Kick drum
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Posted on Feb 03, 2011 09:44 am
mclir9
www.witchsmark.com
Member Since: Aug 13, 2006
I have all of our songs tracked and now have entered to Mixing stage. As far as the kick drum goes, I have been reading many tutorials on mixing and most say to bring the Kick drum up in the mix as loud as possible, most saying bring it to 0 on the meter. Being that I am recording in the Digital world (Sonar 8.5PE) I know this might not be a good idea, so what is a good recommendation for setting the Kick.... as far as the genre it's Rock. P.S. I have most of the tracks sitting at around -18db.
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Feb 03, 2011 10:54 am when i mix i start with the kick drum then mix the rest of the track around it, but it depends on how you want the track to sound. best thing to do is listen to a similar artists or an artist that you want the track to sound like and see how there kick sits within the track.
Feb 03, 2011 12:27 pm if you want i could do a mix of your track and then you will have two versions tracks to compare.
Quincysanhttp://www.unitedmusicians.infoContributor
Since: Nov 11, 2007
Feb 03, 2011 04:11 pm Here are a few things I've done recently to bring the kick up in the mix without creating an imbalance in the mix.
a.) Put a compressor on the bass guitar track, and use the kick drum track as the key input on the compressor. Set compression so that when you solo the bass and kick tracks, you hear the bass tone dip slightly when the kick attack occurs. This is called ducking and it will basically automate level reductions on the bass track based on when the kick attacks. Set the release time to something short; just long enough so that the bass tone comes to full volume right as the kick drum sound is tapering off. Probably 50-75 milliseconds or so (just a guess). If you overdo the compression the result will sound like pumping.
b.) Find which frequency is most prominent in the kick drum (or the sound from the kick drum that you like the most) by sweeping a notch EQ across the freq. spectrum at full gain. You'll figure out where the kick tone is strongest. Note that, and move the EQ from the kick to the bass guitar and pull out a few dB's from the bass guitar right where the kick sits.
I would probably start with b.), and if that ruins your bass tone or just doesn't work try a.)
Quincysanhttp://www.unitedmusicians.infoContributor
Since: Nov 11, 2007
Feb 03, 2011 04:19 pm And I would not mix so that the kick peaks at 0dB. The whole mix should peak way lower than that, -12ish in the DAW. Use input trims if you have to bc headroom is Lord of the Mix.
Feb 23, 2012 11:39 pm Kick drums are percussion instruments and vary in size and are used in several musical genres. The kick drum, struck with a beater attached to a pedal, usually seen on drum kits. A lifeless kick-drum sound can bring down the energy level of your whole track, especially if you work in one of the many up-tempo rock, pop or dance styles. Thanks.
Feb 24, 2012 12:39 am I was like "I don't remember a recent thread about kic...ooohhh. Its from a year ago."
JovhatoMusic is everythingMember
Since: Apr 01, 2010
Feb 24, 2012 05:59 am Yea. CraigCyril is just going though and copy/pasting definitions of keywords of posts...
Feb 24, 2012 07:31 am I really need to automate the closing of threads after some time goes by after the last post...put that on the to-do list too I guess
Dematrixhttp://www.reverbnation.com/2ndgMember
Since: Nov 27, 2007
Feb 28, 2012 09:01 am no no CC, Thank yooo.