Dubstepforum.com

So say you HP your kick at 100 Hz and LP your sub at 90 Hz. Do you guys tend to have no 'Q' on your filters when doing so, or slight filter resonance? I've noticed that no resonance leaves the sub and kick sounding dead, respectively, even though the kick peaks ~2db higher than the sub... But even a little bit of 'Q' makes it sound muddy as shit... any advice in this area? Thanks in advance!

a) you don't have to filter your kick and sub. an eq would be more efficient. never tried it, but i'd say stay away from the resonance. reserve it for synth lines, etc. personally i never treat either with eq, i like them both to boom and breathe. just don't let them interfere.

b) if they sound like shit alone, you may want to get better samples. once you've got good sounds, throw a little reverb on them (or just the kick).

eq's are filters.

ultimately it comes down to what the song needs, but in general, if you're hi passing (and i presume very steeply, like 48db/octave) at 100hz and lowpassing at 90, what you're going to be left with is a very thin-sounding kick and an inaudible-on-all-but-the-biggest-speakers sub. it works for d&b because it's 175bpm and the rhythms are much more involved, with more notes pushed together.

but even then, listen to pendulum-- there's way more going on in the kicks below 100hz.

i'd be more inclined to find kick sounds that don't have a ton of tone, but still have a nice, focused weight in them-- 909s always work well as a base layer for this. that way, you're not sharply cutting the low end of the sound, changing its energy, inducing a bunch of smeary distortion and ultimately winding up with a weak-sounding kick.

not every tune needs a big, sharp kick-- think "original nuttah" or even mala's "mountain dread march"--but those that do, it needs to be a real, rooted sound or else it's lamo city.