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So I've made this old skool hiphop/vinyl break and though it sounds pretty clear, it's still not as "fat" as i would like it. There's quite abit of tape distortion, EQ and compression going on but it's still quite not there. Would i need to perhaps compress it even more? Any tips would be great!

layer

layer it with synthesized drum sounds. For example, layer the snare with a sine (distorted perhaps) hitting at the fundamental of the snare. Shape the sine's volume envelope to make it fit the original sample, then compress the two together. Same goes for kicks.

Compression is certainly key, if you want to fatten the snare the best thing to do is to boost the frequencies around 90-200 hz, find the sweet spot, then boost up in the mid-hi range to add some click. Layer the snares so you have one with a low end punch and another with some snap to it, makes a nice combination.

SkairkroNY wrote:Compression is certainly key, if you want to fatten the snare the best thing to do is to boost the frequencies around 90-200 khz, find the sweet spot, then boost up in the mid-hi range to add some click. Layer the snares so you have one with a low end punch and another with some snap to it, makes a nice combination.

90-200Hz maybe?

Oh and when layering kicks, don't automatically cut the low end from the other one and replace it with different kick. Try to get them to be in phase with each other. If done right, you can end up having a louder kick with a lot more thickness without volume meter moving anywhere.

Being in phase will increase the sum of the amplitude.

NinjaEdit wrote:Being in phase will increase the sum of the amplitude.

Unless the low end on both kicks is limited really hard, there's usually some space in there (so basically if you lowpass your kick and it hits at let's say -8dB, it can be at -8dB for 5ms somewhere in the sample and rest of the sample it can be at much lower level). This goes at least with acoustic kicks. Of course you can compress the low end to make it flat and even, but I like to fill the space by adding something in there, and messing with timing and small fade ins/outs. Gives kinda different feeling to it. Compressions comes in the end for me to glue things up.

NinjaEdit wrote:Being in phase will increase the sum of the amplitude.

Right. Maybe your getting some cancellation between the different drum sounds. And if you layered your sounds its very possible that that could cause issues. If you just adjust the phase of one of the layers and listen to that layer on a loop you may hear a spot where that sound your adjusting seems louder, and a spot where its quieter. And if you get a goniometer, then thatll show if your sounds are in phase. You could just check each individual layer and then check the whole drum loop. Also subtractive eq can fix some phase issues too