any mixing techniques to make acoustic kick more full/punchy

thanks!

 

EQ or maybe saturation or Transient vst

 

Last edited: Oct 4, 2022

6 Steps to a Punchy Kick Drum

 

- layer it with another kick sample but make sure it is tuned with each other
- layer and SC Gate with a low sine wave to build more low end, the impression here to make it sound full.
- parallel compression, a NY technic wud be a good start (1176)
- like some posts suggest EQ and saturation, the understanding here is the mid-high freq (the body) that gives the punchy feel, the clicky. And cut out the room/boxy/rumble from the kick will give it more clarity.
- fast and hard gate the tail from the close mic wud give the impression of smacked, the ambiance of it tail still preserved from the overhead and room mic. Also, you always can redesign back the tail with delay or reverb.
- last but not least, make way for the kick. Don't let it fight so hard for space with other instruments, especially bass and guitar.

 

The most effective/direct is to trigger a SINE.
Because no one can boost something that doesn't exist.
It is the famous "808 sound".

Here is an example :

There are plugins for that (faster).

 

EQ, saturation, limiter, layer/trigger transient, trigger room sample, subkick/trigger sub frequency (as above), etc. It's also a matter of relationship/contrast to what else is in the mix (depth, overlapping/masking, etc). The percieved loudness comes from the room reverberation (psychoacoustic relationship), just like when used on a snare.

 

Last edited: Oct 4, 2022

What you are asking is vague, but usually the fullness of an acoustic kick comes from room and overhead mics. the punch comes from how all these signals work together. a closed mic acoustic kick on its own doesn't sound punchy, it just sounds like a very uninteresting pulse, but if you contrast it with the room and overheads and whatever spill tends to work to reinforce the signal, then it can sound like it has a fuller envelope

Also got to consider the music the drum is going to be featured in. for instance, long room mic's aren't going to work too well in Thrash Metal for instance

Without the context everything else is moot

 

Post #3, 4, #5, Guys, what's wrong with you? Acoustic kick is written in the title and his first post.

You don't need:
- a fucking ancient PulTec EQ (welcome to the 21st century),
- another kick sample,
- a sidechain,
- a gate,
- NY compression,
- trigger a sine wave or
- an 808 sound

Depending on the source this can help:
- Retuning (pitching) the kick so it fits better to the song. Sometimes it's already too low or too high.
- Something like RBass helps to give it more low end but be careful and make A-B tests, this thing is addictive.
- Grab an analyzer and tilt it by +3dB. Make the area 40/50 -100Hz look even. Make 100 - 200Hz lower than below 100Hz (boomy). You don't need much of low mids (above 200Hz), emphasize the high kick sound (around 4kHz, you need to find it). You don't need anything ~ 10kHz and above.
- You can saturate the whole kick a bit but not much because this often leads to unpleasant distortion in the low end. Better use a multiband saturator like FF Saturn or Wavesfactory Spectre and saturate the high kick sound mostly. You could use Saturn for EQing too, you just need to make several bands (below 40, 40/50 - 100, 100 - 200, 200 - something below the high kick sound, around the high kick sound, above ~ 10kHz).

If the kick isn't too weak, this should get you already pretty far. If necessary use a compressor to either emphasize the attack (low pass sidechain and some attack time) or densify the whole sound (no sidechain, faster attack).

 

Yeah, guys, you can disagree and dislike how ever you want (no worries, I was expecting this), but I'm doing this for a lot of years now. It's the most simple and straight forward approach and it works.

 

As you can see from the many differing views above, there are a multitude of ways of making an acoustic kick beefier. Most of which has already been said so I will just say, try them all and see which works best for you.

Me personally? I will only work on what is needed to an acoustic kick once I know all the content I'm working with. It will certainly need an EQ, it might need to be augmented with a similar kick that I'll work on (EQ, Compression possibly, sidechain to the rest of the drum kit, etc)

There is no right or wrong just as long as it sounds good, so experiment until you find what works best for you.. At least you have a lot to work with based on all the above..

Good luck.

 

Last edited: Oct 5, 2022

It is YOUR way.
And just before, you were just bitching about OUR ways.
Ways used around the world for decades with "acoustic" kicks.

What do you expected in return ?
Love and admiration ?

Not with that behaviour.

 

since I almost always write music that has a beat, which is dominated by kick drums; I would still approach things the same way with any other kick drum. it is the anchor of my mix. I would set it up how I wanted it, and then I would not touch the damn thing again until the very end of my session. and then check it again with fresh ears.

 

transient designer. bam, done.

 

ReFuse Lowender to add sub-harmonics / harmonics below the fundamental (as opposed to Rbass )
More info: https://www.refusesoftware.com/faq/11

 

An underrated one: resonant highpass filter with the resonance (Q) pronouncing the base frequencies of the kick.

 

For someone claiming to have been doing this for years you should know there are many different techniques to achieve audio results. As an experienced mod you of all people should know there is no right or wrong way to achieve creative results, and your post is borderline dismissive and disrespectful of others offering thoughts and ideas. I know half of the above ideas are tied and true industry methods that have helped many sell many tens of millions of songs. Just because "you" may or may not like the ideas others posted does not give you the right to be obtuse on this forum.

Maybe act your age/experience level and accept that this is all opinions here, so let's show others the respect you want to receive.

 

I think the point was that often you don't need some overly complex processing. Try to fix the basics first and chances are you solve the task. What's the point of NY compression or triggering a sine when your kick sounds out of tune or out of place with the rest of the song and you don't address that first?

 

Good observation, congrats.

'don't need' is bitching? Grow a spine.

And? Did I say these methods don't work? No, I didn't! Learn to read.

This question is answered in exactly the post you quoted! Did I already say 'learn to read'?

 

For pretty high kicks this'll work, no doubt.