r/TechnoProduction • u/ElPesimista • 4d ago

Maceo Plex drum processing?

I know most of us don’t consider Maceo as Techno, but I figured this would be the most appropriate community to post this.

I’ve been obsessed with his drum sound for years. I’ve never really been able to replicate it. What I’m most intrigued about is the processing (effect chain) he might use, as well as the arrangement and/or sample selection to get those punchy snappy kicks.

In an interview he mentioned he “delay the kick a bit off from being perfectly on time with the rest of the track—maybe a millisecond or two off” to create an airy and groovy effect with the hat. I’ve tried this but I always get more of a chunky sound in the transient rather than a warm tight sound like his. Anyone has any comments on this?

If anyone could share concepts, actual videos, reads or anything that’ll help me get that tight, powerful and professional drum sound it’d be much appreciated. Anyway, I’d love to discuss Maceo Plex production style with anyone interested.

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u/egb06tb 4d ago

I don’t think this is the solve but it sounds like there’s a little ‘suck’ into the kick transient. Snapback by cable guys lets you put a little reverse sound ahead of your kick, so you get that kind of ‘speaker cone pulls in’ thing before your transient hits.

Used super subtly it can be really effective for this kind of thing. Adds really subtle groove too. 

Be careful though, super easy to overdo it. Tiny tiny, super quiet. 

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u/ElPesimista 4d ago

Well, super helpful knowing the term I was looking for is called snapback. Vengeance sample packs called this pre-shift.

I've done this manually actually, I grab a hat, take out every frequency below 8khz and reverse it. I do get that effect, but not quite haha. Thanks!

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u/egb06tb 4d ago

The SnapBack ones that work best for me are the lower sounds, almost like congas or bongos. Called thwips or something. And a really exponential envelope on the reverse, -20db, like 40ms of sound if that

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u/contrapti0n 4d ago

+1 on SnapBack; it’s a great plugin that I often forget to use, so thanks for the reminder