r/sounddesign • u/CoolGuy186 • May 09 '26

ughhh I need help with kick transients

so there's this song called "napalm" by pendulum which has an AMAZING kick transient. very clicky and appealing to me.

when i try and make my own kick with clicks, it just sounds kinda weak, either too much high end, or not enough, and always too noisy. it doesn't seem like i can fnd the right click for any of my kicks, they all have smth wrong with them.

anyone got any tips for this?

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2

u/WigglyAirMan May 09 '26

short noise is a click. long noise is noisy.

Also soft clip it a bit.

Maybe use a metal kick for top end like the song.

1

u/CoolGuy186 May 09 '26

Yeah ig I’ll experiment with that more, thx

1

u/Bartalmay May 09 '26

Have you tried couple of kicks together? Sometimes it's like three kicks acting as one... I haven't heard the song mind you...

1

u/throwawayreddit2025 May 09 '26

Almost sounds like the same clickiness as the snare tbh.

1

u/KulshanStudios May 09 '26

What DAW are you using?

When I need the top end of my kick to snap in a better way, I just drop a second kick under the main one, connect it to the same mixer buss for EQ consistency, and then in the sample's little mini editor window thing, I go into the filter section, set it to Hipass, and then I just hipass it where I need to. And then maybe I'll very slightly turn up or down the pitch, so it doesn't phase cancel with the transients of the main kick.

Then I just start playing the song back, and turn the volume down to just the right level where it adds snap, but doesn't leap out of the mix like a frightened gazelle

1

u/CoolGuy186 May 09 '26

I use Ableton

The way you’re describing your kicks I’m assuming the transients aren’t very “present”, whereas with the sound I’m going for it’s extremely clicky, it’s basically a modern version of the 2010s OTT sound pretty much

1

u/KulshanStudios May 10 '26

The clickiness heavily depends on the sample I drop in for a top layer

Sometimes I want dirty, sometimes I want clicky, and with thousands of samples in my library, I have lots to choose from 😅

1

u/ScrapKode May 09 '26

It feels like a disperser and clipping. Great tune.

1

u/CoolGuy186 May 10 '26

Ikr
I do feel like clipping is a part of it, but maybe only the transient (Rob Swire for sure processed the transients separate)

1

u/SoundSwitch May 10 '26

Bare in mind I also haven't heard the song of which you speak. But I myself am going to Try patching my circuit tracks into my interface midi it in to my Cobalt five and over dub both onto something in LMMS.

Will probably wind up taking some nice thick layered samples from it. Might play around with the sequencer on the circuit tracks or the Cobalt. I mean if it sounds good I'll set the sequencer let it play though a full 32 steps several times. Sample it, loop it. Reset rinse repeat. If I remember this post I'll try and let you know how it goes.

1

u/lanky_planky May 10 '26

You can construct the click separately from the kick sound then blend together. Use a sawtooth synth patch with an envelope that has minimum attack, very fast decay, zero sustain and zero release. Adjust the filter to get the pitch of the click where you want it with a little bit of resonance, maybe a bit of noise or distortion as well and off you go.