Beefing up the 808 kick

The track’s kick drum has already been EQed via Alex’s desk, but it’s not popping through the mix to his satisfaction, so he uses Waves’ API 2500 plugin to compress it with a relatively subtle 2:1 Ratio, helping it sound louder in the mix. Next, he adds a PuigTec MEQ5 to dip the 200Hz range slightly and boost its overall gain, which helps emphasise the kick’s bottom end and punchy highs. He copies the track and mutes the duplicate to create a silent sidechain trigger channel, which keeps the sidechain-compressed parts sounding consistent even when the audible kick drum isn’t playing.