Workflow Wednesday met Headhunterz: Kicks

Door Hard News 11 februari 2016

Headhunterz is erg actief op Instagram en trakteert z’n volgers dan ook dagelijks op nieuwe updates. Hoewel hij niet meer zo actief is op het gebied van hardstyle, is hij sinds een tijdje bezig met het geven van waardevolle studio-tips.

‘Workflow Wednesday’ noemt hij deze tips zelf. Aangezien veel van onze lezers zelf ook wel eens aan wat knopjes proberen te draaien in de studio zullen we deze tips iedere week op de website publiceren. Gisteren besloot hij om wat uit te leggen over ‘Kicks’. Lees en leer!

“Last week we talked about low end, and continuing on that I want to talk about Kicks. The kick has to work perfectly together with the bass and the sub, and all three of them are very likely to start fighting each other if not tweaked perfectly. The easiest way to look at a kick is as a pitch envelope. It consists of 3 parts. Attack, body, and tail.

Attack is the first few milliseconds of the kick which gives it’s presence in the mix, mostly mid/high mid frequencies and pitches down very quickly to where the body kicks in, the part that hits you in the stomach. In hardstyle this part is often muted a little bit so that the emphasis is more on the tail part but in progressive house for example, it’s more present. Then comes the tail which is pure sub, and depending on if your track has a chord progression or stays on one note, this part can be long or short. If it’s too long and your drop plays different bass notes, the sub of the kick will clash with the bass.

A lot of people start just layering samples but this can go wrong very easily. And I just don’t think it’s necessary. If the kick is a pitch envelope, then why not just make the envelope yourself? the way the pitch envelope travels is going to determine completely the way your kick sits in the mix. A body that that hits around 250hz will sound much more punchy and less heavy than a body kicking in at 150hz. So just play with it. I always use Sonic Academy Kick by @nickyromero . If you want to know if you’re on the right track, drag a song you like into your project, high cut it to 250 hz and listen to the pressure the kick is giving. Then high cut your kick and tweak the pitch envelope until it feels the same. If you tweak the pitch envelope right, not a lot of eq-ing is needed.

I very rarely use compression on kicks. A compressor is an automatic volume thingy. Why use that when you can have complete control over the volume envelope when you’re designing the kick? If you want a louder punch, gain the punch! lol. Also, but this has been said many times , make sure the tail of the kick is in the key of the song! Good luck!”

Bekijk hieronder eerdere tips die Headhunterz gaf en volg hem hier op Instagram.

#1. Workflow Wednesday | Mixing
#2. Workflow Wednesday | Low end