release time. Adjust the threshold and ratio to your taste. For the most aggressive ducking, you'd have an instant attack, a threshold at -inf, and a very high ratio. I prefer to use a slightly slower attack and scooch the threshold up until I find a 'sweet spot' in the timing. This method sounds a little 'sloppier', a little 'smoother', enhances punch and groove, and has a better overall personality IMO. I also use relatively low ratios because If your ducking effect is too pronounced, you're gonna sound like Daft Punk. Nothing wrong with that, but If you're going for the modern bass house sound I'd recommend a more subtle ducking effect.
(On a side note, it's worthwhile to experiment and play around with sidechaining creatively. Throw a parallel reverb effect on a chord stab, and sidechain compress it to the stabs dry signal. Sidechain compress your pad to the snare or hi-hat to make it cut through. Put a hi-feedback delay effect on a vocal chop, and sidechain it a low tom. These kind of tricks can make your mix feel like it's 'living & breathing').

There's also a trick where you run a low sine wave, put a gate on it, and sidechain the gate to the kick for a huge fat subby sound. I never use that trick, but it's worth experimenting with.

2. New York Compression
-AKA 'parallel compression'. This one is simple. Send your whole kit to an aux bus with a compressor on it. By using 2 signals (one dry, one compressed) you can apply heavy compression while still retaining the unique sonic qualities of the drums. To create big punch, give the compressor a VERY slow attack and a relatively quick release. Adjust threshold and ratio to taste, and don't be afraid to slam it. Then blend the two signals however sounds good to your ears.
(Protip: if you have a multiband compressor, use that).

3.EQ
-Roll the lows off things like hi-hats, stabs, vocals, pads, and effects. It gives the kick and bass some breathing room.

As far as compressing the kick by itself, you don't always need to. When you do, my only advice is to give the compressor a slow attack. If it clamps too fast, it kills the punch. I'd also recommend using short thumpy kicks for bass house. Those big fat round thuddy kicks you hear in hip-hop or shitty Dutch house are not ideal for bass house music.

You should also experiment with layering kick samples, and putting saturation on your drums.


My final advice: ALWAYS tune your kick to the root key.

Hope some of this helps.

Best,
Vo