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THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO SONIC ACADEMY KICK 2

Master the controls of the kick drum synthesiser

Table of Contents

Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 2
Subtone Generator (Sub Control) ...................................................................................... 3
Pitch Envelope ................................................................................................................... 3
AMP Envelope ................................................................................................................... 5
Kick Length ........................................................................................................................ 6
Sculpting the Perfect Click ................................................................................................. 7
Using the Keytrack To Your Advantage .............................................................................. 8
Finding the Right Click Sample (Quick Method) ................................................................. 9
Using Distortion to Colour Your Kicks .............................................................................. 10
Harmonics ....................................................................................................................... 10
Compressor ..................................................................................................................... 11
Limiter ............................................................................................................................. 12
How to Create a Tech-House Kick .................................................................................... 13
How to Create a Techno Kick ........................................................................................... 17
Final words ...................................................................................................................... 21

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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Introduction

The kick drum is one of the most important elements within electronic music. It’s the
most dominant and powerful element of your track and is the topic we receive most
production tip requests about.

Questions such as, how do I tune my kick to my track, how do I make my kick punch
through the mix, how do I layer my kicks, should I use compression on my kick drum,
and much more.

So, we thought the best way to answer these questions would be to create an
ultimate guide to creating kick drums.

Our choice of plugin for working with kick drums is Sonic Academy Kick 2. This
versatile tool has all the controls you need to create the perfect kick for your music; A
sub tone generator, multiple click transients, full envelope control, additional
harmonics section, EQ, compression and much more!

In this ultimate guide, you will learn what each area of the plug offers and discover
some essential techniques for creating awesome sounding kicks.

By the end of this ultimate guide, you will have complete knowledge of every
parameter inside Sonic Academy Kick 2 and will be able to make your own amazing
kicks from scratch. So pop the kettle on, grab a juice or whatever refreshment takes
your fancy and dive in.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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Subtone Generator (Sub Control)

The sub-control section is the heart of your kick drum. This is where all the low end
is being generated from. The sub-control section allows you to control the overall sub
level with the volume slider on the right. Underneath that is a pan control. Since we
always want the sub to be in mono, it’s best to keep the pan knob centred.

Next, to the pan control is additional harmonics and pitch knobs but we’ll get into
that later. For now, let’s look at how to shape the sub by using the main Pitch and
AMP envelope windows.

Pitch Envelope

Controlling and defining the pitch envelope of your kick is essential for creating a
solid, punchy low end. This is very easy to achieve with Sonic Academy Kick 2.
Inside the pitch envelope window, you will see the nodes decreasing over time. The
first node to the left is the starting pitch frequency and the last node on the right is
the finishing frequency (but this is not necessarily the key of your kick).

There are two ways to tune your kicks inside the plugin. The default way is by using
the nodes inside the main pitch envelope window. As you will see, each node has
both Hz and musical note values. Sometimes the key of the kick is not so obvious,
especially with short length kicks. Generally, the key of the kick is defined by the
longest (most sustained) pitch.

In the example below, you can clearly visualise the most sustained pitch is G. This
will be the key of your kick.

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The alternative way to tune your kick is to switch on the keytrack button in the sub
control area. Once this is switched on, tune your kick to the key of C inside the main
sub pitch envelope window. This will allow you to use your MIDI keyboard or piano
roll to alter the pitch of the kick drum. The reason for a specific key of C is so that the
key you play on your keyboard corresponds to the correct pitch.

Both pitch and AMP envelopes allow you to create multiple nodes. However, when
working with the pitch, be cautious, as very small adjustments can make a big
difference.

Don’t be afraid to add multiple nodes and drag them around whilst playing the kick,
this way you’ll learn how moving a node in pitch alters the tone of your sub.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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AMP Envelope

AMP window allows us to control the amplitude envelope of the sub oscillator.
Double click any space in the curves window to add a new node. Double click a node
to remove it. Move the nodes around to fine-tune and shape your sub.

Use the attack stage to add or remove the click from the sub. This is useful when
applying additional click samples and layering them with the sub oscillator. Simply
set the first node to zero and move the second node further to the right to add a slow
attack for your sub.

One of the most useful aspects of the AMP window is the ultimate control over the
sustain. Here you can really tailor the way your kick decays, so that it works perfectly
within your track.

A great way to learn what is happening with the AMP window is to move nodes
around and play the kick in real time. You will then hear how each movement affects
the final shape/sound of the kick.

Always make sure your final node in the window resets to zero, so that you don’t get
any clicks or pops in-between your kicks.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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Kick Length

Here you can decide how long or short you would like your kick drum to be. You can
set the desired length in milliseconds whilst keeping an eye on the actual length of
the kick drum in relation to the beats/bars inside your project. This is also displayed
in the main plugin window for easy reference.

For example, in this image, we have made the length of the kick drum last for just
1/8th note. Use the length slider to get precise control over how long your kick drum
will last. Shorter, punchier kicks will often work best with the longer basslines and
vice versa.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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Sculpting the Perfect Click

At the heart of Kick 2, we will find it’s three fully

featured click areas. These are your ‘sampling
engines’, if you will. Each click section can load
a separate audio sample and manipulate it
further.

Even though there are some benefits for

selecting three separate click sources, it’s not
necessary to use them all to achieve a great
sounding kick. One or two is usually more than
enough. This is especially the case, when you
already found your desired kick sound with a
nice midrange and top-end character. In this
instance, you may only need to replace the sub
frequencies of the sample with a purely
synthesised tone to fit your track.

Alternatively, the additional click sample can be a snippet of the hi-hat or high
percussion to make the kick snappier and fit it in a busy mix.

Let’s look into individual controls and applications of a click module:

• Pitch. This is essential for tuning the click. It will affect the tone and length of the
sample, which can be visualised in the main display window, representing the
waveform. Bear in mind, some of the clicks will have an extra tonal element to
them, whilst others (short clicks) may not have a distinct pitch, therefore pitching
them is not a necessity.

• Length. Quick control to shorten the sample. Useful for removing any excess
ambience. If needed for a greater control, it’s best to use a dedicated CLICK
envelope section. It allows fine tuning of the click’s amplitude over time in a nice
visual context.

• Start. Use this parameter to adjust the start position of the sample. It will help to
get rid of any unnecessary snap, click or pop sound. Sometimes, the original
sample may have a little silent gap prior to the audio. Using the START control
will allow us to remove this gap and trigger the audio exactly where it starts.

• LP/HP. The are two filter options available for each click area. By turning the
LP/HP knob to the left we access a low-pass filter, whilst turning it right will give
us a high-pass filter. These are essential sculpting tools for layering. E.g. Use a
high pass filter to cut any excess low frequencies from the click sample. It will
clear up that area to be used for the main body of the kick, preventing additional
phasing issues or frequency masking.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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Lastly, we have some utility controls, which we mostly recognise from working on
any kind of audio mixer. These are the volume slider, pan
knob, mute and solo buttons, as well as the phase switch to invert the phase of the
signal. In addition to that, a keytrack switch will allow us to enable the click to follow
the pitch of the midi note.

Using the Keytrack To Your Advantage

Keytrack is useful when we program a kick pattern with

a changing pitch. If enabled, it will transpose the click or
sub oscillator according to the incoming MIDI signal.
Another example for utilising the keytrack would be low
percussive sounds.

First, load a short sample of the percussion, such as

tom-tom transient into the click engine and enable
the keytrack.

Next, synthesise the main tone for this drum using the
Pitch Nodes in the Pitch Window.

Make sure the keytrack is also activated in the sub

control area. You will now have a tom-tom sound, that
perfectly follows the pitch of your MIDI
keyboard/controller. This way you can play/program
various fill patterns that work within the key of your track.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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Finding the Right Click Sample (Quick Method)

Clicks are essentially the transient portion of the kick or percussion sample. They are
usually short and have little to no bodyweight in the low frequencies. Rather than
trying to extract the click manually in your DAW and then load it into Kick 2, try out
this technique:

First, locate your favourite kick library folder and then load one kick into the click
area of Kick 2 plugin.

Next, shorten the amp envelope of this click, so only the initial transient is being
played, whilst the tail of the kick sample cuts off. Adjust the high pass filter to get rid
of any unnecessary low frequencies. What you will end up with is a nice short click
transient.

Finally, all you have to do now is just click the left / right arrows to cycle through
various ‘clicks’. Since the amplitude envelope and filter setting will automatically be
applied to each kick sample, all we hear is the transients.

It’s a great technique that allows us to quickly browse through a big library and
choose the perfect click sample for our new kick.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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Using Distortion to Colour Your Kicks

Distortion is a powerful tool for giving some edge, warmth or definition to the audio
signal. We can use it to bring out extra detail and ‘colour’ within a kick sample. Kick 2
plugin offers us three different distortion models; clip, tube and wave.

All of these models have a distinct tonal character which may suit one kick better
than the other etc… It is best to try all of these and find the perfect match for the kick
you are working on.

Harmonics

The harmonics section allows you to blend in additional overtones to your pure sine
wave sub. This is a very useful section when looking to create unique sounding
kicks. Here you can add anything from subtle amounts of say a triangle wave or
transform it completely with rich overtones from a saw-tooth.

A cool feature of the harmonics section is that it allows you to adjust the volume level
of each partial within the harmonic series. For example, using the default sine wave,
add a small amount of volume to the 2nd and 3rd partials, then turn up the harmonics
knob. Notice how this fills out the 100Hz-200Hz region. This can be a great way to
add extra low-mid information.

If you’re unsure what this is adding to your kick, pull up an audio spectrum analyser
and remove the 1st partial inside the harmonics sub control. This will give you a great
visual representation of the overtones that are being applied.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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Compressor

The compressor section within Kick 2 allows you to enhance and shape your kick
further. Although we would recommend perfecting the dynamics of your kick via the
envelopes. Compression can also add the extra punch and tightness to the final
result.

If you find your kick is sounding flabby and not as controlled as you would like, try
dialling in a small amount of compression. Settings for this will vary from kick to kick
but a great starting point would be:

• Attack – slow attack of around 30-100ms to let the initial transient through.
• Release – fastest setting 100ms so that the compressor recovers before the next
kick.
• Ratio – a medium ratio of 4:1

Then slowly bring down the threshold until you reach the desired result. Be careful
not to over apply compression as this can kill the dynamic movement of the kick.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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Limiter

As a producer, you will know that the kick drum represents the loudest element
within the majority of electronic music. This is why it makes sense to limit your kick
and gain complete control over its maximum value.

(Note: When we say limiting we’re not talking about smashing the life out your kick
drum, we’re saying just -1db to -3db of reduction max)

Sonic Academy Kick 2 has a very useful brick-wall limiter included and you can use
this to make sure you don’t go over 0 dBFS.

The limiter inside Kick 2 is switched on by default and can be toggled on/off by
simply clicking the word “Limiter”. The threshold is then controlled by moving the
arrow slider to the left, the more you move the slider down the lower the threshold.
The amount of gain reduction can then be seen in the meter to the right.

There are a few extra controls that can be accessed via the settings tab. Inside here
you will find the limiter release and look ahead times.

• Limiter release; As a general rule, use longer release times for low-end
information as this will help to reduce any distortion.
• Limiter lookahead; The limiter lookahead allows for a perfect brick-wall to be
achieved. In essence, you’re allowing the limiter to view the signal before it hits
so that it can anticipate the loud peaks before they occur. This makes sure that
your kick drum never exceeds the threshold. When setting the Kick 2 plugin
lookahead to high you are essentially putting it into brick-wall mode.

To keep your kick in control, aim for a couple of dB of reduction, be careful as if you
apply too much you will hear noticeable distortion.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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How to Create a Tech-House Kick

There are no hard and fast rules when creating kicks, but this is one of the
processes we’ve found to work well for us.

We’ve included the audio files inside the download folder so that you can follow
along. Here is a preview of the kick we’re going to create:

01_Tech-House_Kick_Final.mp3

1. First of all, load up Sonic Academy Kick 2 into its default state, this is so you
have a clean slate to work with.

2. Next, turn off the EQ and distortion as you don’t want this affecting your initial
decision. Then mute the clicks, as you want to focus on the sub control first.
You should have a sound like this:

02_Default_Kick.mp3

3. Start by adjusting the length slider. Here you define how long the sub of your
kick is going to last in milliseconds. Set this to around 350ms which is just
under a 1/8th note long. Just right for a fairly short and tight kick.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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4. Next open the AMP window. Here you can shape and control your sub over
time. In this example, remove some of the attack by creating two nodes
towards the left side of the window and setting them to 0.00. This will allow a
little room for our custom click to punch through.

5. Next move onto the sub pitch. Here you want to create a nice descending
curve that will relate to the kick pitching down over time and will denote the
key of your kick. Note: Generally, the key of the kick is defined by the longest
(most sustained) pitch.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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6. The sub control harmonics section is a great addition to Kick 2 and allows us
to add overtones to our sine wave and can add some extra body. In this
example, assign a small value to the second partial and dial in the harmonics
to around 0.12. This is very subtle, but will help with filling out around the
100hz area. You should now be sounding like this:

03_Kick_Harmonics.mp3

7. Ok, so now the fun part, selecting the click. Having a bank of very unique
clicks is where your kick will gain most of its character. It’s very much
overlooked but a lot of time and processing can go into layering and creating
cool sounding clicks. Stay tuned for our guide to this at a later date.

In the meantime, open up the click AMP window, allow full volume of the envelope
and cycle through the clicks one-by-one until you hear what you’re looking for.

04_Click1.mp3

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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8. The kick is shaping up nice now but it

could still do with a bit more crunch
and dirt around the 1kHz-3kHz.
Activate click 2 and this time pitch the
sample down by 12 semitone to dirty
it up. Then cycle through until you get
one that gels with click 1 and your
sub.

05_Click2.mp3

9. Onto distortion, a little can go a long way

here. In this example select WAVE
distortion, apply around 18% distortion and
mix in around 32% of the distortion. This is
very subtle but can add a nice touch of
drive.

10. Your kick is nearly done! The final icing on the

cake is a touch of compression and limiting to
tighten it up. In the example, apply around 5:1
ratio, with a slow attack and fast release.
Reduce the threshold to apply some
reduction, just a touch as you don’t want to
completely alter the shape of the kick, it’s all
about small details now.

Finally we will make sure the limiter is engaged that there is no more than -3db
happening at the very most.

11. This is what the final kick looks and sounds like:

01_Tech-House_Kick_Final.mp3

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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How to Create a Techno Kick

In this example, we are going to make a Techno kick from scratch. This kick will be
longer in length. Featuring additional shaping to the tail which will add an off-beat
groove.

We’ve included the audio files inside the download folder so that you can follow
along. Here is a preview of the kick we’re going to create:

01_Final_Kick.mp3

1. Load up Kick 2 and start with the default kick. From here we shape the AMP
envelope to create the groove and pulsation. We set our DAW project to
126bpm and then set our kick length to 488ms. Setting these values allows us
to view the full waveform for one full length. We can now shape the envelope
in a way that the sub decays after the first 16th and rises again for the off-beat.
This gives us a pulsating low end. Notice the attack portion of the envelope.
Creating a slow attack leaves room for the click samples that will be added
later.

02_AMP_Envelope.mp3

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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2. Now we have the shape for our kick we can adjust the pitch using the pitch
envelope window. Here we will draw a naturally decaying pitch that lands on
the F note.

03_Pitch_Envelope.mp3

3. Next we will add some additional

character to the sub by using the
harmonics and distortion sections.
First up is Harmonics. Select the
SS12 Kick preset inside harmonics
and dial in around 0.10. This adds
some subtle overtones.

4. Next onto the distortion section. Set the mode to Clip and only select the sub
section by clicking the S. With the mix and LP/HP set to 12 o’clock, slowly
bring up the distortion amount to around 30%. Then start to back off the
distortion and blend by adjusting the Low Pass (LP) and Mix control. Finally,
push up the drive control.

04_Harmonics.mp3

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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5. Let’s move to the final section and

add the attack/clicks. We will use the
clicks we created and processed for
our Fabric // Techno Kick 2 pack. The
aim is to choose a click that will add
some attack and focus around 1khz.
Click 33-AT-Techno-Top-Kick is
perfect for this.

6. Next, shape click 1 AMP envelope so that you just use the small attack and
add a touch of high-pass to ensure any lows are removed.

05_Click1.mp3

7. It’s good, but is still lacking some body and highs. Let’s search through the
collection of clicks to find another that fits. By cycling through each click whilst
playing the kick is playing allows you to instantly hear what works and what
doesn’t. In the end, we settled for click 97-AT-Techno-Top-Kick and reduced
the volume by -12db. This click has a nice balance and has the additional bite
we are listening for.

06_Click2.mp3

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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As you can see from the frequency analyser this sits very nicely with our
previous click.

07_Both_Clicks.mp3

8. The final step is to pull down the limiter slider. Here you are looking to very
lightly trigger the limiter to keep the kick under control.

01_Final_Kick.mp3

From here you can further process the kick with reverb and different types of
saturation/distortion. We will cover this in a future eBook and YouTube videos.

© 2018 Audiotent Ltd • www.audiotent.com

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Final words

We hope you’ve found our Ultimate Guide to Sonic Academy Kick 2 extremely
useful. Now that you know what every parameter does, it’s time for you to go and
create some amazing sounding kicks drums!

Are you looking for more Kick 2 presets to learn from? Are you also looking to add a
large collection of top click samples to your library? If so, be sure to listen and
download our preset packs Velocity and Fabric.

Velocity // Tech House Fabric // Techno

Kick 2 Presets Kick 2 Presets
Listen & Download Listen & Download

For more samples, presets, project files and tips visit www.audiotent.com

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