Hey Friends,

Getting a punchy kick in mastering is HARD!

There’s no one perfect way to go about it; but what makes a punchy kick is usually the same;

So below I’ll show you what that is and most importantly one EASY way manage getting a punchy kick;

First some housekeeping @caspercayrol1415 asked me on my latest video what were the spectogram settings I used in RX Audio Editor

Go to menu (View -> spectogram) and set to the following ->

LET'S GO!

1. Analyse the mix ~ temporal domain (I use RX audio editor for this)

First assess the quality of the kick; using a spectogram lets me visually plot the energy of frequencies over time.

The main thing I'm looking for is if the body/tail of the subs is LOUDER than the transient (Brighter organge) ~ I'll be going over how to manage the sound design of this in a future instalment.

This isn't the case for this track; it's actually pretty even, which is good... but if we want more punch from the subs we need to assess where and when energy is present.

2. Analyse the frequency domain

Using the highlight tool over the transient and sustain portions, Audio editor will give a read out of the frequency bands selected; this is CRITICAL for setting up this process.

3-5: Set-up your processor for punch

3. Band the fundamental

Set the upper and lower bands of pro-mb to the "body" frequencies from our analysis (20hz - 76hz)

4. Set-up the sidechain

Set the side-chain by optioning "FREE" in expert mode of pro-mb to the "transient" frequencies from our analysis (76hz - 450hz)

5. Set-up the expansion

Place the band in expand mode with;

High ratio, Hard knee, fastest attack and release and lookahead;

Steps 6: Tweak to taste

Tweak the threshold and range; to get that added-sub punch according to what you feel works for the mix!

You can download this preset along with others for free from my notion board here;
I've updated according to this latest video a preset for the exciter module and Pro-MB!

Or watch me use this technique IN ACTION on this video here;

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Mastering 😮 6 steps to make kicks PUNCH in mastering

LET'S GO!

Are you ready to get the best mixing tips or improve your music production business?