My Kicks Suck! F4F

blues man

blues man

In Transition
Hope the fam can give me some feedback on getting my kicks sounding better! I used 3 layered/filtered drums samples, and then put a bit of eq on the kick. For some reason I still can't figure out how to get the separation and punch right. Change samples? Different EQ cuvers? Better filtering?

Also Sausage Fattner is slapped on the mix bus. Could be an issue?

The song is private, so you have to click the link to the page to hear it.
Check it out:
 
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Are you using high quality samples? First thing to always check and sometimes easiest to fix.

Have you tried simply turning the kick up in the mix? What does it sound like? If you have to, turn all of the other instruments down, then turn the entire song back up.

Have you tried compressing all of your kicks together? You can smash them and then bring the gain back up which sometimes can help make them knock more.


If you listen to my track. I've only used 1 kick sample so sometimes, it just comes down to quality vs quantity.

dark-trap-beat-waka-flocka-fat-trel-type-mixtape-banger-one-eye-open-f4f-
 
Kick sound fairly decent to me. Maybe the volume is a little low. Try bring up the transient some more?

But you're right... Sometimes it can be an eq issue, other times you have to pick the best sample that will gell right off the beat with as little as processing. My only problem when I make beat is that my chord progressions are very easy, I don't have complex musical argumentation like others, so I try to make easy beat and pick the best quality as I can. You're doing good man, I think the volume is a little low. Try to pick a different kick and see if you like it.
 
Yea if you start off with a high quality punchy kick to begin with you wont have to do much EQ.. mix definitely needs work to get those drums knockin. i didnt really like the melody but i guess thats just me. i did however like the brass/trumpet sound. i see where you were going with this track keep it up
 
Using 1 good sample will always beat using bad samples layered together.

I'd check to make sure they have the qualities you want before using them, simple I know but easily overlooked.
 
Might be the sample source but if the sounds are layered change the individual volumes of the layers then eq and compress them together that should tighten up and get it hitting harder
 
I probably should have responded here. But I answered your question over at my thread.

This is nice, real clean melody. Those trumpets also sound great. As far as the kick goes, it could be a bad kick sample. It sounds very flat without much punch. It's very low end heavy, just doesn't sit well in the mix. Once that's fixed, this will be great. Good job overall.
 
Now I'm not the best guy to ask about kicks

something I struggle with..

But if you are doing things from scratch...definitely find great samples to begin with...

BEFORE you compress anything...EQ the drum to bring out the part you like about it...ie the hi's and lo's(to give it some snap or clap, or thump etc)

Then what you can do(optional) is hollow a lil bit of the Kick sample out.......this will allow the other tracks lo end to pass thru without clashing freq.

After you EQ the kick...Compress it on the individual track...Squash it about halfway(or whatever ratio you choose)....not too much tho....because then you are going to compress it again after.....up the gain but leave enough room to squash and up in the next stage.

Next Send it to a separate bus and compress it again by itself....separate from the rest of the track...on its own bus.
Squash the drum sample on the individual track first...then on this bus...squash it again...and up the gain again.

While you are doing all these adjustments...keep bouncing your track to hear the results!

that way you can back track and such...

also remember, with compression settings you may have to bounce a track several times to get the crispness.

Next if you want the drums to stay punchy, you need to hollow out the sounds around the drum....and maybe hipass the frequencies above the midrange to give more space to the drum.

same with the bass instruments...you can hollow them out with EQ so nothing clashes...mudding the mix.


But what you want to do ultimately with the Kick is EQ it, Squash it, and up the gain...then maybe play with EQ and comp settings after that.

Keep at it!

check me out here: in the making
https://www.futureproducers.com/for...-yes-check-out*-f4f-been-working-hard-474629/
 
im not an expert about the kicks . im having the same issue as you as you can hear from my beats. but the beat sounds good overall man. where did you get those horn sounds from? they sound pretty good tbh. great job on this overall
 
ALL Feed Returned!

YWM said:
im not an expert about the kicks . im having the same issue as you as you can hear from my beats. but the beat sounds good overall man. where did you get those horn sounds from? they sound pretty good tbh. great job on this overall
Click to expand...

Thanks man! I'm sure we will figure it out eventually. I'm glad people are digging the horns. I got them dry from a microKrog Synth, Eq'd a little, and then passed it through a super secret amp sim plug-in. Turned out well!
 
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Layering is great in a lot of cases but with drums I find it better to use as little different sounds as possible.

The way I think about it is you don't see a drummer hitting 3 kicks or 3 snares at the same time, if you want to make a 'new' drum sample then don't layer 2 punchy samples on top of each other, use a sample with nice bottom end and layer that with one with a nice tail, EQ any frequencies you don't need in each sample otherwise they'll end up fighting and sounding worse than how they started.

Process your single hits properly and it will sound a lot better overall.
 
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