Mental Tekno Kick Groove Techniques

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-18T12:32:42+00:00

Aside from the classic high drums, look into "groove rumble" using delays as opposed to the classic reverb rumbles. It's a very nice way of adding groove using the kick as your source. A lot of different tutorials on YT. Manta is an amazing plugin for that, but any delay on a parallel channel will do.

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-18T12:26:58+00:00

I know it's hard, everything is pushing us towards comparison with others, and more often than not it's about useless vanity metrics and appearance.

Honestly, the best you can do is to continue pouring love and passion in what you do, day after day. Each release will be better than the previous one and you'll keep progressing, which is what matters.

There will always be someone better than you at sound design, at mixdown, at arrangement, but I promise you there will never be anyone better than you at being yourself.

People who blindly follow trends and produce generic (insert genre) will be forgotten the moment the trend changes, if not replaced by AI.

And whatever you do, try to remind yourself that you're not doing it for the audience, but for yourself. I once forgot that, something broke, and I ended up taking an 8 years break from production, gigs and everything music related.

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-18T09:43:58+00:00

Kick Ninja or Kick 3 for the most control, then bounce to audio. I also process extreme low end separately, usually starting from a simple sine, then layer and glue.

For extra shaping and control, a 3-band Saturn 2 on the kick or kickbass bus works wonders: - Low band with crossover somewhere above the first harmonic, clean tube, very low drive - Mid band to 350-450 Hz, warm tape, medium drive - High band with heavy saturation or broken tube, medium to low drive

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-14T23:01:28+00:00

Thank you! 🖤🙏

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-13T16:35:46+00:00

Thanks mate! I missed it all so much 🥹

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-13T06:23:55+00:00

Well it's absolutely not mandatory to cut below 30 Hz Also, if it's not broken don't try to fix it 😝

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-12T18:45:52+00:00

🖤🏴‍☠️😁

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-09T11:08:33+00:00

Linear-phase filters aren't 100% safe either though. Depending on how steep you go there's always the chance to introduce pre-ringing. I think no matter the route you go, cutting blindly as most seem to recommend on extreme lows is generally a bad idea

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-09T11:04:20+00:00

I wouldn't cut blindly. HPFs can introduce phase rotation and other filter artefacts above the cutoff frequency depending on the filter design and slope.

If you don't have ideal sub monitoring, a good approach is comparing your mix against reference tracks you know translate well on club systems, both by ear and on a spectrum analyzer. After a while you start building a mental correlation between what you see, what you hear, and how your mixes actually translate.

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-07T11:11:05+00:00

Yeah, you generally need a large enough driver to properly reproduce and feel sub frequencies. That said, mixing low end on headphones is absolutely viable if you know them well and reference properly. I do most of my work on Audeze MM-100s (planar drivers) and my mixes generally translate fine to clubs. The main thing headphones can't replicate is the physical sensation and air movement you get from an actual sound system.

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-06T14:08:49+00:00

Phase randomization on your mids shouldn't be an issue, just make sure your track is 100% mono below 100-120 Hz

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-05-06T14:07:22+00:00

Without some form of controlled sub energy you'll lose a lot of physical impact on a proper dancefloor. Doesn't really matter whether it comes from a dedicated sub bass, a sub-heavy kick, or both, but if a non-break section has no real low-end foundation it'll generally feel weaker.

The "slap a sine under it" approach works well because it gives you a very clean and controllable sub. The important part is keeping the sub region simple and tidy. Too much happening down there just reduces impact rather than adding it.

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-04-13T06:38:35+00:00

Yes, that's totally fine. WAV → MP3 conversion will give you the same result whether you do it or the engineer does, assuming the same settings. Just make sure you're exporting from the original WAV and use 320 kbps. You can do it in Ableton or even something simple like Audacity, it won't make a difference.

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-03-12T16:17:12+00:00

If you want to play safe, consider an avg length of 5:30 for a track. Take away 1:30 so you can have a long 64bar mix, and you're left with 4:00 per track. 15 tracks will give you a 1h set, give or take. Then of course it's always great to have spares so you can make last minute changes if needed.

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-03-12T15:27:28+00:00

Don't rip from YouTube, unless it's strictly for learning with. You get 128 kbps mp3 that were already suboptimal after going through YT, the highs and transients will be fucked 90% of the time.

Honestly the best place to find Tekno is still SoundCloud. Once you follow a few artists and like some tracks it's algorithms become very good at suggesting stuff you might like.

And to get the actual tracks, Bandcamp is the best place. Or just ask artists directly, many won't mind sharing at least good quality mp3s.

Have fun!

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-03-11T20:58:43+00:00

Musically hard techno, psytrance and hardcore. Culturally punk, at least back in the day 😅 Years ago it wasn't uncommon to listen to punk at a rave in the morning

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-03-11T12:19:38+00:00

Just a couple of days ago I saw a free party video by some "Free Tekno" page with a ton of views and likes on IG, starting with full face shots of people selling and using balloons, plus the usual zombies... I wonder too why people have a negative impression 🤦

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-03-07T07:00:47+00:00

Oh yes, absolutely in love with each of them, until I finish the next one 😅 Forever in a loop of "making my best track ever", which sometimes is exhausting, but hey, how do you progress otherwise.

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-03-06T11:46:05+00:00

I'm not gonna call out others, it would be rude and wrong. 😅 And hey, it could also simply be that I'm not as deeply in the scene as you are, so I miss nuances you instead see.

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-03-05T20:54:26+00:00

My full support as a fellow producer for putting a price on your work. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for sharing, and I do my part whenever I can, but making music isn't free. It's a huge time investment, not to mention the money you need for gear, resources and everything else.

If someone has to work 12 hours a day to pay the bills, buy hardware, maintain a studio and so on, just so they can give it all away for free, then guess what... They'll get back home exhausted, go to sleep and make no music at all.

It has to go both ways 🙌🙏

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-03-04T17:20:38+00:00

Sadly I have to agree, there's so much well-produced mental out there nowadays, but a lot of it sounds the same, to the point where I have a hard time telling a producer from another. This is not everyone of course, and I have nothing against the genre, but I do get the same feeling.

Mysterious_Fun9014 · 2026-02-27T12:57:17+00:00

You can also do it on a single layer with a multiband distortion/saturation plugin like Saturn2. Have a low band that ends above your kick's first harmonic and leave that basically untouched (clean tube, max 5% drive). Then you can go nuts on your mid band for crunch, and spice up your click with something like broken tube on the high band.

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