As a producer your kick drum defines your sound and can make or break your track. It is is easily one of the most important elements in any dance track. After battling kick drums for years, Ableton Certified Trainer Lenny Kiser has found some simple and effective techniques for getting  kicks to sound punchy and fat on a club system and laptop – read on for his secrets! There are many different ways to design and process a kick and many producers do it in their own unique way. This is not the only way to do it but rather a great starting point for learning how to build great kicks. In my work I have found that there are four main considerations to take into account when developing a kick – read on for each, or check out a video tutorial of all four at the end of this article! Editor’s Note: Lenny, an Ableton Certified Trainer, has experience making kick drums off all kinds in his own remixes and productions. Check out the kicks in his recent remix of STRFKR’s “While I’m Alive”:

Choosing the right sample is number one. Take as much time as you need on this, as the right kick sample may be light years better than the one you just EQ’d for six hours! Set aside some time to find solid kick samples and organize them in a way you can access quickly when producing. Some good tips on finding the right sound: The next step to an effective kick is to layer different samples together – designate one as the, “Top Kick” which will contain the mid and high frequencies and one as the, “Bottom Kick” which will contain the low frequencies. The top kick is what people will hear and the bottom kick is what people will feel. No two molecules can share the same physical space and neither can two kick drums. You’ll need to remove some of the low frequencies from the top kick so it doesn’t fight with the bottom kick. This can be done in many different ways. I prefer to use the filter in the simpler device and set it to, “highpass 24.” Play the two kicks together and adjust the filter on the top kick until you hear a point where the two kicks play nicely together and sound like one.

The frequency at which you stop at is dependent upon the samples you are using so use your ears and stop where it sounds good. I recommend doing this with sub-woofer or on headphones that can reproduce some low frequencies below 50hz. The advantage to using a synthesized sub kick rather than a sample is that you have more control of how your kick sounds in the mix. The ability to change the amplitude envelope on a synth gives you control over how fast the sound reaches its loudest peak (attack stage) and how long it lasts for (decay stage). This is extremely helpful when placing your kick in a busy mix as a faster attack will mean a punchier kick and a longer decay will mean a larger and longer feeling kick. Dance music is extremely rhythmic, so getting your kicks to pulse perfectly in time with the tempo is huge! There are many ways to generate a synth sub kick and here are three that I have found useful: Now that you’ve got your kicks layered and filtered, it’s time to process and glue them together to make them sound like one.

I use compression to glue the sounds together, EQ to subtract any additional fighting frequencies and saturation to add warmth, grit and distortion. 2005 Arctic Cat 400 4x4 Top SpeedPay particular attention to the order in which you place your devices in your signal chain as this will have a factor in the overall sound. Puppies For Adoption BoiseI’ve found that using the above chain, EQ-Comp-Saturation-EQ works well.Parson Russell Terrier Puppies For Sale In Ct Your kick will sit better in the mix and be more musical if it is tuned to the key of your song. To do this you will first need to figure out the fundamental frequency of your kick. Use the frequency display on EQ8 or Spectrum to do this. Open the frequency display and place your mouse over the peak of the kick.

This will show you the frequency and associated pitch in a dialogue box below. Now you can tune your kick using the transposition control in the simpler or on the tuning or pitch control of the synth. It is very helpful to use a reference chart (like the one above) before tuning that shows which frequencies are associated with certain pitches. This is done for you if with the Drumsynth Kick or Bazzism. If you’re having issues grasping any of the above concepts – check out the video below where I show off the techniques discussed above and specifically how to use them in practice: Kick drums are worth investing the time to get them right. Through strategic sample selection, layering, processing, and tuning, your kicks will make your tracks shine and people will dance! I can’t emphasize enough that the most important thing to take away from this is to find the right kicks to start with. Check out some of the Mad Zach sample packs for some great kicks to start building with.

Lenny Kiser is an electronic music producer, performer, audio engineer and instructor – need more tips? Let him know on Twitter.In the world of computing, the differences between 32-bit and 64-bit anything can be quite confusing.  The following article helps to clarify the differences between 32 and 64-bit operating systems as well as between 32 and 64-bit programs.  It also explains the reasons for choosing one way or the other and walks through the steps to determine if your current operating system and/or DAW is 32-bit or 64-bit. There are a number of reasons a user would want 64-bit operating systems and programs.  While 64-bit does not add 'power', 'speed', or 'features', it does allow the ability access much more RAM, and therefore a 64-bit program and operating system would have the ability to run more memory-intensive programs that depend on things such as samples, patches, and RAM. Below you will find more information on  32-bit and 64-bit operating systems and programs.

The terms 32-bit and 64-bit refer to how much of your computer's memory (RAM) can be used by the installed operating system and the applications that run within that operating system. Although both 32-bit and 64-bit programs can be installed on a 64-bit operating system, a 32-bit program will only be able to access up to about the first 4 gigabytes of memory (RAM). By contrast, a native 64-bit program installed on a 64-bit operating system will be able to utilize a much higher amount of memory (RAM), allowing for much larger projects and more memory-intensive operations. Although this fact is always true, some 64-bit hosts allow for a "bridge" program enabling the abilty to run a 32-bit plugin in a 64-bit host. For any potential information on "bridge" programs that may work in the host of your choice, refer to the host program documentation or support. There are two things to know about a Mac in the context of determing if the OS is 64-bit.  First, is the processor 64-bit capable? 

Second, is the OS running in 32-bit or 64-bit mode? To determine if your Mac OS is running in 32-bit or 64-bit mode: NOTE: Mac Mountain Lion 10.8 and later do not support running in 32-bit mode. Click on the Apple menu and then choose About This Mac. In the window that opens, choose More Info... In the Contents pane, choose Software. If 64-bit Kernel and Extensions: is set to Yes, then you are running a 64-bit version of the operating system. If 64-bit Kernel and Extensions: is set to No, then you are running a 32-bit version of the operating system. To Switch Between 32-bit and 64-bit mode: NOTE: Your Mac will revert to the default mode the next time you reboot it. All versions of Pro Tools prior to Pro Tools 11 are 32-bit.  AVID has announced that Pro Tools 11 will be released as a 64-bit native software progam. NOTE: All versions of Ableton Live prior to version 8.4 are 32-bit. To determine what version of Ableton Live is currently installed and whether or not it is a 32-bit or 64-bit installation, follow the steps suggested below:

Steinberg's Cubase DAW began to offer native 64-bit installation begining with Cubase 4.  Most LE versions of the software are 32-bit only.  To determine whether the currently installed version is 32-bit or 64-bit, follow the steps below: PreSonus Studio One allows for the installation of either the 32-bit or 64-bit versions of the DAW.  To determine which one is currently installed, follow the steps below: Cockos' Reaper offers the choice to install either the 32-bit or the 64-bit version of the DAW.  To determine which version is currently installed, follow the steps suggested below: When Logic is installed, both the 32-bit and the 64-bit version of the DAW is included in the installation.  Prior to opening the program, the user can indicate which version should be opened. To first determine which mode Logic is currently opened in, follow the steps suggested below: To change which version of Logic opens, follow the steps suggested below: Finally, open Logic and go to Logic > About Logic Pro to ensure the correct version of Logic Pro has opened.