tags: music production audio electronic edm kick kick-drum drums

Kick Drum

Every kick has 3 main elements:

  1. [transient] (click)
  2. body (punchy bit)
  3. tail (sub-tail)

Kick Transient

EDM kicks tend to have a high-[frequency] click that gives more presence, while kicks in other styles of music have less of a click.

Kick Body

The bass tends to be put in front of the kick body.

Kick Tail

The tail of a kick tends to be much shorter than the "quarter-note" length of most tracks, in general near the 8th to 16th note length.

Kick Envelope

The [envelope] is how the kick behaves over time; how the [transient] and body fade into the tail.

Kicks tend to hit a higher frequency at the transient and then fade into lower frequencies during the body and tail.

Layering

When it comes to layering, more isn't better. If you don't know what you're doing, you can actually create some [phase] issues, which defeats the purpose of layering.

Figure out what your kick is missing, and asking whether you need a new kick or just a new layer.

Layers:

  1. Sub
  2. Punch
  3. Click/transient

"Frequency Guides"

Load tracks with kick drums that you want to emulate into your DAW, and use a spectral analyzer to figure out which frequencies match their kick drums.

Then, look at the current kick in your track, and try and match your kick with the kick you want to emulate, either by EQ, adding a layer, or choosing a different kick altogether.

Tips