Getting a bassy kick drum

[Dystinkt]

How would I be able to have nice full sounding bassy kick drum without it interfering with my sub, im rolling off all below the kick at 115, and the sub has the run of the track at 110 below, but my kick sounds a bit too high.

[MOTHERDAVID]

I'd recommend finding a really nice, bassy sample, rolling off slightly less than you currently are or not at all, and sidechain the sub so that the kick can punch through and the frequencies don't interfere. Mess around with the compression settings so the drop in amplitude of the sub is barely noticable

[stereotactic]

Sample choice first and foremost. Then layering. Take a few different, good quality samples with different characteristics for each hit i.e. one with low end boom, a punchier mid etc, it's your kick so I can say 'use sample X, Y and Z, or whatever, basically you are looking to give the layered hit balance and character/prominence. EQ each part so they are not conflicting.

Once you are happy with the sound, try a bit of compression along with the EQ to 'glue' the parts together.

A sub should only be occupying the very low frequencies, maybe <50, rolling off the kick at 115 is a bit too much IMO. Kicks tend to (though not exclusively) peak at around 80, so by rolling off at 115 you are robbing the kick of a lot of its punch.

I tend to roll off my kick around 50, depending on the chacter of the hit. Remember, you want clarity and prominence in all your elements, so EQ-ing other elements to fit with the kick is just as important as EQ-ing the kick itself.

Practice makes perfect though, there are no rules per se as everything is subjective, keep adjusting levels until it sounds right to you!

[Debaser1]

Yeah I usually roll off at 90.

It's all about layering my friend. I normally have 2 kicks, a very bassy one, and a mid rangey one. The bassy one i roll off the whole top end and below 90 hz, and usually have a littl epeack at where the kick sounds it's fullest (FuntCase's technique), probably around 130 ish. Then With the mid rangey one I roll of like almost the entire low end and then sort the high mids and top end to taste. Squash em together with some compression, maximisers etc and its beautiful.

[Sinisterbeats]

dont roll it off so much. Try to be clever with your arrangement so the sub and kick never play at the same time. Or the opposite of that, hipass your kick and make it hit in time with your sub, this will make it sound more bassy when in fact its not. Failing that side chain compression would be the obvious way to do it.

[Sinisterbeats]

dont roll it off so much. Try to be clever with your arrangement so the sub and kick never play at the same time. Or the opposite of that, hipass your kick and make it hit in time with your sub, this will make it sound more bassy when in fact its not. Failing that side chain compression would be the obvious way to do it.

[Sinisterbeats]

dont roll it off so much. Try to be clever with your arrangement so the sub and kick never play at the same time. Or the opposite of that, hipass your kick and make it hit in time with your sub, this will make it sound more bassy when in fact its not. Failing that side chain compression would be the obvious way to do it.

[vertx]

I've found on some occasions i haven't needed to highpass a kick at all rather concentrate on the levels. If i do its often around the 50- 60hz area then resort to sidechaining last if it still needs more room.

[Dystinkt]

Thanks everyone, not really a fan of using compression but I guess its time to bite the bullet and learn lol.

[makerowner]

Another thing is tuning. You can change the pitch of the kick so that it conflicts less with the sub.

[Dreadfunk]

808.

Seriously, every kick drum sounds like a bomb going off if you layer it with an 808. And yeah, if you want it to thud you need to keep the low frequency content, there's no way around that. So either sidechain compress your sub to the kick (which is really hard to detect if you do it right) or write your tunes so that your sub isn't playing when the kick is booming.

Another thing you can do is automate it so that the kick is Highpassed when the bass is playing, and wide open when it's not. It gives your kick the illusion of being bassy cause the brain imagines the heavy kick even when it's not there if you set up the expectation of it.

[thefrim]

as has been said your kick sounds too high cause your hp is at 115 which is above the kick frequencies. the actual kick of a kick should be somewhere between 60-120. make sure theres nothing or little to nothing under 60 though