Layering a Kick Drum for a House Track

S

SimonT

Member
Hi All!

I'm amidst making an early 90's house piano track and want to make a good sounding kick drum for it.

I've been told you should layer 3 kicks up. So what would you listen for when choosing these kicks. It's hard for me sometimes to understand what exact thing I'm listening for, so good explanations are crucial here guys. Even with wav examples if necessary or you tube examples. This is an early 90's house music track just so it gives you the idea of the type of kick sound needed.

Once you've chosen the 3 kicks, what would you do next. EQ, transient shaping, compression? then bounce down?

Thanks!
 
Pretty sure 90s producers didn't layer their kicks, it's a more modern thing.

The idea with layering is if you really like one aspect of a kick (the deep low end, or the punchy attack or whatever) you isolate that part using filtering/eq (if you like the attack, highpass, if you like the low end, lowpass etc) and then combine it with another part of another kick that compliments it then use a little compression/reverb to glue the two (or more) together.

Emphasis on the isolating each part, that's important.

Tbh I think it's not the be all and end all of making good kicks, but some people like this method.
 
Yes you're probably right but it was more is there a reason you want this particular element in the low end or whatever, is there anything you should be listening for? like for a reason? can't be just cause you like it necessarily.
 
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I think you'd be surprised to learn that a lot of House producers do *not* layer their kicks. If you watch/read interviews of well-known producers they will almost ALWAYS say that it is about sample selection, not layering. If you have a great sample then you can shred hours off of your production time by simply processing that one sample the way you desire. Check out loopmasters.com - They have a sample pack for almost everything you can think of, including dozens of sample packs with simply house music drums. Check it out. Don't be afraid to use samples either. It's all about creativity.
 
Yeah but someone is layering the kicks for the sample packs so layering is needed.

I think Scrapheaper's probably right for the old skool rave type house, they didn't layer them. I was told recently it probably sounded phatt due to how it was altered during the mastering stage in them days.

I think in deep house however (another genre I dabble in from time to time) they definitely do. There's a certain tonal quality or texture that they have that I've not been able to replicate yet. I would like someone to explain what kind of tonal things they may be listening for in each element (as I've read in a dance music creation book recently you never need more than 3 kicks) so in each of the 3 layered kicks, what would you be listening for a deep house kick drum for example?

I could find a good deep house track and put a you tube link to it on here if anybody wanted and maybe they could explain how 'they think' it was achieved?

Like this one:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsJ36jcsKtc
 
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Once i have seen a video where david guetta was teaching about layring kicks and what he said was simple and cool

He said something like: you can add another kick drum for the high frequenncies and you high pass the second kick

But as you can see the approach is to only add something what is missing its not really about adding another 50 hz on top of that 50 hz which is alreeady there and it makes the peak of that frequency double louder and makes your kick worse than what it was from where you started

Your question should always be why am i supposed to do this, why am i supposed to layer my sounds i never done that until i understood why

You do that so you can compensate for some frequencies that are missing to make the sound more powerful like the saw wave is powerful because it has all the frequencies possible that can create
 
Laureat Ramadani said:
Once i have seen a video where david guetta was teaching about layring kicks and what he said was simple and cool

He said something like: you can add another kick drum for the high frequenncies and you high pass the second kick

But as you can see the approach is to only add something what is missing its not really about adding another 50 hz on top of that 50 hz which is alreeady there and it makes the peak of that frequency double louder and makes your kick worse than what it was from where you started

Your question should always be why am i supposed to do this, why am i supposed to layer my sounds i never done that until i understood why

You do that so you can compensate for some frequencies that are missing to make the sound more powerful like the saw wave is powerful because it has all the frequencies possible that can create
Click to expand...
This is what I was trying to explain in the earlier post.
Once you understand this, just practice a lot. I mean a lot... spend an hour or two trying to make each kick drum and then go away and watch tutorials, then go and spend another two hours layering until you have like, 12 kick drums and then you'll be some of the way there.

This is my favourite drum tutorial on youtube, it's not a layering one but layering tutorials aren't hard to find. Do note what can be done with a pure synth, no processing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H9G8C6xUMLA
 
What I want to know about drum layering is.....

When you hear a kick drum you really like on a song/track (for whatever reason...punchy, phat-ness, clarity, midrange, low boom, high attack etc.).....

1. How much or what percentage of whatever the part of the drum that you liked......has to do with

A) The producer's kick drum selection.
B) The producer's effect chain selection and/or methodology/workflow.
C) The mixing and mastering phase/stage.

Help...???
 
On another note....When I hear multiple kick drums on a track/song....

And I can clearly tell that they all have a different timbre/key/sound....

1. Is it due to some form/technique of layering kick drums...???

OR....

2. Is it due to them still using the same/original kick.....but....they just 'pitched/transposed' the kick up or down a few semitones in order to get the key/timbre they wanted (i.e. lower sounding, higher sounding)....???

Thanks.
 
a good idea would be to find a moment when only the kick is there so you can cut n make it a sample, and see what has been done
you will get to see better
if there is some kind of stereo going on,
is some kind of distortion / overdrive
i have seen kicks, with a delayed second kick
harmonics boosted on specific frequencies really tiny
a combination like that which makes the sound different and drums knocking harder
 
KonKossKang said:
Depends on type of house track.
Click to expand...

It does. There is definitely something in drum selection though, in my opinion. I knew a guy 18 months ago who selected 3 kick drum samples for me from a vengeance house sample pack and he listened to a good 50 kicks before he was happy with the 3 he chose but to teach me what he was doing (specifically / audibly) would've probably taken him an hour so and he didn't have time.

I would like a tutorial on what you're listening for (timbre wise) in the 3 kicks with examples.

Anyone got a link to that David Guetta video?

I found this one, this isn't the one is it?:-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEfeh0bQ504
 
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Does anyone know also, how to analyse a kick drum in adobe audition or similar software?

So if I find an example of a kick I like (I'm presuming a part of the song where it is isolated or somewhat isolated) then I can export it into software and analyse it's frequency content to better see what characteristics or timbre people have used / selected.
 
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Thats a good way
I think a good spectrum, wich tells you the frequencies of that sound helps the most
for example that pro q 2, has a good spectrum, you can see where the sound has been boosted and how much, because those narrow boosts make the drums knock better , and cutting some frequencies also makes sounds work better together
You can use free spectrums that you have online i am just telling that you need*to see it better becsuse its impossible to hear it and predict what has been done to the sound no matter how good you are on eq ,
 
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