Kick Drum synthesis

nbozic

Hi,

What's the best way to synthesize a kick drum from scratch? (without using the drum module in G2)
I created one (attached) but it sounds pretty lame and shallow... as if there's no substance to it. It's probably because I'm only using one sine wave, but that's what is advised in the book I'm reading right now. (One sine wave oscillator for the main sound and another oscillator for the transient/initial hit)

I'm trying to create one of those hard and rich-sounding Trance kick drums... but can't get it to work... scratch

I would appreciate any pointers.

kick1.pch2

Description:

Current kick drum...

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Filename:

kick1.pch2

Filesize:

1.38 KB

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1445 Time(s)

ian-s · Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 5:31 pm Post subject:

Unless you want to make a realistic kick sound, one sine should be plenty.
Use an oscillator with a sync in or the drift in phase of the oscillator can muddy the attack. The saturator and EQ help as in the example. You can experiment with the shape LFO as an oscillator as well, the variable starting phase can give a nice click for free.

kick101.pch2

Description:

a simple kick

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Filename:

kick101.pch2

Filesize:

1.11 KB

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1877 Time(s)

nbozic · Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 6:35 pm Post subject:

Your patch is very flexible and it has a pretty decent sound.
It also allows me to easily change the feel of the kick and make it suitable for different electronic music genres by tweaking the saturation module.
I guess the saturation module is the key here to give it that "heaviness."
I also tried adding the Clip module and the result was a Rave-like kick sound.

Thanks Very Happy

selvmarcus · Posted: Sat Apr 01, 2006 8:27 pm Post subject:

Hello!

Inspired me to try this, using an (off-gate stopped) SHPLFOA
as a combined wave shaper and amplitude envelope,
by phase and shape modulations.

Can give a kind of "bassline" at counterbeat for free... and wide
range of distorted- or filtered-like sounds.
On the other hand, it´s hard to fine-tune the controls if youre
looking for some special sound.

Found the variations via Patch Mutator, as usual.

Hopefully not confusing you too much...

Marcus

shplfokick_SM.pch2

Description:

Flexible Drumkick & "Bassline" using SHPLFOA (tricky).

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Filename:

shplfokick_SM.pch2

Filesize:

1.08 KB

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1485 Time(s)

nbozic · Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 9:29 am Post subject:

Nice, the beat kinda reminds me of German techno when I still lived in Germany.

dasz · Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2006 9:59 am Post subject:

Clever patch, marcus! it's refreshing, everybody does things differently!

/Dasz

sheridan · Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2006 1:21 pm Post subject:

nbozic, you have patched the control cables to the 100% input on the osc modules. If you patch them to the adjustable inputs, you can... er... adjust the level that you want. Filters and shaping modules can help to... er.. shape the sound.

Here are a few I made earlier:

http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-7037.html

mother misty · Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 4:56 am Post subject:

Hi nbozic!

This is how I usually do my kicks, don't know if this qualifies as a "Trance kick drum"
(5 variations programmed)

LO_FI_KICK.PCH2

Description:

Lo-Fi Kick

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Filename:

LO_FI_KICK.PCH2

Filesize:

2.07 KB

Downloaded:

1515 Time(s)

nbozic · Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:21 am Post subject:

Thanks for the posts.
It looks like I have some excellent examples to work with and I might come up with my own unique patch quite soon.

nbozic · Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2006 5:32 am Post subject:

By the way...
It's intriguing that there are so many different ways to create such a simple thing as a kick drum. Then there are tons of ways to tweak the settings of the patch... It's pretty insane (in a good way) Shocked