KICK DRUM WORKSHOP: THE BASICS, pt. 2

And now…here’s the conclusion of David D.L.‘s tip covering the basics of kick drum synthesis

OK, it’s time to get this thing to sound like a Kick! (If you have listened to it so far, it’s pretty much a dull low-pitched thud). The trick is to use the pitch envelope to make the sound rapidly drop in pitch.

Activate the pitch envelope & set it to 100% for a massive drop.

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Set the Attack to 0 ms with the Initial Pitch and the Peak at +12 semitones. The Decay and Release times can be left at their default values of 600ms and 50ms. Lastly, set the Sustain and End pitch to -24 semitones which means that the pitch drops a whopping Three Octaves!!

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If you want to add extra character to your bass drum, you can add a third oscillator
with its attack fading in (around 150 to 200 ms)…

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…and play around with the various waveshapes, like 4-bit Sine, Saw 4 to Saw 16, Square 3 to 64, and the Triangle sound quite good. Or make your own waveshape!

Alrighty then. Thanks to David for this! Next we’ll swim out into deeper waters…