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11. Sculpting a kick’s punch with multiband transient-shaping

1 If your kick suffers from a bloated midrange, a multiband transient shaper is the perfect tool for surgically reducing it. Here, we set up iZotope’s Neutron 2 Transient Shaper, with the middle of three bands removing 6dB of Sustain between 150Hz and 2kHz. This gives the kick a more balanced, less midheavy sound.

2 We can add a nice high-frequency ‘click’ to a muffled kick drum by setting up a high band in Neutron 2 above 5kHz, with a 9dB Attack boost dialed in. This is not only much quicker than adding a dedicated layer, but it generally sounds better as we’re avoiding the frequency clashes that layering can introduce.

3 To make your bass and kick gel together more effectively, why not try setting up a low band below 200Hz to remove some sustain? Then, bypass this band whenever the kick plays on its own in the arrangement. This’ll make extra room for your bass to rattle those subs, while avoiding a hollow and weaksounding kick when the bass isn’t playing.