#176: What Makes a Kick Drum Punchy? Try This Free Plugin!

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In this episode of Inside The Mix, we dive deep into enhancing your kick drum for maximum impact using the free Plugin Alliance bx_Subfilter plugin. Discover how to make your kicks sound fatter, punchier, and more powerful in your mixes with professional tips and techniques. Whether you're working on electronic beats or rock tracks, mastering your low end is essential for a polished sound.

What You'll Learn:
• What makes a kick drum punchy and how to achieve it
• How to get a fat kick drum sound with proper sample selection
• Step-by-step guide to using the Plugin Alliance bx_Subfilter
• Fine-tuning resonance and tight punch settings for impact
• What does bx_Subfilter do? Breaking down its key features
• Gain staging tips to ensure a balanced, professional mix
• Before-and-after audio comparisons to hear the difference

Master the art of low-end control and take your mixes to the next level! Tune in now for expert insights and practical techniques you can apply today.

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Episode Transcript

Marc Matthews (00:01):
You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast
with your host, mark Matthews.
Hello and welcome to the Insidethe Mix podcast.
I'm Mark Matthews, your host,musician, producer and mix and
mastering engineer.
You've come to the right placeif you want to know more about
your favorite synth musicartists, music engineering and
production, songwriting and themusic industry.

(00:21):
I've been writing, producing,mixing and mastering music for
over 15 years and I want toshare what I've learned with you
.
Hello, folks, and welcome tothe Inside the Mix podcast.
If you are a new listener, makesure you hit follow wherever
you get your podcasts and ifyou're watching this on YouTube,
hit subscribe and thenotification bell so you get
notified of new episodes.
And to the returning listeners,as always, a huge welcome back

(00:42):
and, of course, the viewers aswell.
A big welcome back and, ofcourse, the viewers as well, a
big welcome back.
On the 22nd of November, Idropped my new track, waves, and
there's two versions.
There's a full length which isabout six and a half minutes,
and then there is the radio edit, so it's been played on BBC
Introduced and some other placesas well.
So it's doing all rightconsidering the time of year,
and I haven't released anythingfor probably about a year.
If you haven't done so, clickthe link in the episode

(01:03):
description, give it a spin, addit to your progressive house or
your house or melodic house,deep house, whatever it may be
playlists.
So in this episode I'm going todemonstrate how I took the kick
drum to this, and I achievedthat with a free plugin.

(01:45):
So let's dive in.
So I completed the first mixand I sent it across to my good
friends R9 and Neon Highway forsome feedback.
They've been on the podcastnumerous times probably more so
in 2023.
And the general consensus wasthat the kick drum sounded good,
but it just wasn't powerfulenough.
And shout out to R9 inparticular here he pinpointed,

(02:05):
or rather he pointed me in thedirection of this Plugin
Alliance plugin called BXSubfilter, and it's a free
plugin and it's a fantasticpiece of kit.
Now there is a caveat to this.
This will not fix a poor choiceof kick drum samples, so get
that right first.
So don't think I'll settle forthis kick and then I'll use sub

(02:26):
filter to fix the issues I'vegot with this kick sample.
Get the kick sample right first, and this is just like
sweetening it, and a little doesgo a long way.
So what is the BX sub filter?
In short, it is a resonant highpass filter with a changeable
frequency.
It's got five controls gain in,tight punch, low end, gain out

(02:48):
and resonant.
When I first used it, or ratherwhen I used it on this track, I
started with the bass drum,extreme preset and it sounds
like this Okay, bit too much formy liking.

(03:09):
So the first thing I did was Ichanged the resonance and this
is where it's extenuating theresonance of that high pass
filter and you've got low, highand extreme.
Obviously, from low it's goingto be less, extreme is going to
be more, and I now like to startwith it in the middle.
So I changed it to high.
I then changed the tight punchfrequency and this is where the
high order high pass filter isset.

(03:31):
So it's going to be attenuatingunwanted frequencies and also
extenuating the wanted lowerfrequencies as well.
I just swept around, basically,until that bass drum just
really popped out.
So I'm going to solo it thistime and then I'm just going to
sweep around.
I think I got to about 50 hertzlast time, so let's give that a
go.
Yeah, hopefully.

(04:00):
You heard that I dragged itdown to about 35 hertz and it
just lost some of that power.
So I'm looking, or rather I'mlistening for where it just
jumps out of me, that bass,those low frequencies just jump
out in my headphones and alsothe sub and the speakers when I
was mixing this.
So, yeah, 50 hertz is what Isettled with and then I moved on
to the low end parameter andthis is a fixed bandpass filter

(04:22):
at 55 hertz and it's post tightpunch and it's just going to
boost those frequencies aroundthere.
And I think I had it set to six, if I remember rightly.
So I'll play it and I'm goingto play in the context of the
mix and then I'm just going tosweep around because you kind of
want it, you want to get thatsweet spot where it's not too
much but it's there and it'spowerful enough.
Yeah, so I settled on six there.

(04:54):
I dragged it back to two.
You could feel it was losingits power.
So the final parameter we'regoing to do here is, obviously
we've added this extra sort ofsignal level to this and we've
got to think gain staging right.
So I want to gain match itbefore and after.
So I'm going to drag it down.
I think I got to about minus 4dB on the output in total.
So let's play it, and I'm justgoing to drag the gain out down

(05:18):
until it gets to where I want itto be.
So let's play it before orafter.
And let's play it before orafter and let's see where that
kick drum is in terms ofloudness.
Okay, it's about minus 22.
It's quite.
It feels quite low in the mixnow, doesn't it?
So I'm going to play it withthe sub filter enabled.

(05:42):
Yeah, I got the output down toabout minus five this time.
Probably I might be inclined togo a bit lower, but I'm going

(06:03):
to leave it where it is.
Now.
When I solo this, you'll noticethat there's kind of like a bit
of a squelchy noise on the kickdrum, so I'll play it.
It's right at the tail of thekick.
It's going at the end of thekick.
I was happy with the kick drumsample.
Now when you solo it you canhear it, but in the context of

(06:25):
the mix I was happy that it wasinaudible, so I just thought I'd
throw that out there.
It was more prominent just nowwhen we were playing it, when I
hadn't adjusted the gain output,and you could hear this sort of
squelchy sort of sound at theend, but it's less prominent now
.
I've brought the gain down, butobviously it was louder in my
headphones because it was 5 dBlouder.
So let's do again a before andafter.

(06:46):
So this is without the subfilter and this is with the sub
filter.
So there we go.

(07:12):
It's a free plugin.
It's got five parameters andreally easy to use.
But again, make sure you getyour kick drum sample correct
first before using this.
You can also use it on bass.
You've got the sub-synth, whichis like its bigger brother, if
you will, and this is like oneportion of the sub-synth, and I

(07:32):
use the sub-synth on the bass.
That's a great plugin, but it'snot free, but this one is.
So give it a go, folks.
Fantastic piece of kit.