PRO TIPS

SHAPING TONE

It’s a good idea to shape your bass drum with subtractive EQ. I often try a gentle notch in the lowmid area (usually around 150-400Hz depending on the kick in question), which will not only pull away mud, but also enhance frequencies above.

Need to assign your kick to a secondary role in the low end? Then reach for a high-pass filter and carve space for sub-bass. Raise that filter’s frequency value – in the context of the entire mix, of course – until your kick has the minimum amount of low end it needs. If it sounds a bit too thin after this, dial in a little resonant bump around the cutoff point to push back some focused ‘oomph’.

No amount of EQ will add frequencies that aren’t there to start with, however, which is why I often program a percussive ‘zap’ or click pattern to fill in missing frequencies and provide groovy flavour.

KICK-FREE PUMPING

In dance music, sidechain compression is commonplace. You assign a mix signal as a trigger (usually the kick drum), then use that signal to trip a compressor placed on another channel (a bassline, say), creating that signature ‘pumping’ effect heard in most four-to-the-floor genres.

For me, sidechain compression is fiddly to set up and disrupts my workflow, hence why I’m a fan of volume-shaping plugins such as Nicky Romero’s Kickstart and Xfer’s LFOTool. Simply insert one on a channel, draw in your volume shape over time (or select a preset curve), then use the mix knob to dial in the desired amount of ducking. This way, you can get uber-precise and draw in complex volume shapes – for example, if I want to move a bassline out of the way of my kick’s initial transient, I can conveniently draw this shape and refine the effect for next-level transparency.