layering drums

Yo whats good? I was wondering how do you guys layer your kicks to make them knock more.
I usually pan one pad almost all the way to the left and pan another kick all the way to right when I layer my kicks to give it a surround sound type feel.
But I was wondering how can I layer an 808 kick behind my sampled kicks to make them knock more. Anybody that can shed some light on this is the man.

dont pan low frequency stuff... 808's should not be panned... especially not to the right.

yeah, you put the 808 onto a pad... you have your kick as normal on a pad... and you push the 808's pad when needed.

also, try messing with the attack of the 808, and try putting a low pass filter on it to make it sound good.

Panning low-frequency stuff is acceptable, pretty much unless you are pressing vinyl (in which case it MUST be mono)... I still prefer mono everything on the lower end though. You can still pan your bass, but it might sound wack lol imo anyway.

Selection.. when you're layering 808's, selection is huge.. if you don't like how a kick sounds with an 808 under it, change the other sample.

Usually cut a narrow band out around 60Hz when you're layering bass samples. It's not a golden rule but it definitely helps 2 sounds play together nicer. It also frees up some headroom.

Peesnuts wrote:Usually cut a narrow band out around 60Hz when you're layering bass samples. It's not a golden rule but it definitely helps 2 sounds play together nicer. It also frees up some headroom.

I should mention that most XL users need to do this outside of the sampler because there is no built in EQ for that in particular.

thanks man so cut 60 from the sample kick or the 808?

so no one pans their kicks?? the only reason I pan mine sometimes are because of the distortion i get sometimes when i leave both kicks in the middle.

jrbeats555 wrote:so no one pans their kicks?? the only reason I pan mine sometimes are because of the distortion i get sometimes when i leave both kicks in the middle.

If you sample decent kicks then my EQ example will solve this. Play with it.

I just prefer mono for lower end stuff... You will have an easier time making your kick AND bass blend better and probably have a bit more headroom left near the final stage of your mix. Nothing "wrong" with panning your kick, but if you pan your kicks to one side, they WILL probably sound weird in your car... unless you pan an 808 to both sides you will have different frequency content on that jazz as well because most listening environments have Left and Right speakers (headphones, car, etc.). Play with it.

sub woofers and bass bins are MONO... almost always. why? probably the main reason is to prevent phase cancellation from happening.... so if that's the case... especially on most systems.... mono is good for low end... (such as 808's)

Another reason why you rarely pan a kick...

Think of your music as a band playing on stage. The drum set is usually set up in the middle of the stage, so if you're standing in front of the stage, you will perceive the drum sounds as "coming from the center of the stage".

So if you leave your kicks centered, it will sound more natural. You can slightly pan a snare and hi-hats, but i wouldn't go crazy there either. Another topic is percussions...

jibber wrote:Another reason why you rarely pan a kick...

Would be

Cus its kinda pointless, Low frequency's are very wide.
The lower the frequency the more area it covers. Thats why panning things like bass and very bassy like kick drums would leave you with the same outcome.

but of course you gottah know the rules before you can break them!

Tha_Skywalker wrote:

jibber wrote:Another reason why you rarely pan a kick...

Would be

Cus its kinda pointless, Low frequency's are very wide.
The lower the frequency the more area it covers. Thats why panning things like bass and very bassy like kick drums would leave you with the same outcome.

but of course you gottah know the rules before you can break them!

exactly, and that is also why subwoofers are mono...

learn to manipulate a kick wit filters, comp, etc. and u might not even hav to layer

thx alot guys