I'd like some advice on which plugins or techniques you recommend for achieving the typical hardcore/gabber sound using only a 909 kick drum.

There are some interesting VSTs that work very well right now.

Rave Generation Sonic Sweep
Lussive ClipLAB
Disto::Fx / DistoFonic

There are many guitar distortion pedals out there, do you have a favorite?
thanks so much

 

Most producers didn't have the original.
So usually some crappy 909 sample was fed into an akai s900 or an emu, then it went into a beat down mixer and there the magic happened: Going full Monty on the gain dial.
That's it.

 

https://www.airwindows.com/mackity/
That's it!

 

it is not exactly fuzz or (guitar) distortion effect you want, it is more the sound of the clipping in an analog mixer.

 

Dj Arjuna - has some nice tutorials online ( more for the classic ruffneck sound).

 

we tweak - hammer plugin

 

Sherman Filterbank is great for that kind of sound. I have it but I'm not really into gabber, however I've seen people making gabber kicks on that machine.

 

A 909 kick with the longest release into an Amiga (failing that try one of the emulations or just 8-bit it), and then into a Mackie cranking the gain all the way up.

 

Check out Shy Audio 90's Channel for Mackie emulation, made by techno dorks trying to answer this very question in the box

 

Squashman JSFX + Disflux VST or airwindow's Mackity's InTrim dialed all the way up + that same Disflux

A modern solution, I admit, but, well, works for me

 

that is what's in the video, I liked mine enough I sold it and bought the dual one, highly recommended if you want something overbearing

if you're talking plugins only, black box hg-2 is also highly recommended

 

The technique has already been mentioned, all the plugins shared. Air windows Mackity is free. Sonic Sweep is fun and sounds good in my initial tests. I would say go analog for even more fun. Ask your friends, or buy a cheapo Behringer mixer. If you have real life music friends chances are one of them has one of those cheap 4-8 track mixers. Blast that shit!!! If its not enough, combine it with the plugins.

You can also experiment, and go your own way, using a combination of modern plugins. Use pro q (or any eq really) and feed it into a series of clippers, distortion, izotopes trash, etc, but shape it with an eq between each distortion so......

pro q 4 boosting the shit out of the fundamental > Clipper 1 > pro q 4 cutting back on some of the mud and boosting some of the highs > Clipper 2 > pro q 4 > Clipper 3 > pro q 4 > clipper 4 ..... and so on. At each stage use the eq to shape the sound. Your doing a series of push / pull. EQ into distortion followed by eq, rinse repeat. Lil Texas has some videos on this technique I think.

 

the track:

what about schlappi 100 grit plus another of their modules? three body or angle grinder maybe

 

There are "specialized" plugins, like (free test version) :
https://distocore.online/distofonic.html
https://distocore.online/disto_fx.html

 

With the Digitakt 1, I use samples of a 909 kick drum from 1995. I simply run it through the built-in distortion. Then I use the Boss Metal Zone pedal. I crank up the mids with the pedal's EQ, and then I run it through the Electro-hamonix Germanium Big Muff 4. If I use software, in DAW, then I use the D-16 Punchbox (I raise the mids in the 700-800 range with the EQ), then I run it through the Soundtoys EQ (I simply crank up the drive and boost the lows and mids), then Filterfreak and the EQs, plus the good old Trash 2. Or Misstortion 2 plus Pro Q4, reverbs, and Articulate from Newfangled Audio. Airwindows looks like emulation of the Mackie, but I dont like how it sounds.

 

I'm not that experienced with hardcore kicks but you can also use a 909 emulation or drumazon serum 2 is also a good option for hardcore kicks with serum 2 you can get a long way without making a complex effect chain because you can do almost everything in the plugin just eq distortion eq distortion comb filter clippers to tame the peaks you can try this distortion's omnicide camelphat and the above mentioned vst's sonic sweep trash misstortion you just need to find the sweet spot between eq filter and distortion.

 

Serum2 FX could probably get you most of the way there by itself.

Newfangled free plugin called Obliterate is a nasty distortion, you can get it free from Eventide also: https://www.eventideaudio.com/plug-ins/obliterate/

Free Codalabs szechuan saturator: https://codalabs.io/szechuan/

skip ahead to about 50 seconds

 

D16 Group - Drumazon 2 = 119 EUR

The 909 still sounds excellent - The classic 909 sounds have reverberated over the decades in dance and techno, remaining relevant to this day. Drumazon sets a benchmark for faithful emulation in the digital domain.

https://d16.pl/drumazon2

 

The only AUTHENTIC solution in terms of sound is https://ravegeneration.io/#SonicSweep2. It recreates the structure of a Mackie hardware mixer, including its channel overdrive (even when driven in series) and EQ. Everything else is a crude imitation. This was the most widespread distortion solution in the 90s gabber culture.

 

love d16, since we talking about a single kick, id go Punchbox