My kick drums sucked until I learned THIS

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[Sindicate_DnB]

honestly I don't care about the so called fundamental frequency of a kick anymore... I just trust my ears. Also the biggest lie is that a kick drum only hits the "tuned" frequency, it's a swipe through the sprectrum and reaches the desired frequency just in the end for a very short amount of time. In my genre (drum & bass) we make kicks so short it often doesn't even have the time to reach that frequency anymore, so why even bother trying to make it match the key. More important is the context: busy kick pattern, it might be wise to use a higher short kick; moderate kick pattern, you can use a deeper kick. but in the end it's more important how it sounds together with your track

[chocomalk]

What's funny to me is literally everything is tuned perfectly these days leading to an overabundance of resonance that then needs to be taken out later. Some of the best drummers hit the kick out of tune up to a fourth above the fundamental and it sounds great, even adds to the feel of the song. Even a little detuning helps. One of your picks was a kick in A, one whole step above the root, you could also use an F one step below to create a pushing feeling. It's all about context but consonance is not always needed, check out man in the box by Alice in chains. A low E and D riff played together.

[zanejohnides]

Been mixing for damn near 10 years but still go back and watch even beginners tutorials every so often. Your mindset on everything is pretty spot on with the way I see everything 💯

[DashNiveDNB]

another thing I learned and helped tons in my mixes, is that the length of a kick shouldn't be longer than an eigth note, to give the bass and other elements more space :) and yes tuning your kick makes work much easier, except you use specific patterns.

[MOSMASTERING]

Depends heavily on the genre. There is a split right down the middle between EDM producers whether the kick should be in key or not. In techno, where the kick is usually very distorted and becomes part of the rolling bassline, its usually much better to have it in key. In Psytrance, the kick is a sine sweep from high to low and generally doesn't stop on one particular frequency. Deadmau5 went on a rant on one of his videos about kicks being short and just there to hold the rhythm and so tuning it is completely pointless.

In short - I think it depends on the length of your kick. The genre. The style you're going for. I usually play with the kick drum throughout the production of the whole track and slowly nudge it closer to the perfect sound as I go. Just get the track going with anything close to begin with, then edit it. At some point when half the track is made and there are sounds across the frequency spectrum, then I might pick 10 or more kicks and audition them in the context of the song and see what works best.

Some kicks don't have a fundamental if they are sine sweeps. If you use a plugin like Kick2 (awesome! Use it on every track) you can design the kick to stop and hold on a particular frequency for a while to give it a tone. Also, adding a hi hat or kickdrum beater on the top of the sample can affect its placement in the track as well.

A great tip for finding out whether it fits in the track is to bring out the tone hugely with distortion and saturation, go over the top, bring out the GRIT and tone.. then adjust it with pitchshifting and take off the distortion.

Layering kicks is difficult, but worth practicing. Don't forget to toggle the phase of each of your samples to see how they fit. You should never layer two kicks with big low end together, you're really looking for the top and bottom that work well together.

Phase - yeah, always flip the phase on your kick and see how it fits. Check out some Psytrance kick tutorials if you're looking for advanced ways to fit your kick and bass together too.. it applies to all genres. Sidechaining to get elements out the way for the kick, also to blend it into the bass and add rhythm and bounce with the right ducking curve.

I flip the phase on pretty much everything if you can get an extra 1% things fitting together. I have a huge checklist of mixing things I have built up over my time mixing to get a 1% or 2% here and there that adds up to a track and all the elements working together for a cohesive sound.

[lespieces]

This channel is great. High quality information, reminds of the great Dan Worall. It's refreshing. I realized a bit late that MOST Youtubers only cares about clicks, comments and views to grow and make a living by monetizing clickbait shitty content. Seriously, thanks.
This kick tuning nightmare reminds me of that famous ''Use your ears'' that everyone says and that I used to hate. It's the most irritating quote, and the most important one. The hell with asking yourself which key is that, or to use linear or minimum, or which hi pass slope. Feels like trusting your ears is the first and last step of audio processing.

[panorama_mastering]

Great work!
In terms of sound design and sample selection;

I've always found for both mixing and mastering; the BEST low end comes from arrangements that take into consideration the relative intonation of the fundamentals between the bass line and the kick drum; as well as how they're arranged rhthymically!

[xrabbz]

This is great advice, I do tune kick drums but not for harmonic reasons, for mixing reasons, if the fundamental of the kick is punching in a different area than the bass i I find it’s easier to mix. I always see people eqing the Shit out of kick and bass to get them to sound better together but doing what I mentioned above eliminates the need, leaving me with a more balanced, more natural track.

[DowdenProductionAcademy]

Great video! This topic is actually in my list of 'TO DO' videos because it's something I notice I'm teaching a lot to my students. I'm finding myself using the root note less and less because sometimes the higher/lower pitch just fits so much better.

[PitchDriftProductions]

100% agreed. Also, pacing in this video was perfect. Really like how the editing improves constantly!

[gokhan]

Great video again. I am learning a lot from your videos. I hope you can create a video of how to fit the kick right in the mix with low end. Because when i mix my kick, it lacks a lot of ‘body’ at the end. It wont hit you in the chest/stomach. I am mostly ruining the original kick.

Thanks a lot for this great content again

[briancase]

I think this is correct. One reason might be that in some cases, the tone / note that the kick drum STARTS on is more important than the note / tone of the body of the kick. So, choosing C instead of D means the kick starts, likely, on D (or something close) which is compatible with the key of G (either major or minor): it's the fifth, obviously.

[NoNamer]

Unless your kick is changing notes or spends a long time on a specific frequency, it doesn't really make sense to me to tune it to the song or have it in a specific key.


For a Techno kick you can just mash/create two basic atonal kicks where one has a slight delay (as in it starts a tiny bit later) and then pitch them so they sound fat.

[fromherebeyond]

I recently built an Ableton rack with the Meld synth and different "MIDI shapers" controlling pitch bend and volume to get more into the sound design of kicks and came to my personal conclusion that detuning the kick in its beginning really adds up to its quality. At least for my taste.

[stefankatic]

Good ol’ reliable, just use your ears. It will make you go a long way.

I usually craft a kick with processing 909 samples, or less often sound design it with Operator or 3rd party vsts. Then adding layers like punch if needed, rumble, texture, atmosphere, short kick/low perc for groove. Then adding a bassline, various ways to make one.

Basically, the kick sets the feeling of my track, unless I want to use a specific sound, like 303 for example, then kick would have to be dominant but still not overshadow the 303, but let the 303 set the feeling. Balancing those “supportive” layers and other elements can be hard, and sometimes it just falls apart or isn’t as interesting as I tried to make it.

[Saigo]

Needed this video. Thanks Philip! Great content as always!

[flyoverfredusa]

really glad you showed the sample pack example, happens so much. Great vid

[Reg-Edit]

A great way is to pitch up two octaves and you can really hear the pitch
Then tune the kick
till it sounds good.

The rules are, there are no rules
Unless you want to sound like everybody else
🤔

[damienthorn]

You tune your kick to your bassline. They have a very fundamental relationship, both physically and ideally. It's the bassline that needs to be tuned to the key of a song. That way they all fall in line. Meaning you tune your bass, then your kicks to the bass.

[fainst]

Love your approach and your videos. Thanks !!