The Mix Academy: bit.ly/mixacademy Learn compression: learncompression.com Learn to mix hip-hop: mixinghiphop.com Improve your ears: quiztones.com Mixing tips: theproaudiofiles.com How to mix a kick drum with aux tracks for multiple layers of parallel processing. Software: - Avid Pro Tools - FabFilter Pro-Q - Kramer PIE - Pultec Pro - DG Widener - Slate Digital Trigger - UAD CLA-76 - SPL Transient Designer - Waves S1 Imager — Transcript: This is about using aux tracks to give a greater level of control for parallel processing on kick drums. I've got a kick and an 808. My goal is to get them working cohesively in the low end. In this song, the 808, I actually was inspired by a post Matthew wrote about using decapitator to add character to an 808 and to cut through on smaller speakers. We've got a low kick that's going out to a kick level. The kick level is an aux, its right down here, it's receiving the signal kick level. The kick is also being parallel compressed, and that's right here, you got the 1176 CLA and the SPL transient designer, but that's the parallel compression chain also going out to the kick level. I've got the dry and parallel compressed, and they're meeting at an aux so I can blend them, once I get the blend, I can take it and increase the overall volume of the kick as well as apply effects that will be consistent with that kick sound, that tone. I can treat it with more compression, some distortion, EQ, EQ those together so that I get a nice sound. The overall concept is the dry, the parallel compressed, pulling up the parallel compression to give you that blend, and once you're happy with the blend, using the aux track kick level for control. Let's play the kick in solo with no parallel compression. Bypassed I can show you what the client sent me. I didn't like that was for this song because when the 808 comes in the kick had a tone to it, and I didn't want it to have a tone; I wanted it to be more of a felt kick-you-in-the-butt-when- you're-driving-down-the-road-and-the-subs-are-hitting-you-in-the-rear. I didn't want the tone of the 808 and the key of that and the pitch of this kick to be clashing, and I didn't want to have to tune them because I already did tune the 808 in Melodyne. The sample I chose, I think it was an EDM sample. I'm sucking out some sustain and release to try and tighten the sound up, and then even further with the transient designer, adding some attack, pulling a little sustain out. That sound, as we showed, is getting sent to the parallel compression. In this song I didn't want any top end in that kick. I just wanted it to be that low end that just kind of kicks you. The Pultec and these EQs, I'm boosting 20 Hz there, attenuating everything at eight, and then if I pull up the FabFilter, I'm pulling out pretty much everything, just low end. Ignore the clipping, I like the distortion; I wanted this to be aggressive, I wanted this to have clipping, I wanted it to distort. So that's the kick. If you guys have seen the vocal or snare drum tutorial you know that's the same technique with a twist. I want to talk about the 808, this wasn't meant to be an 808 video but let's go ahead. Something I did which I showed you in the snare tutorial is I used a widener. The widener technique is a stereo imaging trick with delay. I've got 18.79 milliseconds on the left, 21 on the right, and that's keeping within the haas effect and I've got 0% mix on the left and 100% on the right. Here's before and after on the 808, and let's solo this. You can hear that it's given it a nice effect. I actually automated that widener to be on at the hook, so the song gets bigger, wider, taller, fuller. I tend to prefer my low end to be central so the kick and the bass and all that to be mono right down the middle and give room for the other elements, but sometimes it's just awesome to fill the low end and just kind of push it and do something different. The kick is also side chaining the 808. I don't know if many people do that, but I do it and when I mix a lot of rock and gospel where I've got the kick and bass competing.The C6 side-chain right here. So this kick level, remember we've got the blend, the kick level is sending out to the kick SC, for side chain. That's being triggered right here on the C6, and that is going to be pushing down on this compressor 35 Hz with kind of a wide band there. Let's solo the 808 and the kick together. Essentially what I'm trying to do is give the kick the dominance on the low end for punch. When it first comes in and it hits it hard I want the kick to be what you feel. I want the kick to be dominant there. So let me bypass that side chaining. If you're on a bigger system you're going to hear that the low end from the 808 is just overbearing, it's dominating that kick. It's essentially got some EDM feel where there's pumping going on, where it's pulling back up and it's coming after the kick hits.

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