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Stuck on kick drum.

Hi everyone,

I've got a problem that's making music production very annoying for me. I'm looking for a kick drum in the style of Bonobo, Floating Points, even Moderat especially in the III album: something that sounds fat, but soft and "rounded" at the same time, like in Cirrus or Flashlight by Bonobo, as I've just said. I'm trying to make a 909 kick sounding similar but the results are not what I'm looking for. I'm also looking for samples but can't find nothing.

Could you please help me/suggest me something ?

This might not be the type of answer you're looking for, but I used to get stuck on kick drums as well. I was making progressive house, and instead of obsessing over the quality of my kicks (which admittedly are very important) I sampled them from existing tracks. So I would take a track like deadmau5 Arguru and sample a clean kick from the very end of the track. That way you've got something 'pro' to work with and you can focus on the rest of the track.

GEAR:
  • Fender Telecaster Custom Electric Guitar
  • Big Ear Pedals Woodcutter
  • HeadRush FRFR Go Portable Desktop Amplifier

do you have any hardware synths? or any drum kits? or both? what about samples of pele kicking a soccer ball? have you sampled yourself smacking a baking sheet with a rubber malllet? there's a lot more options when it comes to dance kicks than 808 and 909 samples or some of the VST kick drum generators.

EDIT:

A lot of dance music and professionally created hiphip mixes use very layered kicks. Go look up kicks on pensado's Place for an introduction, but his ideas are tame by my standards. He's Mr 808+soccer ball (although that's probably not the sound you're looking for here, justs aying that its an example of making the sound you want from some drum machine, maybe a sample of a non-musical source that is percussive or an analog synth patch all mixed).... also keep in mind that you can drastically change the feel of your kick with dynamics control. I'm sure you know some basics but there are things you can do with roland samples that really mutate them if you're willing to deviate from the old parallel VCA techniques that will round those samples more. Do you have access to any older roland samples that are softer like a dr55? My dr55 is a pretty limited device but it has the softest electronic kick of any drum machine.... in a good way. Its not great on its own but compressed carefully with a sample or two to add a little punch and click without compromising the furry analog goodness? might eb what the dr (pun intended) ordered.... also look up bedroom producer blog, that blog had an article awhile ago that included some analog drum amchine samples that were compressed and recorded hot to tape softening the edges of even the harder machines. Do a google search for 'tape 909 samples'

I hope the ideas I added to my original post help you find the sound your looking for without lifiting it from the track you're referencing... or maybe inspire you to create a sound that's even better than the reference sound.

GEAR:
  • Roland Juno-6
  • Gibson SG Standard
  • Vox AC30 Guitar Combo Amp

i say go eletronic mate, perherps any TR Rloand synth kit should do it mate