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.
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.
@@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.
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
Haha the b'womp was the perfect example 😄 I've literally heard my kicks do that out soundsystems! 10 years of production but recently hit a two year brick wall with not much to show since my last tune. I make electro and breaks but I can see how this would all transfer over to that genre and more or less every single other dance genre. Great stuff man it's a blessing to learn stuff again!
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.
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.
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.
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 🙏🏾
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
Yep, very common problem. If you actually think about the functionality of such a sound, a kick is really only there to provide the initial hit as a reference point to the grid. Anything after that should be covered by the bassline, after all it is called a BASSline. The length of the kick also has a knock on effect, if you are using it as a trigger for sidechaining, a kick with a long length will cause the sidechain to react in a sluggish manner. Longer kicks also tend to bleed into the bassline making it hard to distinguish which is the kick and which is the bass, so you get this kind of rumbling when you listen to the sub and we all know what people do then..."Why can't hear the kick...I'll turn it up, that should fix things!"
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.
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 :)
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
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
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.
Its also an effective and fast trick to put the bass 1/4 step behind the kick, if your kick is good as it should be, the bass playing on the transient will most of the time make it worse. I find this way better than sidechain which whomps the bass and doesnt work for the clients I work for
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.
I wouldn't say you're ALWAYS looking for what you've described but generally yea, I think people are generally pretty okay at identifying the right kicks. The real problem for me, and what I've seen with others, is that I would get married to the idea of a specific kick that I started with and try to work around it instead of going to find a better kick. I'd try to excessively EQ and compress my way out of a bad kick instead of finding a new on. The biggest lesson I learned in my 3 years of producing, and this especially applies to drum sounds, is you can simply go change them... and that sound selection isn't final until the song is done
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!
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.
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.
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
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! 👍
Another tip could be to choose the kick in key (preferably in the main note of the key): there are methods to understand and / or set it in the right key, but frankly I prefer to use kick it already with the note in the title (there are some library creators who do this), for not waste too much time, but more than anything else, in order not to risk "ruining" the initial kick sample with the change of tone (for example if you have to start from a kick in C and then you have to set it in F#, there is a good chance that it will lose quality or that ends up in frequencies that are too low or too high for a kick). However it is not a mandatory rule, sometimes without knowing the key just use your ears to understand if the kick works or not :). Ps. sorry for my English
Bom Shanka Occular Scope is a free Plugin that i use all the time , it has ability to show two layers like kick and sub bass , great for trance and psy-trance
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! 🥳
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.
The issue though is that you're sidechaining the kicks to make them fit into the mix. When the kick doesn't fit into the sidechain reduction window, and the rest of the track is blasting over it, you're never going to hear it. I 100% agree with what you're saying as far as electro music, but with stuff like hip hop, jazz, rock, where the kick itself is a much larger part of the mix, the individual character of the kick plays a HUGE role in shaping the beat, and looser kicks can actually sound really nice. I'd be interested to see what your thoughts are in those genres.
-The number one Thing after 1000 mixes was the kick -Use oscilloscope to analyze the kick wave form -A bad Kick is one that’s too long -A bad kick is one with no transient and all rumble
What a timing! I am in the middle of remixing songs with problematic kicks. Are you a messenger from God? Thanx man. Looking for an oscilloscope right now. Also your explaining of how compressors work was an eye&ear opener.
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.
Z man I don't know what we did to deserve you. You're such a real one for posting such concise and useful information and how to apply it
thanks for watching Evan!
(For free I might add!)
You need to do an ‘A to Big Z’ sound production masterclass!
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. :)
I don’t believe you. Cut the mud, boost 40, tweak high, any bass can sound good. Learn to use your eq.
@@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.
@@2cthetruth @3dfx both of you post a song you mixed. Let the people decide
@@tredfxman tagging you too
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.
Great tip homie. This is actually one of the biggest things I've picked up on after watching so much Deadmau5 stuff.
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.
So true, I was always underestimating how much impact the kick has on the mix. Great tip!!
It really doesn’t. A well written and like able song will hide the fact that he used a kick sample from a studio one sample pack.
@@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.
Thanks for the permission
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
Haha the b'womp was the perfect example 😄 I've literally heard my kicks do that out soundsystems! 10 years of production but recently hit a two year brick wall with not much to show since my last tune. I make electro and breaks but I can see how this would all transfer over to that genre and more or less every single other dance genre. Great stuff man it's a blessing to learn stuff again!
Great video! Helped a lot!
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.
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.
Excellent! Thanks for share these "secrets" tips!
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.
@@ReductioAdAbsurdum 😅
That is the single most informative bass drum tutorial I've ever seen (and I've seen a lot). Thanks VERY much for sharing & keep up the great work!
This is simply incredible!! Thank you so much Big Z for sharing!! 💙
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 🙏🏾
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
Great tip bro! Thanks for this!
Yep, very common problem. If you actually think about the functionality of such a sound, a kick is really only there to provide the initial hit as a reference point to the grid. Anything after that should be covered by the bassline, after all it is called a BASSline.
The length of the kick also has a knock on effect, if you are using it as a trigger for sidechaining, a kick with a long length will cause the sidechain to react in a sluggish manner.
Longer kicks also tend to bleed into the bassline making it hard to distinguish which is the kick and which is the bass, so you get this kind of rumbling when you listen to the sub and we all know what people do then..."Why can't hear the kick...I'll turn it up, that should fix things!"
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.
Couldn't be more true! The number one thing and what gives the biggest difference is swapping the kick and making it sit right for me
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 :)
It helps to understand the theory of what we are listening to so we can make more informed decisions instead of just going on vibe.
Sometimes "fancy" stuff is actually very helpful! Thanks! You earned a sub ❤
Dude, you should have way more subscribers already. You share some of the best knowledge in such a humble way
Best video I’ve seen on kicks so far dude!
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
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
It's really amazing how you educate us about simple, subtle yet important stuffs
….that never seem to get anyone anywhere
Z, you have the best quick tutorials in the game. Keep it up bro!
I've always been trying to process a kick with a compressor and maybe 10% had good results! Thanks a lot for this massive tip, it'll help a lot
Damn, Z. This is the video I've been needing for the last 3 years. Great tips!
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.
Its also an effective and fast trick to put the bass 1/4 step behind the kick, if your kick is good as it should be, the bass playing on the transient will most of the time make it worse. I find this way better than sidechain which whomps the bass and doesnt work for the clients I work for
This is amazing! Thank you, man
It's actually I was looking for!
I need this oscilo-scanner to stop waste my time
I really love the track you use as an example. I guess it's not yet released yet. Or is it? If not, when? And what's the name?
the comparisons in context were illuminating. Thanks.
You're a Talented guy. Thanks for this video. God had you on time for this!! Be blessed brother.
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.
also in many Early Hardstyle tracks, it is pretty common to have that fishy shape and adding a reversed bass
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 Thank god for oscilloscopes that can help to see what's going on and confirm what you're hearing =)
@@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: ua-cam.com/video/TRwIyFQ2TR8/v-deo.html
Quick. Simple and to the point. Great job! More please!
I wouldn't say you're ALWAYS looking for what you've described but generally yea, I think people are generally pretty okay at identifying the right kicks. The real problem for me, and what I've seen with others, is that I would get married to the idea of a specific kick that I started with and try to work around it instead of going to find a better kick. I'd try to excessively EQ and compress my way out of a bad kick instead of finding a new on. The biggest lesson I learned in my 3 years of producing, and this especially applies to drum sounds, is you can simply go change them... and that sound selection isn't final until the song is done
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!
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.
Man... you are bringing all my mixes to life😊
One of the best videos that i see in all youtube!! Thanks
Seen so many vids about kicks and this was by far the best. Love your stuff!
This video is gold. I always end up changing my kicks to improve the mix. Thanks man!!!
Great video. Love this visual feedback approach
Thanks!
BigZ 4 president ! Awesome as usual.. and straight to the point !!
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.
which one do u use?
Training your ears to be able to identify a good kick vs a bad kick takes years, so using the method here is a good substitute
Sick, thank you Big Z for this insane tips!
thank you so much haha this is so helpful! i am very new at production but I think this will help so much!!
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
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! 👍
Another tip could be to choose the kick in key (preferably in the main note of the key): there are methods to understand and / or set it in the right key, but frankly I prefer to use kick it already with the note in the title (there are some library creators who do this), for not waste too much time, but more than anything else, in order not to risk "ruining" the initial kick sample with the change of tone (for example if you have to start from a kick in C and then you have to set it in F#, there is a good chance that it will lose quality or that ends up in frequencies that are too low or too high for a kick). However it is not a mandatory rule, sometimes without knowing the key just use your ears to understand if the kick works or not :). Ps. sorry for my English
The kick pattern is also a great opportunity to make your track unique
It would be really intersting to hear how you got into mixing for all those artist. Thanks for all the knowledge
Bom Shanka Occular Scope is a free Plugin that i use all the time , it has ability to show two layers like kick and sub bass , great for trance and psy-trance
I learned doing this while ago but watching your video game me a more clear detailed vision. Thank you for this essential tip. ❤️
plain and simple in explanation - always useful advices - thank you very much sir!
I’m not even an edm producer, I create indie rock/acoustic stuff but your videos are immensely helpful 🙏🏽
Yup. Great video, I’ll be sending this to artists and producers.
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! 🥳
One of the most valuable 6 minutes of my life. Thank you :)
This man’s tip are always on point. I remember the first remix/track of his i ever heard - A remix of David’s Guetta’s “Bad” shit was fire asf
Sir you are a legend in my books!!
This is why sound selection is so important. Engineers can only do so much with what they are given
Sound selection is 90%. Mix and master barely make a difference these days. Thats why many edm and hiphop producers skip it easily
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.
Really really good tip video, Z! THANK YOU
Yea the type of kick is everything, I remember switching my kick to a bad one and it just smashed the limiter with distortion
ITS WORKING! nice job dude
Cool video that, I just use LFO tool to manually shape the tail of whichever kick I decide on which leaves lots of room for bass 😀
I thought the number one problem would be the raw mix of the track, but agreed, the kick counts a lot! Love your vids!
broooo!!! thanks!!! love youuu!! BIG Fan heree!!!! :)
What is it for a volumeshaper? Mine is very different. It has no expand button and I can not freeze the waveform image. I have the latest version
Great video! Thanks
Mannnnnnnnnnn this right here is what I needed
Well done man! Straight to the point and easy to understand
The issue though is that you're sidechaining the kicks to make them fit into the mix. When the kick doesn't fit into the sidechain reduction window, and the rest of the track is blasting over it, you're never going to hear it. I 100% agree with what you're saying as far as electro music, but with stuff like hip hop, jazz, rock, where the kick itself is a much larger part of the mix, the individual character of the kick plays a HUGE role in shaping the beat, and looser kicks can actually sound really nice. I'd be interested to see what your thoughts are in those genres.
Great tip!
This was extremely helpful. Thanks.
-The number one Thing after 1000 mixes was the kick
-Use oscilloscope to analyze the kick wave form
-A bad Kick is one that’s too long
-A bad kick is one with no transient and all rumble
Big z saving Music one video at a time
really good tips, thanks for sharing it with us 🔥
Great video this one! Cheers man
Good tips which every producer should know!
Although this doesn't really apply in kickdrum-based music like hardcore and hardstyle.
Big Z good Video as always! Always looking forward to your videos! :D
This is so, so valuable - could you do the same 'how to choose' vid for snare and clap?
Great tip 🤩
This video saved us…. Thanks BIG Z
Your channel is inbeliavably helpful
You’re like the Yoda of mix engineers cross-producers-cross-awesome-music making dudes. 🙏🏽
Great vid bro! Sweet editing too. This helped me.
What a timing! I am in the middle of remixing songs with problematic kicks. Are you a messenger from God? Thanx man. Looking for an oscilloscope right now. Also your explaining of how compressors work was an eye&ear opener.
Learn to use your eq and save your hard drive from the weight of another plugin
Perfect length. Good teaching. Thanks.
Does this only apply to House music
how do you make that "flatty" bell curve in Q3 at 5:24?