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.