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So I'm sure this thread has been posted before, but I couldn't find it around for the life of me. So guys, what do you do to heighten the punch and snap of your kick drum when mixing in LSDJ? I've been trying some things out, but nothing really seems to work as well as I want it to. I normally just have a simple table with the first row transposing an octave and the rest down an octave, coupled with the pitch bend. What tricks do you guys employ?
Last edited by Soleviio (Jul 17, 2012 3:35 pm)
compression, yo
also, try adding a filtered snare around the 500 hrtz rnge to provide more of a beating soung
though it looks like your using lsdj.
Pitch command and a k command?
mix the rest of your track down (amplitude wise) and then drive the gain up, post production?
Last edited by SKGB (Jul 17, 2012 8:12 am)
if you record each channel separately, then it is fairly easy to put emphasis on the size of your kick... however, for playing live, I would have to exactly agree with SKGB...
I find wav kicks most definitely work the best.
This is what I do: I set the instrument to manual. In the synth, I have a triangle wave with the starting volume around 70 and the ending volume around 10 or so. I go to the first wave screen, and find the top and bottom of the wave. I take the three center-most pixels within each, and move them completely to the other side. In the table, I have a PF0 command, then PE0, then PD0, then two empty, then PF0, then Kill. On the other column, I put an F command on the second slot. It should be around F0C, but I adjust it to have the purest tone. On the transposition column, I set the first slot to 0C and the rest to 00.
I might be missing something, but that is basically how I do my kick. The clipping/wrapping at the start and the smooth wave afterwards make for a very powerful kick. My latest track uses this, if you want a preview. If that's not enough, recording just the wave channel and using compression can help a lot. For live stuff, pan pulse/noise and wave to different sides (B+left/right), feeding the wave through a compressor, and mixing it together could work quite well. Also, EQ is always a good idea.
Last edited by Cooshinator (Jul 17, 2012 11:42 pm)
if you record each channel separately, then it is fairly easy to put emphasis on the size of your kick... however, for playing live, I would have to exactly agree with SKGB...
just gonna snag a slight tangent on the main topic..(i use nanoloop, dont have a cart with the lsdj rom).. how would one ideally separate tracks into audio software for later mixing? exporting each channel via midi sync? or analog output, that is playing each channel solo, then reconstructing them? or is there some kind of way to bundle export the sound directly and separated within lsdj?.....curious....
Live mode, play a channel whilst recording. Do the same over and over for the rest of them.
just gonna snag a slight tangent on the main topic..(i use nanoloop, dont have a cart with the lsdj rom).. how would one ideally separate tracks into audio software for later mixing? exporting each channel via midi sync? or analog output, that is playing each channel solo, then reconstructing them? or is there some kind of way to bundle export the sound directly and separated within lsdj?.....curious....
Lsdj lets one mute/solo individual channels. I assume he means soloing the desired channel and re-recording for each channel.
Bgb I believe has a "record channels individually" feature, if one doesn't mind the lack of authentic sound and just wants to simplify things.
EDIT:
Live mode, play a channel whilst recording. Do the same over and over for the rest of them.
I much rather prefer soloing channels. For one, tempo and master volume effects on other channels would not take effect. Plus, particularly advanced songs can cause slowdowns; when soloing, lsdj still processes the other channels and slowdown will be much more consistent throughout recordings.
Last edited by Cooshinator (Jul 18, 2012 1:38 am)
Live mode, play a channel whilst recording. Do the same over and over for the rest of them.
in..ta...resting.... and no noticeable changes in sync?
Record kick separately from the other instruments.
it doesn't have to be as complicated as multi-tracking all the channels though (although that clearly gives you more options). you can get really big kick sound on a single stem recording just through a bit of frequency-specific compression and EQing. kick drum "thump" is around 40-90hz and the beater/snare is usually 2500hz range. find the sweet spots and a bit of a boost in those ranges with some compression over the top will pop it right out
Frostbyte wrote:Live mode, play a channel whilst recording. Do the same over and over for the rest of them.
in..ta...resting.... and no noticeable changes in sync?
If you're using a DAW, you simply have to align the first beat of each track and they will be perfectly synced.
Last edited by ForaBrokenEarth (Jul 19, 2012 7:42 pm)
What bright primate said is absolutely right too...multi-band compression really does help. In all of my 1xlsdj tracks though, I actually use a really quiet kick (start volume of 20) for the timbre, and lower all the other instruments to like, 47 I guess ( really depend on the instrument too). I don't record channels separately, I just mix it right on the gameboy, so that especially when I ply live I don't have to run it through a daw with stuff on it to sound good.
sugar sk*-*lls wrote:in..ta...resting.... and no noticeable changes in sync?
If you're using a DAW, you simply have to align the first beat of each track and they will be perfectly synced.
i ask only because i've done something similar using casios to layer beats going into the interface w/o midi sync. thats is record a beat then track another on top, same tempo, same beat even and they eventually diverge(even if its just slightly) and sheesh..... when dumping tracks from a tape four track its even more noticeable-which is to be expected. i just assumed you'd get the same thing when tracking from a dmg without using midi sync- time being a relative thing and tiny variations and fluctuations in power.
good to know for future reference
it doesn't have to be as complicated as multi-tracking all the channels though (although that clearly gives you more options). you can get really big kick sound on a single stem recording just through a bit of frequency-specific compression and EQing. kick drum "thump" is around 40-90hz and the beater/snare is usually 2500hz range. find the sweet spots and a bit of a boost in those ranges with some compression over the top will pop it right out
This is all I do. Multi-tracking LSDJ just doesn't appeal to me. All my stuff is just one straight recording from the DMG. I might not have the biggest kick, but I think it's ok for my tunes.
Make sure to lower the volume of your other channels. I seldom have an instrument that goes above 7xx to emphasize the kick.
Also, you don't have to use a P command that drops the kick to the absolute lowest tone. You can still have some nice punch and slightly better overall kick volume by easing up on that P command a bit. I usually use something like PE0 with a K command on the 5th tick (pitched around G6).
But yeah, careful multi-band EQing can help.
Also, an almost-unnoticeable amount of reverb can help sometimes.
My favourite kick drum in the Pulse channel is waveform with phase in the middle, command PD1 and on next line bass with very short release. 4-bit drum samples in the Wave channel are little bit silent for my tastes, so i use pulse channel for bd and for hihats and snares noise channel with different shape settings. And sometimes i use Waves RBass plugin (not MaxxBass!) which is harmonic enhancer for extra lowend (like DBX 120A).
Last edited by martin_demsky (Jul 20, 2012 7:43 am)
i find the best way to get a good kick is to say fuck a pusle, noise, and or wav kick. get a tr-909 and just use that. problem solved >.<