I like the kick drum sound on Cher Lloyd's "Want U Back." Thoughts on how to get close to that sound? It is deep but not boomy and has attack without too much slap.

It probably has a transient shaper to shorten the sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPgvNlrBfb0


that's multiple kick drums..  at least two.  an acoustic and an electronic.  the electronic is in a low pass filter with the cutoff way down..  like 1200 htz..  the acoustic has a hi shelf filter...  probably around 200 htz...   my guess is that the LP on the electronic kick is about 18 db, while the one on the acoustic, ever so slightly attenuated...   

both kicks are heavily glued together via compression..   and then there is a heavy verb, that has been heavily eq'd...

that electronic has like, "no," or little sustain, and a short decay, while the acoustic is extremely long....  I am guessing they ran the acoustic through some sort of sub frequency enhance before eq'ing it....



The above guess is based on lots and lots of reading, and lots and lots of my own experimenting.   its is just a guess.  not to be taken as fact.

Thanks, guys. I am not a fan of Ms Lloyd's current hits, but there are some great sounds on her records. She has a good voice and is cute so I hope she grows into more meaningful material over time. She could do better than "Swagger Jagger" and "Want U Back."

you should be a fan of her engineers  / programmers moreso perhaps ;-) unless  (like a lot more) she isn't fluent in xyz DAW. they work with a load of singers besides her no doubt.

it's a standard sound..  it'a partly 2 kick's combined into 1 , saved out and brought back into the DAW.. and of course with side chaining in place to give it that room.   if you are used to working with acoustic drums , then try using things even like the tr-808's kick underneath etc. to give it a bit of thump.. but you eq the top end of the 808 out.. so the accoustic sounds, and eq out the low end of the accoustic drum

she will grow into whatever the record company dictate, she's signed to a major.

you might wanna check out the vengeance sample cd's for such things also.

I'm curious as to how you can both say with any certainty that there are two kicks in this? 

I have around 25 to 30 kicks with BFD2 and my expansion packs and listening through them I have a number that sound close and could easily be made to sound the same. 

 I'm not trying to be contrary here I'm just genuinely curious. 
 BFD2 allows me to load two or three kicks and link them together which is something I've not used yet but looks like an interesting idea. 

 Steve

konradh


Thanks, guys. I am not a fan of Ms Lloyd's current hits, but there are some great sounds on her records. She has a good voice and is cute so I hope she grows into more meaningful material over time. She could do better than "Swagger Jagger" and "Want U Back."

Hmmm...I wouldn't be too sure about that ol pal.

@yorolpal, I was trying to be charitable.   I am actually quite frustrated by the tidal wave of music that has a million dollars of production to support a dime's worth of songwriting.  I enter into evidence:

Now, I see you've been hanging out
With that other girl in town
Looking like a pair of clowns clowns clowns
Uh


"That other girl in town?"  Is the population there 3?  And she wants him back but he looks like a clown?  Oh, wait, I get it: it rhymes without effort.

konradh

million dollars of production to support a dime's worth of songwriting 

Good quote 

Steve

twaddle


I'm curious as to how you can both say with any certainty that there are two kicks in this? 

I have around 25 to 30 kicks with BFD2 and my expansion packs and listening through them I have a number that sound close and could easily be made to sound the same. 

I'm not trying to be contrary here I'm just genuinely curious. 
BFD2 allows me to load two or three kicks and link them together which is something I've not used yet but looks like an interesting idea. 

Steve

ask the folks at fxpansion how the kicks were made, they probably used tremor (or something electronic) + an acoustic drum layered on top.. eq'd so they don't clash and compliment each other , then joined / saved out. just because you see / have it as 1 drum. it could even be the same drum , but 2 layers of it and 1 bit of it given more strength and then a bit of parallel compression for example.


it takes the strength of the low end out of one kick + the character at higher HZ out of the drum used higher up..


same can be applied with a snare also, mistabishi used a basketball bounce on his dnb stuff.