House track: K-rite: Summer Jam
 

My Virus didn't play a role in this track, but it's still worth giving a listen to.

K-rite Summer Jam

I've been trying to get more punch out of my kick drum and wanted to add a better bassline to the beginning, but I've been having troubles. Anyone got some suggestions on getting more punch out of a kick drum? I'm just recording straight off my Fantom for the kick, no compression or anything.

Re: House track: K-rite: Summer Jam
 

EQ and compression on the kick. For the EQ, make a really tall, narrow boost around 1500 or so, and sweep it up and down until you find the root beater frequency. Once you find it (it's usually above 1500 or 2000), subdue your boost to something reasonable, like maybe 3db, that just accents the kick a little better. Then you'll usually cut in the 4-800Hz range, because you don't want mud, and you don't want the kick interfering with everything else, and then put a shelf in at about 120 with a healthy boost for the bottom. If there's still not enough bottom, try doubling the kick on another track, pitch shifting the new track down an octave, and cutting off the attack on the new track.

For kick compression, you usually want to kill it. However, you need a slow attack so as not to smash your beater sound. Attack around 20-40ms, release anywhere from 150-250ms depending on the sound you're dealing with, and with a fairly extreme compression ratio (20:1), and copious amounts of makeup gain.

And if it still isn't bangin', duck the bass to the kick drum through an external sidechain-type compressor. Not all plugins do this, but once you find one that does on your system, set the kick as the input to the compressor, and the bass as the signal to be compressed, and make it 'duck' out of the kicks way by a couple db....

o.k., i eq'd the kick and added some compression to the kick:

attack: 5ms
release: 10ms
threshold: -15db
ratio: 8:1
knee: hard

i tried putting the kick ratio to 20:1, but it just smashed it all to hell.

i also added a second kick with eq, but no compression.

i added compression on the final output of the mix:

attack: 0ms
release: 2ms
threshold: -8db
ratio: 2:1
knee: soft

i used this chart for compression guidelines:

http://www.computermusic.co.uk/tutorial/dynamics/3.asp

here is the compressed version: K-rite: Summer Jam (Compressed) I still don't know if I like it, maybe I need a real compressor (not soft synth). :?

k-rite: Soft compressors are GREAT, you just gotta understand perfectly the effect of those and the usage...You can't get great results using a chart :) It's a great starting point tho.

You can use a compressor in many different ways:
Tame the dynamics of a signal, or modify his fundamentals. Here I believe you just wanna tame the dynamics so you can raise the level without clipping. You should be careful not to spoil the transient of your kick with an attack setting that is too fast. I would suggest that your attack and release are beating on time with the song..Look at the meters and make sure they match the btm.

If you wanna make it beefier, use some sort of exciter(maxxbass, rbass, etc.). Compressors are usually not meant for this :)

Hope that helps! Other than that, great track :)