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Layering your kicks is also very underrated. Its crazy what kind of great kicks you can create by layering 2 Kicks (properly EQ'ed of course) and some sort of Drum Enhancer.
OMG, bravo! It's actually a simple thing, but unless you understand, getting it right is hit or miss. The problem is that until you understand, you can't really choose a kick by listening to it by itself; you need to hear it in context. I discovered this on my own: short kicks are usually--not *always*--better. The best way to convince yourself of this fact is to analyze tracks you think are good. Display the waveform of a good track in audacity or in your DAW and zoom out until you can see the kick waveform wiggling and the high hat is a splash in appearance. You'll see that good-sounding tracks almost always have short kicks: the kick lives in its own, private space (some of this comes from sidechaining in most cases). There's also a great short video of Deadmou5 talking about this (he learned the hard way: Steve Duda had to tell him his kick was all wrong when Deadmou5 was DJing one night). The basic takeaway: leave room / space--in time and in the frequency spectrum--for every important element. When something important speaks, it should not be trying to speak over something else. But when that speaking is done, that element should shut up already. :) Just like if you're in a conversation: you don't want to be interrupted when you're speaking, and you don't want to continuously interrupt others when they are speaking. :)
@@2cthetruth If you like id happily give you my trance songs with 30-50 synths/layers/fx noise sweeps etc ull see because everything is so layered, you truly would like things to have its own space belive me! It can definetly become "impossible" to eq. But if your just doing simple pop tracks or even more in hip hop u may never have this issue at all! 👍
30-50 tracks? My goodness, most of the tracks I do are double that or more! Then add busses sends bla bla bla…I end up with 100-120 or so tracks….and guess what? I can make most any kick work. It’s not rocket science.
Nice! I wish DAWs would have the ability to update the waveform in real time based on what plug-ins are applied without committing or rendering the track.
This came at the perfect time. I just had this revelation 5 days ago and instantly created louder mixes after. Seeing this video is letting me know I’m on the right track. Arigato 🙏🏾
It seems to me this is not a problem of "not knowing kick shapes", but actually of productions coming from people who dont have the room or speakers that allow them to fully listen to what they are producing. When that's the case, you are indeed right it helps using the oscilloscope, but I feel it would certainly not be a problem if people were actually * listening * to their kicks
of course you're right. the main issue is if people produce music with a bad monitoring situation or without enough experience to inform them which option is better or worse :)
Big Z, i discovered your videos a few days ago and you have had such a positive influence on my music already. I'm still very new to this so luckily you are helping me learn good habits before i have to unlearn any more bad habits. Thank you bud. Much love from South Africa.
Thank you for this little but exciting tutorial! This gave me the little tips I needed for making the knocking Bass Drums I always wanted. I was close to it but you showed me the last steps getting to my goal! 🥳
omg, I've been watching countless hours of yt tutorials, everyone saying how important choosing the right samples is. You're the only one who actually took the time to show us a bad example so we can really learn and understand what you mean. This video would have change my life years ago. Thanks for doing this.
I always wondered what was wrong with my mixes and why they didn‘t have enough punch, turns out it often was the kick. So definitively an underrated topic, thanks for the great advice!
I had a similar idea in my list of next videos to record - but I couldn't explain this any better than you did in this video (and in such a short and interesting time). You absolutely nailed it! Great video! 👍
That "womp" shape at around 5:41 is not always bad though. Some genres benefits a lot from having that fish tail shape and super common in psytrance for example. So I'd say that if it sounds good in context with everything else in the mix, then it is good. Nevertheless, good video, it is indeed important to have a good kick in dance music.
In my opinion it's still bad practice to use such a kick in a track though as you don't have much control of where this womp is happening amongst other aspects. If you have them as two seperate elements you'll have much more control. What happens when the BPM of such a kick is different to the BPM of your track? the womp will be in a different location. Stretch the kick to fit? well that can create weird artifacting and phase issues. Better to process them as two seperate elements rather than one.
@@bassc In my experience more often than not it will cause issues though but I agree if you have a decent monitoring setup with a sub it can be done. Although if I was doing it myself I would still use three separate elements for more control. A short kick, a kick tail and then the bassline on its own.
Very true, made a video about the problems calling kicks like this "bad" in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-TRwIyFQ2TR8.html
@@2cthetruth it does, take a song with an overall less present high-end: it will sound weird if you have a kick sample with a too present/high-end attack, it will take too much attention, and let the other instruments disappear (even when sidechained). This works both ways. So, the point he makes about the overall shape of the kick is essential if you want a kick that doesn’t destroy the mix in several possible ways that he demonstrated.
This is why most people don’t make it. No creativity…they think everything has to sound a certain way! Guessing what? It doesn’t! Blaze your own path and if you don’t get my drift, well then, just follow big zeeeee to get his sound.
@@2cthetruth you can still be creative and have a kick that actually fits the mix. I never said everything should be done in a certain way. The cool thing about music is that there are no rules. But there is a kind of a general perspective about what sounds good mix wise and what not (this doesn’t exclude creativity!!). However, if you want to use a kick that doesn’t fit the mix, sure go ahead.
Appreciate your channel. You get into the specifics & the things that matter. Nothing here feels like “filler” content, which is why I’m leaning towards your training programs.
You been doing this for a while. You're a great teacher man, a pleasure to watch and always have actually interesting and new information to share. You think before you post (there's a lot of music production videos that are the opposite). I don't even really produce much anymore and I checked this out
Awesome video to go over the basics of a good kick. Really started noticing an improved understanding of production and sound design once I started using the Oscilloscope to visually monitor my samples.
One of the things I learned while working with Grammy-winning mixing engineers during my stint in the Los Angeles area was that none of them used the solo button during the actual mix phase. I remember asking one of those guys (cannot say his name) about that issue and he answered "why bother with a soloed signal? That will never be close to the final product anyway." What he meant was that none of the buyers/listeners will ever hear the kick, snare, vocal, cowbell (...) soloed. I sometimes DID go thru all the channels during breaks and actually DID solo them all, one at a time. Very surprising finds! Usually, they did not sound very spectacular or even sometimes they sounded downright "strange" or mediocre, BUT... when put together, they sounded like a top professional record. That was really eye-opening to me and when you think about it, it absolutely makes sense. A "mix" is actually about blending things together with the goal of creating a final result that is "bigger" that the simple sum of its parts. Fun thing; I worked with some of the biggest mixing engineers and they worked quite different in regards of HOW their approaches were. And none of them seriously used plugins. We worked OTB pretty much, ProTools was used as a tape machine. Even though some of those guys had "signature plugins" available or were the faces for marketing campaigns of plugin manufacturers. I remember their grinning faces vividly when being asked why they avoid plugins. A well-maintained hardware unit just sounds so much better, no matter what quirky setting you come up with. #dontbelievethehype ✊🏻
> A well-maintained hardware unit just sounds so much better, no matter what quirky setting you come up with. Nonsense. You're dealing with old people.
Additional pro tip. Start synthesizing your own kicks. I use Kick 2 a lot for this lately. It gives you so much more control and you don't have to go through endless libs of samples to get the one you want.
Ngl I was waiting for the kicks samples packs plug since I saw the Number one tip, BUT for the value of the content is still 100% worth it, now I'm going to check the sample pack. Peace out Buddy.
Ayeee you finally updated your channel URL! Shit is official and you're further on your way to the endless peak you seek brotha. Thanks for sharing all the tips over the years.
Yo BigZ, binge watched your last year of content over the last week or so (since I just found ur channel.) Felt I learned much more than any lessons I ever took even after a few minutes watching u. Keep grinding man, hope u release some new packs soon since I bought all of existing ones a day ago. Now my problem is choosing the best sound out of a lot of good sounds. (Your packs) Legit man, I’d tell a new producer to just buy ur drums and save a lot of time, ur shit even sounds more whompy/better than any thing even in an old iPhone. You’re a total beast man, hope you release some new whopper tracks soon would love to hear ‘em. Cheers - BigD
I agree learning to pick the kick makes the mixing so much easier. You have to decide which is the priority your base or your kick if we bases your priority pick your base first and then pick a kit that goes with it or vice versa if the kick is what’s important but they have to get along
Terry Black’s! What up from Austin Big Z. Learned a ton from your vids, since I started watching a few months ago. Thanks for dropping the knowledge my man
This is a very valuable vid, not bc people might be using the "wrong" kick, ie, one that doesn't cut through in the sterile way that the genre of his track demonstrates, but because I realized I hadn't been really thinking about sculpting the low end, especially with something so prominent and repetitive as a kick sample. I think all the kicks he used could find a place in a decent mix, it just depends on what you are going for. This is kind of like music theory... its great to know the rules of music not so that you can always follow them, but to be able to decide for yourself how (and when) to break them. I mean, ffs gabber dnb and techno exist, so yeah lol dont be afraid to make your kicks go bleep or bloop, just do it with intent and purpose (and tastefully) in the context of whatever genre you are trying to hit. first vid I've seen and although its not my genre, this dude clearly has a lot of valuable advice. thanks for the vid. got my sub
Pretty simple explanation, that's nice for beginners :) I think you should complete with another video talking about dynamic in detail like compressor, MB compressor and dynimic EQ.
