Giving the kick and snare "punch"

if you want punch, take compression and limiting off.

then they'll punch the crap out of you.


then, use creative eq to find the 'punch factor' in the overall eq of the drum piece...

with kick, thump and punch is in one range....
in snare, it's another...
when you combine all the drums on it's one (or 2, or 3) drum buss, the collective peaks will hopefully not line up on each other.

if you push 120hz on the kick, 120hz on the snare, 120 hz on the toms, etc, you're gonna have peak signal heartache.

so the idea is to carve out frequencies for each and every part of the kit, and not have them ever boosted at the same frequency on any other track.

I actually thought I was getting more punch in the kick by using multi-band compression that allowed me to highlight the kick and bass. Working the compression  and the EQ together added a nice thump in the bottom end. I rarely use a limiter or massive compression. 

Starting with a strong kick and bass does help. 

Dropping Ozone on there seemed to do it for me as it has all the modules in it for this kind of thing.

The last 2 years I've been a Beatz freak and have done a little research:

I'm afraid, Bat is probably my 1st thought for enhancing percussive attack-transients.  Sweeping the EQ and some of the harmonics or whatever ... preferably with a decent non-Sonitus EQ.  But Bat is not a beatz meister, IMO.

Likewise, Matt and Cian, using a parallel drum buss for *upward compression* and *expansion*.  (On that buss I'd employ some serious HPF and LPF with EQ dips as well.

I sometimes do like the beloved country-meister GuitarHacker, where beatz are not a chief concern ... then I'd throw on an Ozone and just tinker ...

-------------------------------------------------

But, again, I am a beatz freak like Cian's "Freak-Out" grooves, and have resorted to Sonar beatscape and www.producerloops.com for the best beatz out there ... requiring no EQ or comp taming! JamesYoyo taught me the importance of beatz ... but not how to accomplish them with his magic.

Beatz have already been produced and mastered to perfection, IMHO, by others better than I, rendering all the drum kits I've used as obsolete vanity (Session Drummer, Superior Drummer, Slate, Addictive, etc.).  I've also enlisted the aide of great beatz-meisters ... like TruckerMusic.

Don't get me wrong, I've written and produced about 10-20 dance
songs (My HeavenSkate album and others) ... and oft they still lack some bass umph and clang-sparkle. 

But, if you/I must re-invent the beatz wheels that others have perfected ... the following might be considered:

1) A Slate fg-x limiter on the bass percussives ($250 ouch!) ... if you must use the *vinyl-friendly* kits (like Superior Drummers).

2) Waves or UAD transient designers for snare, hats, claps, etc. (very expen$ive).  Warning: Waves is currently a 32-bit iLok disaster for 64bit DAWs (per Sonar tech support).

3) LoFi Synths and Plugins?  Others will have to comment on these for beatz ... as my experiments are scant.

4) For the bass guitar: Trillion synths have saved my life in the dance/skate realm.  Trillion also contains a bass-trumpet-farter synth that is to die for.

5) Propellerhead Reason 6 is suddenly a contender (July, 2011) a 64-bit consideration; it contains the Dr. Octo Rex Loop Player for making beatz with invaluable rx2/rex formats: $400  (Ouch!)

(Hope this helps your beatz!)

Thanks.

Good info there Philip, James also told me about Beatscape something I havent even looked at, is it included with X1?!

Good point Matt, You actually clearly illustrated in that point why you need to treat your room, i.e. your making serious errors due to false perception.

Cian

my only real point was, when you take a drum, and smack it, the impact is the sound.
that's a high transient.

that's what i call 'punch'.

if you limit it or compress it, you take away the punch.


now, along the lines of what philip discussed, you CAN sculpt a sound, with fast acting limiting and release, or SLOW attack times and a proper release, and get a different sound that is very refined, and then by turning it up in the mix, create the impression of PUNCH.

there is no rule, but again,IMHO, compression and limiting reduces punch.

that said, i use it all the time.
LOL

As bit said, using a sidechain to duck the rest of the track with the kick can sound great. Give it a go.

Speaking of scultping sounds, why not have a play around with SONAR's transient shaper tool? http://www.cakewalk.com/Products/SONAR/X1-Producer/feature.aspx/TS-64-Transient-Shaper