Elektron Musical Instruments

Hi,

While I've been doing some songs with MD and bunch of other stuff, 
I've noticed how hard it is to get kick right (haven't managed yet). 
So I think everyone would benefit if we share our kick strategies. 
Here is something that I've tried:

I usually do my kicks with TRX-BD. I've compared it to 808-kick and 
it can be pretty damn close. I'm not a fan of TRX-BD2, because I feel 
it does too much pitch-envelope and you can't set it (actually you 
can set Ramp or Ramp-decay, but only the other one of them).

I feel I can't get the body of the kick enough. Alone kick sounds ok, 
but in the mix the body disappears. Very easy to find out if you 
compare your mix to prodigy for example. They have this good sounding 
attack (which I think is doable somehow) but the 'oommphh' is so good 
there and I can't make same with MD.

Here are some strategies I've tried to get 'oommphh' right:

1. The limiter. 
With limiter (like Waves L1) you can get the 'oomphh' and seriously 
raise volume, without gaining dBs. You have to record kick separate 
from others (which is no problem). The problem in this strategie is 
that the kick will start sounding a lot different than what you 
designed in first place. So it get harder to get kick sound the way 
you like it, allthought you get some 'oommpphh' there. Another 
problem is that the more you limit the kick the more you lose the 
attack of it.

2. Second choice: the Compressor. You can use the compressor like 
limiter (high ratio) and you can set the attack so that it takes a 
little time to compressor react. This way you can get attack  portion 
of the kick higher and then comes the 'ooommmpphh'. I guess this is 
pretty ok solution, but I haven't succeed this way yet. I've also 
found that if you follow compressor with eq, you can mold 
the 'oommpphh' a bit (for example boost at 120 hz to get it more 
recognisable). 

These are my strategies, but with both of them the problem is that 
the kick will eventually sound pretty different than what you exepted 
first when creating it. So it becomes a problem when I think I 
want 'this kind of kick' and don't have any clue how it will sound 
after I've messed with the ooommmpphh and attack.

The more I think of it the more it seams like there is two schools to 
get kick right. Lets say an old school and a new school (don't get 
stuck here, we could name them anything like orange and apple). 
In 'new school' people use samples, which are from other artists 
(nothing wrong here, if you don't copy the whole sounddesign, I 
guess). The artists usually have their kick done right. So you get 
good kick (that hopefully sits in your mix too), which is processed-
ready. People also layer these and so on. I think its easier this 
way, allthought you don't get ultra-clean kicks this way (which might 
be your intention). The old school is about making the kick from 
start to end and starts from 808, 909 (or MD) type sounds. I believe 
it's pretty much harder to do this way, allthought I find it 
interesting and usefull (if I get kicks right this way I sure expect 
to get them right even if I use samples). 

Oh well, just my thinking... (long post)

I (and everyone else I guess) would love to here how people have 
managed to get their kick right? Please tell us your story.

Toni