Quality of kick samples

Artificial · Post by **Artificial** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 5:52 pm

Ive Read a lot on this forum, about getting the kick right.. trying all sorts of techniques.. but I'm just never completly satisfied..

A friend of mine studies at SAE (audio engeneering) en he came to my home.. He also concludes I cant get enough bass and he thinks it has to do with the quality of my kick samples.

Could this be right ? I have KREATE (from Speedy J) so it would be weird if those samples are poor quality..

Do you have some links to quality kick samples ? I can only try and compare I guess..

Grtz

lowpassfellow · Post by **lowpassfellow** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 6:07 pm

it's at times like these that I really appreciate Kong. have you tried making your own or do you only work off samples?

AK · Post by AK » Tue Jan 04, 2011 6:35 pm

i dont know what kreate is but i have used kick samples in the past. I havent really come to the conclusion that they were bass light. How do these kicks compare with other samples you might have?

Im more for making my own now, on my to buy list is the mbase, there are plenty of other kick creating methods and doctoring and hybridizing of samples to get unique and frequency controlled kicks. Never heard anyone say a 909 or an 808 kick didnt have enough bollox so why not use some samples of those as a substitute? Like I say though, plenty of kick creating methods. Much rather start out with a full heavy and long enough kick to work with, better to be chipping away in subtractive stylee to shape a kick rather than have nothing to work with and no leeway from the off.

Dont forget your bass is part of your low end too, sort that out. And maybe ditch them samples.

kdgh · Post by **kdgh** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 6:35 pm

layer, synthesize them... Do whatever makes a fat kick! o just put down the level of the overal mixdown except ur kick lol ?!

AK · Post by AK » Tue Jan 04, 2011 6:36 pm

I see where this is going, its the old, 'looking for the perfect kick'. It doesnt exist, you are thinking too much of kicks in isolation and not in the context of a mix. If youve ever sampled a kick off a record you thought was great, only to find its sh!t in your own track, youd realise this.

Everything in a mix is mixed to work together, that obviously goes for the kick too. When you are shaping the kick and balancing the mix, you are tailoring it with that in mind, simply searching for the ultimate kick as it sounds in isolation is kind of a redundant process. Most have probably done this at some point only to realise a lot of other factors come into play.

If samples are your only source of kicks just now, id say just work with a few that are both long enough in their decay and full and punchy enough to give yourself as much to work with as possible. Like I was saying, with samples, its a lot more productive to be chipping away at things like frequencies and envelopes/decay time than trying to add what wasnt there to begin with and dont get bogged down trying to make a kick in isolation sound the bollox, its a pointless pursuit.

hydrogen · Post by **hydrogen** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 9:08 pm

dunno... sometimes those sample magic kicks sound pretty fucking good compared to the ones i've tried to make.

has nothing to do with the mix... only with the kick itself.

klankeffect · Post by **klankeffect** » Tue Jan 04, 2011 10:27 pm

artificial, leuk om je hier ook te zien rondneuzen hehe

mbase +1

AK · Post by AK » Wed Jan 05, 2011 1:02 am

hydrogen wrote:

has nothing to do with the mix... only with the kick itself.

Absolutely disagree. Nobody could argue there arent good kicks and bad kicks but theres now way it ends there.