Sonic Academy school us in the art of the KICK (version 2)
The original KICK from Sonic Academy in 2014 was very well received but fairly simplistic. It used samples and a sine wave to produce decent raw kick sounds but lacked any real processing or sound tweaking ability. KICK 2 aims to address that with all sorts of controls and effects to play with.
KICK 2 comes with 3 “Click” areas – this is the name they give to samples. I guess they refer to the fact that for a kick drum you just need a short, click-like sample? Anyway, you can load 3 clicks and adjust the pitch, length and start position of each and then apply a low or high pass filter. You can drag samples onto the interface or audition them through the browser. The other side of kick creation is via synthesis which KICK calls “SUB” – I guess referring to the low frequencies inherent in an electronically generated kick drum? Rather than just a sine wave as in the original, version 2 comes with SUB Harmonics for adding a bit of depth and character. KICK 2 includes over 230 kicks and over 180 click samples covering a wide range of styles and genres.
In the effects department we have 2 analogue modelled distortion units plus the Drive sound from the original Kick. A compressor and a limiter give you some control over the bigness of the sound and a really nice looking graphical EQ lets you sculpt the frequency spectrum to your heart’s content. The envelope of the kick can also be manipulated with some cool bezier curves. The overall length and pitch can be set and you can use a snap feature to dial in the exact key of you kick drum.
Kick drums have enormous importance in a lot of modern music and while many of us perhaps focus on a drum kit as a whole KICK 2 presents you with an opportunity to bring something unique and tailor made to your music’s bottom end.
KICK 2 is available now in VST, AU and AAX formats on OSX and Windows for GBP £49.95. For a limited time they are also including an “Artist Producer Preset Pack” which contains over 70 presets from lots of famous people I’ve never heard of.
More information: https://www.sonicacademy.com/products/kick-2
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