00:00:09 Today, I'm gonna show you how to add
more depth and clarity to your kick drums.
00:00:13 I've got a track here
already sounding pretty good,
but my kick drum seems to be lacking
a little something.
00:00:19 Before we get started, let's take
a listen to the chorus of the song
and see if you notice anything
missing with the kick drum,
and then we'll dive in
and start working on it.
00:00:27 Here we go!
It's a pretty good sounding
track, right?
The mix is pretty far along,
but I'm listening on pretty good speakers,
and I can tell there's a kick drum,
but I can't really feel it yet.
00:01:08 So let's listen to the kick drum in solo
and see what it sounds like.
00:01:23 Here in that kick, I feel like
it's all head, and no chest or body yet.
00:01:27 I could try and use an EQ
but there just might not be a lot of
low-end information there to pull up.
00:01:33 Instead, I'm gonna use
the Plug & Mix Clarisonix plug-in
to add bottom and weight to my kick.
Let's check it out.
00:01:40 I'm gonna start by tweaking
the Lo Focus knob.
00:01:43 It doesn't tell you
what frequency it is,
but I can tell you
that you can feel it right here.
00:01:47 As I turn that up, I'm gonna turn
the output down just a little bit.
00:01:50 Now, let's check out what it's doing.
00:02:12 So as you can hear,
as I turn the Lo Focus up more,
the kick drum just suddenly becomes
more bassy.
00:02:18 It does lose a little bit of definition
towards the higher numbers,
but that's probably a function
a little bit of my parallel compression,
and my 2-bus processing working harder
as I turn up the kick drum.
00:02:30 Let's check this out, before and after,
at roughly the same level.
00:02:33 First, without.
00:02:42 And with.
00:02:52 So as you can hear,
when I turn up the Lo focus,
I'm losing a little bit of the attack,
which is basically
all that kick drum was to begin with,
but I'm adding a lot of chest, a lot of
meat to my kick drum, which is great.
00:03:03 Let's see what adding some Sub Level
to my kick drum will do.
00:03:07 I wanna make sure that everyone's
listening to this on either good headphones,
or speakers that can reproduce
these low frequencies.
00:03:13 If you're listening to this on earbuds,
or laptop speakers,
it's all just gonna sound
the same to you.
00:03:18 So let's check it out.
00:03:20 I turn the output down
a little bit more.
00:03:36 As you can hear when I'm playing with
the Sub Mode buttons,
just, it sounds slightly different.
Some sound lower, some sound higher,
and once again, they're not labelled,
so you just go with what your ears tell you,
which one sounds the best.
00:03:48 In this case, I think I like
how Sub 3 sounds.
00:03:50 So let's check this out
before and after again.
00:03:54 First, without the Sub.
00:04:05 And now, with some Sub.
00:04:22 It's not just for fun. Let's listen
to the kick without the plug-in completely,
and then with it again.
First, without.
00:04:37 And now, with.
00:04:47 It's hard to believe that that's the same
kick drum sample, isn't it?
Now, if you look at my kick, it has
a lot of weight to it,
a lot of bottom end,
which I was really looking for,
but we've got to see how this sounds
with the rest of the mix in.
00:04:58 Let's check out the before and after
in the context of the mix.
00:05:02 First, with.
00:05:18 And now, without.
00:05:36 And again with the Clarisonix.
00:05:55 It feels like I accomplished exactly
what I set out to do with my kick drum,
adding a lot more meat
to its bones.
00:06:00 But I think in doing so, I may have slowed it
down a little too much with all that weight.
00:06:05 I need to add some presence back to it,
to bring it forward in the mix,
and allow it to be heard
on your small speakers and earbuds.
00:06:11 So I'm gonna reach for
the Clarity knob
just turn it up a little bit,
and that should do just the trick.
00:06:16 I'm gonna play back the chorus
one more time,
and as it's playing back, I'm gonna
crank up the Clarity knob,
and you'll hear the kick drum
just sort of move forward,
and become more present as I do so.
00:06:55 So as I showed you today,
it is possible to add more meat, punch,
and clarity to your kick drums,
without even using an EQ,
or a compressor.
00:07:05 I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.
Until next time! I'm Ben Lindell.
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Ben is a NYC based producer/engineer who has worked with artists from MGMT to Soulja Boy, Bebel Giberto to Lloyd Banks, Ryan Leslie, Olivia, Tony Yayo, Red Cafe, Edie Brickell, Carole Pope and hundreds of other artists from around the world. He grew up in Iowa and then attended the University of Miami.
In addition to being a fantastic musician he is also a tremendous geek when it comes to anything technical, be it software, plug-ins, microphones or outboard gear. It's this marriage of musical creativity and technical know-how that makes him an in demand producer/engineer.
Ben is also the Director of Marketing at pureMix.net, feel free to reach out to him directly, ben@puremix.net
ok....thats totally different...I love the groove after P&M
gksounds
2017 Apr 17
Great video but I have what I feel is a pretty important suggestion. When you're A/B-ing a plugin on and off. It's really distracting when you stop everything and say 'and now here it is bypassed' and then play.
It would be much better if you just played the song and flicked between bypass on and off as the song is playing so we can listen in pure free-flowing context. I found myself getting impatient every time you stopped the track and explained that you were now enabling the plugin.
I hope this doesn't come across overly harsh but it would be a great tweak to make in the vids!
mixedbyjojo
2016 Sep 15
u saved it for the big speakers but on small speakers it vanished totally even when u added from the clarity knob... parallel subing would work better
composermikeglaser
2016 Apr 23
Nice one Ben, a quick approach to get an extra punch in the chest.
joelgenaro
2015 Dec 10
wow....good.
joelgenaro
2015 Dec 10
wow....good.
mike4sound
2015 Oct 03
Whats an alternative plugin to this one?
jeromewauk
2015 Apr 06
Great tutorial , and one of the best plugins I own. I love the way you turn it till it sounds right , without all the nasty side effects some eq's add.
Media BCD
2015 Feb 28
Clarisonix is a great 2 knob EQ Low and High. Could have done the same thing with an EQ but it's a good way of showing other ways of working. Personally I liked the kick how it was and though a heavier bass line would have complemented it better, but with the kick sub's frequencies added, it sounded great Too! Good Job!
BEATMASTERGT
2015 Jan 22
QUE BUEN TUTORIAL, MUY PROFESIONAL Y MUY CLARA LA EXPLICACION.
rogerio vieira
2015 Jan 04
Very Good!!!!
fer2009@me.com
2014 Dec 30
sound best without at least on laptop speakers
alexo82
2014 Dec 14
Bravissimo!!
Nenette
2014 Apr 24
Wow! Good plug. Thx for this tuto
Christian Matthew Cullen
2013 Oct 11
Mix sounds awesome- What are you using on your 2 buss? Thanks!
joemarvelly
2013 Oct 07
Is that a Yamaha CS80 in your studio?
g
2013 Jun 21
It comes free with a pureMix subscription.
Sly099
2013 Jun 21
Hi,
how do i get the Plugin?
Lg Tonsly aha
jasonxoc
2013 Jun 07
That track is awesome! Did you produce that?
P&M Clearsonix looks like VOG with some more super useful options. Very cool!
