Synthesising a kick drum from scratch
#15
>The simplest form of an analogue kick drum could be created with a single sine wave oscillator. All you need to do is modulate its pitch with a quick envelope.
During this tutorial we’ll take it a few steps further and introduce a second oscillator. Its purpose will be to add a sharper transient which will lead to a more defined kick drum. Finally we reveal how to successfully incorporate white noise within the kick as well as using a filter to shape the timbre…
All you require to follow along is any subtractive synth with two oscillators and noise generator. In this tutorial we’ll be using Sylenth1 which is simple but powerful enough to make a solid kick drum.
White noise can bring the required energy to help your kick cut through a busy mix. It may also impart an additional texture and character to your kick drum. We will show you how to tame the full frequency noise source with the use of a low-pass filter and its resonance.