Sound Design - Kick

Hi :)
I am contemplating using a basic VCO to design my own kicks.
I am making mainly techno/dub techno/electro.
I am using a Michigan Synth SY0.5 and/or a MI Plaits to design my kicks and other hats/claps/percs.
Yet I am looking into more options for designing my kicks mainly. I am happy with Plaits and SY0.5 (or sometimes samples) for various other perc elements (hats/claps/perc).
I understand that using a basic VCO with various waveforms would also require a mixer (to eventually mix the various waveshapes), some EG (preferably ASR or ADSR) and some VCAs.
- I have a PipSlope Mk2, a Doepfer A-140 (ADSR with a Retrig input which can be interesting for adding some variation as well as an inverted out) and a XAOC Zadar for EGs.
- I also have a basic VCA (Doepfer A130-2)
I would need:
1) A basic mixer: would a Doepfer A-138n (basic 4 inputs) be good enough or a mixer/polarizer (more sound design options) like a Doepfer A-138j would be better?
2) A basic VCO: what should I look into? Bear in mind that this VCO would be used mainly for this purpose. Now I could also use it for other purposes :)
NOTE:
1) I am limited by space (as ever...).
2) I do processing outside my eurorack, therefore compression and saturation are not considered.
Any advice would be gladly appreciated.
Best,
L

Hi :)
I am contemplating using a basic VCO to design my own kicks.
I am making mainly techno/dub techno/electro.
I am using a Michigan Synth SY0.5 and/or a MI Plaits to design my kicks and other hats/claps/percs.
Yet I am looking into more options for designing my kicks mainly. I am happy with Plaits and SY0.5 (or sometimes samples) for various other perc elements (hats/claps/perc).
I understand that using a basic VCO with various waveforms would also require a mixer (to eventually mix the various waveshapes), some EG (preferably ASR or ADSR) and some VCAs.
- I have a PipSlope Mk2, a Doepfer A-140 (ADSR with a Retrig input which can be interesting for adding some variation as well as an inverted out) and a XAOC Zadar for EGs.
- I also have a basic VCA (Doepfer A130-2)
I would need:
1) A basic mixer: would a Doepfer A-138n (basic 4 inputs) be good enough or a mixer/polarizer (more sound design options) like a Doepfer A-138j would be better?
2) A basic VCO: what should I look into? Bear in mind that this VCO would be used mainly for this purpose. Now I could also use it for other purposes :)
NOTE:
1) I am limited by space (as ever...).
2) I do processing outside my eurorack, therefore compression and saturation are not considered.
Any advice would be gladly appreciated.
Best,
L

-- Loersatz

I'm in almost the same boat as you at the moment...trying to decide which way to go with drums (and especially bass/kick). I also am interested in rolling my own kicks, but use Plaits as well. Unfortunately, no advice to give, but I will certainly keep an eye on this thread to see what wisdom others are able to provide, and which direction you choose after consideration. Best of luck! :)

I think I would miss all the other awesome sounds that Plaits is capable of if I had to use it for kicks. I have a Kickall and a Tea Kick. I like the great big fat bouncy deep kicks that those guys can do. But I would also like something that is tighter and punchier. 'Course, I'm always looking for something! LOL!

I am contemplating using a basic VCO to design my own kicks.

You can do that easily with any basic vco. Plug a decay into V/Oct and another decay for the vca. Trigger them together. Works pretty well! Using two separate decays gives you more flexibility to scale both level and length of the V/Oct decay.

That being said, I can recommend the Can I Kick It module from Skull&Circuits very highly. It has two of these circuits. You can control the V/Oct and VCA decays separately, but also cross-modulate them for more fun. It's a very good sounding modules with a bone piercing kick. There's also a pitch in. While it's not V/Oct, with some scaling I managed to use it as a bass synth

EDITED Dec 16th 2023, 08:05

You might enjoy this clip.

I've been playing around with various kick setups since this thread.

One thing I've found that works well is multing the envelope that opens the vca for the kick, sending it to, say, Maths ch. 2, attenuverting it ( 9 oclock dial position), taking the INV out to the vca for the basslines, to get a nice "ducking" effect.

Kick remains crisp in the mix, as competing bass frequencies are rolled off.

OP could achieve same with A-140 (I believe) as it has an inverse output, correct?

One thing I've found that works well is multing the envelope that opens the vca for the kick, sending it to, say, Maths ch. 2, attenuverting it ( 9 oclock dial position), taking the INV out to the vca for the basslines, to get a nice "ducking" effect.

Yes, I've done it with a basic Intelligel Quadratt as well. Works very well. Though it's worth experimenting with the envelope and whether the VCA is linear/exponential to see what the effect is. I use a compressor in my iPad for sidechaining which also gives plenty of possibilities. I like the witch house exaggerated ducking, which is hard to achieve by using the original kick envelope.

I often use the sine from self-resonating filters to design kicks. Some filters are better than others for this. I've always liked the kicks I get from my Synthesis Technology E440.

Joranalogue Generate 3 was also killer at good, robust kick sounds.

As far as nice snappy percussive envelopes go, I really like using my Patching Panda Punch.

The new Doepfer A-105-2 filter is absolutely killer for kicks. Just ping the FCV input with an envelope and get an instant kick drum. You can really dial in the tone and timbre using an ADSR based envelope. Should probably work with most 2044 chip based filters :)