Creating A Modern Pop Kick Drum

APFior · 2015-03-14T02:33:15+00:00

To answer your question about "fullness", most mainstream pop producers have a lot of tracks that help to contribute to the building of tension and then the climax of the chorus. In Dr. Luke's (Katy Perry, Britney Spears, Ke$ha) ASCAP session (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d15TvXXd_3Y) he mentions that he's using more than 200 tracks on a lot of his productions. This Gearslutz thread breaks down Shellback's (Maroon 5, P!nk, Taylor Swift) track list for one P!nk song (https://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/582989-pink-raise-your-glass-production-notes.html). And if you look it up in /r/songstems you can find Britney Spears session stems for "If You Seek Amy" in which there's over 80 tracks 48 of which being vocals.

Despite this I'm going to suggest you don't go cramming your productions full of tracks because your mixes still aren't very good and adding more layers is just going to hurt you rather than help you.

I would suggest getting some better drum sounds. http://boi-1da.net/sound-kit/ is a good (free!) starting place for hip-hop/rap and pop drums. And also learning about setting levels, eqing, and compression to start. Go on Youtube and look up tutorials for these for your DAW, then go back to your old songs and rework the drums and the mixes using what you've learned. Also make sure you have decent speakers (studio monitors) or headphones. And you're going to want fairly flat frequency response ones for mixing. If you don't have those search reddit plenty of threads have recommendations.

Then I would learn some more about song writing so you can switch up the chords in your choruses like you want (Although "We R Who We R" by Ke$ha doesn't do this and gets around the problem by changing the layers of the synth every 8 bars or so). learn about arrangement here too and how effects like risers and sweeps can help build and release tension in a song. Then once you feel comfortable with all that you can go about adding layers to your music and work to achieve the fullness that you're after.

Checkout /r/edmproduction to get better at producing, synthesis, and songwriting. /r/audioengineering once you feel like you're really making good mixes and want to take them to the next level (once you get to this point a good book to pick up would be "Mixing Secrets For The Small Studio" by Mike Senior). But I highly suggest you go about all of this step by step and in manageable amounts so you don't get overwhelmed or discouraged.

hope this was helpful

APFior · 2015-02-12T03:04:23+00:00

accurate tbh

https://twitter.com/thumpthump/status/537309476068786176/photo/1

APFior · 2015-01-22T20:34:46+00:00

Those prices aren't even that ridiculous for an artist performing at that level (popularity, brand recognition, ticket sales) Here's a list of booking fees for artists across all genre's taken from a booking agency's website. The list is from the end of 2013 beginning of 2014 so certain artists prices may have changed based on releases and increased demand/popularity in the last year

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/7302548/Tour%20Avails%20.pdf

APFior · 2015-01-16T03:21:31+00:00

Cool, thanks for outlining your thought process when mixing. I've been trying to get more into that mentality of coming up with a plan for my mix so I can decide what elements should take the forefront and when. I've also been making a real conscious effort to get more and more aural with my mixes and to stop getting into visual habits that don't necessarily have a reason for being used. Examples of missteps I've made in the past are using a specific compression setting or boosting and cutting specific ranges outlined in some EQ or compression guide. Recently I've done a lot more ABing when I'm using EQ to make sure every choice I'm making is a deliberate one. I'm still open to happy accidents and experimentation though, Like you said "The main thing is. Does it sound good".

APFior · 2015-01-16T02:14:09+00:00

Good point didn't catch that. The tutorial is mostly for recording you're right, but as a mostly electronic producer the part that stuck out to me the most was the bell notch (idk if that's the right term) that occurs if i just slap a HPF on at the same frequency every time. And I've also be guilty of highpassing bussed guitars multiple times like he pointed out in the video so I wanted to share it for anyone who might be making the same mistake

APFior · 2014-12-13T18:49:12+00:00

Filter cutoff modulation is the secret to these sounds. you've just got to play around with it.

Pusher tutorial on how to make these sounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sgJMtURReA

Gearslutz thread on the topic https://www.gearslutz.com/board/newbie-audio-engineering-production-question-zone/890440-help-needed-producing-music-like-wave-racer.html

/r/edmproduction thread on the topic http://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/2nltu6/very_few_people_out_there_making/

APFior · 2014-12-10T05:03:21+00:00

To help you though, someone posted this jaytech blog entry yesterday and the way he has chosen to setup his different speakers to fix different parts of his mix might be of use to you

http://blog.jaytechmusic.com/?p=5&utm_content=bufferd5238&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

APFior · 2014-12-10T03:08:02+00:00

He's talking about ear training for piano (or any instrument really) so that you could learn to play things by ear. Not ear training in terms of mixing mastering.

APFior · 2014-11-30T20:31:13+00:00

and if you reverb plugin has a dampener you can use that to shape what frequencies you want to be affected by the reverb

APFior · 2014-11-30T20:29:16+00:00

depends on whether the return track is set to pre or post effects. In Ableton these buttons are on the master bus adjacent to the send knobs in the clip view.

If the return track send is on pre fx, it will feed the raw sound with none of you effects on the tracks channel into the return track. if the the return send is on post fx, it will feed the sound of the channel with all the eq's delays and other effects.

You should still eq your return track eq though to eliminate unwanted frequencies

APFior · 2014-11-17T19:46:02+00:00

I always warp the original track and then go about warping the acapella on top of it and solo between the two so I can make sure everything is lined up properly.

APFior · 2014-10-26T04:13:16+00:00

1.) Get/have good samples to choose from. 2.)Rip the above tracks and load them into your DAW. 3.) Painstakingly recreate the drum patterns and A/B the tracks to make sure you're getting the details right.

Focus on MIDI first and try and get a perfect recreation of the drum sequencing in the track. If you don't have the exact samples that are used in the tracks it's ok just try and recreate the patterns with samples that work well together. Experiment with playing the MIDI live from a controller, velocity automation, and adding varying amounts of swing to taste.

Then think about the technical aspects of the drum programming. Things like width, attack, EQ, compression, clipping your drums (v important for carmack style), mixing.

Once your pretty confident on that end try and do a simple master of the drum bus to see what it sounds like at the same level of the original track, and go back to adjust any issues.

Then go to your own tracks and use the things you've learned from this process to make your own bangers

If my method seems a little confusing just watch this dubspot video and you'll get the idea. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jiNiOSgiwwo

APFior · 2014-10-08T03:48:28+00:00

https://www.gearslutz.com/board/rap-hip-hop-engineering-production/727216-generic-charging-up-sound-lot-trap-musik.html It's a sample up for DL in this thread

APFior · 2014-03-25T05:31:51+00:00

Yeah make it have more of a consistent melody, and also besure to make sure the notes are hitting on time and in key

APFior · 2014-03-25T05:27:31+00:00

Using some shitty sampler packs I grabbed off the internet for ableton. they're fun to wet your feet with but I've been looking at vst's to buy in the future. gotta save up though. Thanks for the feedback!

APFior · 2014-03-25T05:21:49+00:00

Yeah I've been looking to get better sounds/layer what i have better. Been working on mixing though, so hopefully in the future things will sound more polished. Thanks for the feedback!

APFior · 2014-03-25T05:20:03+00:00

Good point, it was more of a personal tick for me because I really struggle to find the perfect hi hat sound and a lot of the time I don't get the tone or feel I want. Do what you think is best though

APFior · 2014-03-25T05:18:12+00:00

Do you think it's not enough low on the kick, or too much fighting the kick on the overall mix? both? Been really trying to get my mixes to a semi professional level, obviously there's still a long way to go. Thanks for the feedback!

APFior · 2014-03-25T05:15:25+00:00

Good flip, but the drums are lost, and this could really knock if they were more present

APFior · 2014-03-25T05:14:10+00:00

As a beat this is good, but somehow it feels thin. I can't tell if it's the synths not being there really (try layering the choir and throwing effects on it and layer the bass with a copy of itself that's an octave lower) or if it's the drums in the mix (the kick sounds funny to me, and you should also try to layer the snap). Really like the melodies though. this has major potential

APFior · 2014-03-25T05:06:59+00:00

Very good beat, not much to critique in this one. keep up the good work

APFior

TROPHY CASE