how does one "reinforce" the kick with a sine wave?

  idrn said:

sample creation and production should be inextricably linked. you're severely restricting yourself if you have that sort of mindset about it. for example, you can use that sine kick only on certain kicks, giving emphasis. you can side-chain only that sine too to add even more emphasis, distinguishing between a more percussive kick and a punchy one that cuts through the mix. i really don't understand how someone can think layering sounds is a completely different discipline. especially this bubba fella's utter tosh about sourcing a 'phat' kick in the first place. this thread just made me cringe.

I agree with this. I think I went about making my point in the wrong way. Of course I don't sit down to make a track, put a kick drum in, realize it sounds better with the sine wave emphasis. And then scrap it all by creating a sample that does the same thing or something, I just keep it how it is. I just think it sounds a bit silly to use a sine wave in the manner of simply layering it behind the kick as a general, all-cases production technique. Layering things is general is a good thing to try, I do it all of the time. Also, in every case that I said "sample", I really didn't mean that at all, I really meant, perhaps, "sound". Not all of the kicks I use are samples. I guess my point is, in the art of creating a kick drum "sound" do whatever you want in order to make it ideal, don't rely on some arbitrary layering technique, because it simply doesn't always apply. I think using a sine wave as emphasis is really cool, it can sound awesome, especially with pitch-tracking or sidechaining. I guess I'm saying though, in the case of straightforward matched layering, it is already part of the kick "sound", even if the phase of the wave isn't retriggered.(one reason for the "sound" and "sample" distinction). But yeah, pretty much I'm writing this nonsense for no reason except I'm bored. I don't feel like I'm trying to save the world or anything, I'm just writing because it is interesting for me to think about and it helps me to collect my thoughts by writing them down in some way that makes sense to me.

im confused about if a sine wave should ever be added, because aren't kicks usually already sine waves, couldn't we just add eq or something? im lost. i want to have an amazing kick, and use compression trickery to sound like daft punk . that is all

i guess this is really...

"should one "reinforce" the kick with a sine wave?"

Try it out, if you get the results you want then you should do it.

  ET said:

im confused about if a sine wave should ever be added, because aren't kicks usually already sine waves, couldn't we just add eq or something? im lost. i want to have an amazing kick, and use compression trickery to sound like daft punk . that is all

 

i guess this is really...

 

"should one "reinforce" the kick with a sine wave?"

ET, wasn't it you who stated that your tracks were starting to sound better than aphex twin's in that thread about sending demos or something?

*side-chains a man-hug*

make your own kicks by recording you hitting the bottom of a big plastic bucket

  ET said:

im confused about if a sine wave should ever be added, because aren't kicks usually already sine waves, couldn't we just add eq or something? im lost. i want to have an amazing kick, and use compression trickery to sound like daft punk . that is all

 

i guess this is really...

 

"should one "reinforce" the kick with a sine wave?"

If you only have a shorter kick sound it might be a good idea, especially to add a "tail" to the sound. Otherwise, you might want to use a compressor on the kick itself to make it blockier if it has too steep of a decay(I'm being specific here in order to sound less like a hypocrite). Make sure the level of your other tracks are much lower in volume than the kick (and other percussion that you want to cut through the mix). On the master, Use a compressor with a pretty high ratio, like around 8 or 9, and a threshold low enough to effect your synths a little bit. Set the attack to a medium to fast level and the release to a medium to long level. This would be a good starting point in order to get a good pump going to the mix, but it should definitely be tweaked to taste. An alternative would be to use a sidechain compressor to effect things with the kick track by track instead of just using the natural compressor response on the master, but both methods are totally viable.