Making the Kick Push Instead of Hit

This may be hard to explain, but maybe you will know what I mean.
 
Sometimes the kick sounds like it hits too hard.  I am looking for a subtle change to make it push instead of hit: like the difference in shoving someone very quickly instead of stricking him with your fist.
 
This is not the same as the top end EQ (2K-3K) that gives you the beater slap.  This is about the general presence of the kick drum.  I want it not to hit as explosively.  This also has the side benefit of getting it sonically off the bass guitar without making it out of time.
 
In other words—same EQ but less attack.  If it were a synthesizer I would change the attack setting very slightly.  I thgouht about a very fast attack and very fast release compressor, but am not sure that is quick enough to take the edge off without making it mushy.  Maybe like a looser head....?
 
I hope this makes sense.  Thoughts?

yes. ts64 is quite good there. my advice... take several kick drum samples, place them in a track with the ts64 on it (with automation if necessary) then bounce down to a track with a gate and then copy the resulting clips to an audio sample subdirectory.  easy way to build one-shots.

konradh


This may be hard to explain, but maybe you will know what I mean.
 
Sometimes the kick sounds like it hits too hard.  I am looking for a subtle change to make it push instead of hit: like the difference in shoving someone very quickly instead of stricking him with your fist.
 
This is not the same as the top end EQ (2K-3K) that gives you the beater slap.  This is about the general presence of the kick drum.  I want it not to hit as explosively.  This also has the side benefit of getting it sonically off the bass guitar without making it out of time.
 
In other words—same EQ but less attack.  If it were a synthesizer I would change the attack setting very slightly.  I thgouht about a very fast attack and very fast release compressor, but am not sure that is quick enough to take the edge off without making it mushy.  Maybe like a looser head....?
 
I hope this makes sense.  Thoughts?

I like "pushing" kicks as well. I normally start with an SSL Dave Pensado preset and tweak it. But if you only have the Sonitus plugs, I would normal cut lower mids-say125-300 and then boost between 63 and 100. This gives a morevround pillowy sound. 

Is this coming from a real drum kit you recorded, or samples?

If it's a real kit, I'd go back to the source (if you can) and record it closer to how you want it to sound. Choosing a very dark mic, maybe adding more pillows etc. Covering the front skin with a pillow inside the drum (not so that it's touching, just line of sight here) then mic behind that will cut out lots of high frequency content and make it more mellow. Mic inside kick, mic outside. Experiment.

If it's samples, choose a better sample!

Get as close as you can with the raw recording, then tweak as required. More often than not, you'll get a better result if you get the record/sample as close to the finish product that you want than if you use 5 layers of tweaked plugs to moult a sound into something it's not. Even if you think the result you have now is pretty good, wait till you see what you can get with a headstart recording! Sometimes just because something sounds good, doesn't mean it couldn't sound even better. If you have never heard better, you might not even know it exists and think what you have is perfect.

Aside from that, some good stuff already posted up there.

there are some good kick samples in the x2 additional content. theyre all normalized though as far as i can tell though fwiw...

Vsti's like BFD2 have a dynamics control on every kit piece which I use for general contour shaping, then do the rest inside Sonar

You can also use a compressor to shape the attack - the Sonitus is perfect for this sort of job - just play around with the attack, threshold & ratio

love the lyrics bill.  nice little rhythm going on there. :D

Maybe a kick beater made of deer?

You need to slow the attack (raise it), and probably extend the decay. Use the tools already mentioned, OR... Why not sidechain? That should fit it nicely with your bass guitar. Do the following: 1. Add a new stereo bus 2. In the prochannel for the new bus add in the compressor (not the main one, you need to switch to the second one PC4K, by right clicking and replacing it). 3. Turn on side-chain on the prochannel compressor. Basic starting settings as follow: 4:1, ~.4 attack ~.3 release, 30 threshold, +6 output. 4. Now clone your bassline or kick track (experiment with what works best) 5. On the cloned track set the output to the bus compressor sidechain input 6. Now on your original kick or bassline track (or both, seriously experiment here) set the output to your new stereo bus. That will give a nice pumping feel and fit the two instruments together perfectly rhythmically. You can change the amount of effect by messing with the HPF and cloned channel volume/eq settings. Almost every modern song has some sidechaining going on, especially dance music which goes overly crazy with it.

Thanks for the comments and for the suggestions, guys!

Thanks for all the great help here.  I definitely don't want the kick to get mushy: just smooth the leading edge a bit: turn it into a bread knife instead of a switch blade.

The Sonitus gate works perfectly for what you are asking with the benefit of having low CPU use:
Simply slide the "Attack" time up somewhere from 10 to 30 mS.
Set the depth to "infinite" and the "thresh" so it triggers reliably, "hold" at 20 to 100 and "release" at 50 to 100.
It will take the edge off without changing the EQ.

The problem with the Transient Shaper in my experience is that it adds latency whereas the Percussion Strip does not.

I'm assuming the OP is talking about working at "mixdown" (not in the midst of tracking).
Since the latent plugin is compensated for... it shouldn't affect anything.
Similar to using UAD plugins at mix...