Double kick drums
Double kick drums – quite literally two kick drums, each with its own pedal, or a single kick drum with a specially-designed double pedal enabling it to be played with both feet – are largely the preserve of metal and hard rock, but if you think a quick flurry of low-end percussion could make the perfect bridge between the verse and chorus of your sensitive folk-rock number, don’t be shy about giving it a go.
A few drum kit ROMplers offer separate samples for left and right kick drums (Toontrack’s Metal! EZX, for example), but that’s by no means essential, and realistic results are easily achieved by simply alternating between full velocity and slightlyless-than-full-velocity hits, emulating the tonal differences that you’d inevitably get with two separate kick drums, no matter how closely they’re tuned.
Having said that, if you are actually programming drums for a metal track, you may well want to keep the velocity of your double (and, indeed, single) kick drums constant and disable any round robin functionality, to get the relentlessly consistent ‘triggered’ sound of the genre. Double kick drum-style patterns can work very well in electronic and dance tracks, too, where realistic dynamics and tonal variation aren’t factors. That hammering, in-your-face assault will still take any drum part in a very aggressive direction, however, so do exercise restraint, and keep the effect short and very occasional, as it’s decidedly off-piste.