Eurorack Modular Kick Drum Tutorial

How to make a Kick Drum with your Modular Synth, the first tutorial from our online Modular Synth school, Voltage Control Lab.
From www.voltagecontrollab.com/2015...
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Voltage Control Lab is the first school dedicated to Modular Synthesis, offering online courses and private instruction in Hardware and Software Synthesis and Sound Design. We are currently enrolling Modular 101: Intro to Eurorack for newer modular adventurers, as well as more advanced courses like Sound Design 101 and The Many Faces of Maths for more experienced sound spelunkers. Join us!
www.voltagecontrollab.com/
/ vcontrollab

[@blerkh]

I think it’s worth mentioning that the Make Noise Optomix is not a generic VCA, but rather a Low Pass Gate that uses vactrols, which are particularly suited for creating tuned percussion sounds.

[@voltagecontrollab]

+blerkh True, good point. I like the same patch with a proper VCA too. Whole world of kick sounds there...

[@wackenthaljef]

VCL ,you are the most coolest vids for a french man that just begin in modular.So a big thxs!

[@forehead84]

Just found your vids courtesy of the KZbin recommendations. Happy to say KZbin were right to suggest your channel, love it.

[@voltagecontrollab]

That's great to hear, algorithms working as they should! Welcome!

[@rossmotus669]

Very useful turorial. Thank you very much 👍

[@H4NDCRAFTED]

Very nice video subbed! Route through a lowpass filter with velocity cv attached to cutoff freq to change length and timbre by velocity :)

[@voltagecontrollab]

+H4NDCRAFTED Thank you, great tip!

[@dianemckimmy3261]

That sounds like a heartbeat

[@PatrickOBrien]

Excellent vid guys!

[@voltagecontrollab]

+Patrick OBrien Thanks Patrick!

[@julianscrotus3337]

I use practically the same approach for my kicks; I like using different envelopes for pitch and amplitude, though. I might even use some audio rate FM along with the envelope, but I don't remember. Nice video; keep it up.

[@voltagecontrollab]

Yeah a little enveloped fm input is great. Gonna have a couple videos on that soon...!

[@chrisbeckstrom]

Fantastic video!

[@voltagecontrollab]

+Chris Beckstrom Thank you!

[@dianemckimmy3261]

Voltage Control Lab it sounds like a heartbeat the kick drum

[@TheAris621]

Can you guys please include a link to the uncompressed audio from this recording? The kick drums around 3 min are exactly what I'm looking for right now.

[@blerkh]

Did you manually shift up the frequency of the oscillator off-camera @ 2:04?

[@julians7785]

Depends on the genre kick style you're going for. I've found good results by creating a transient high frequency click with a short decay and layering it with a longer decay low frequency element for the body of the sound.

[@voltagecontrollab]

Julian S Awesome! Do you use any modules in particular?

[@julians7785]

Voltage Control Lab Maths is good for expo/linear/log slope variations.

[@voltagecontrollab]

Julian S I wish I had 4 Maths modules, I would gladly make room if I could afford them!

[@thefoxfamily341]

Thx for this..Grüße aus Wien ❤🖖🇦🇹

[@jasonmerenda]

resonant LP filter, like the Dave Smith DS1, is the quickest way since the VCA and Overdrive are built in. You basically need just an EG at that point. Two modules. You could also CV the Cutoff for pitch control if you like, or split the EG to the Cutoff and VCA for standard kick wave. Generally I avoid using and oscillator as they are an expensive piece of real estate, where as filters are low cost and less space.

[@voltagecontrollab]

+jason merenda Good idea!

[@jasonmerenda]

thanks. actually i've been revisiting this lately, and for more of a 909 thump, using one half of the of the korgasmotron in BP mode, has given me the best sound, since it has a resonance overdrive. but you will need an AR EG/VCA for that.

[@MarcDupuis50400]

Haha, I just discovered this yesterday myself ! I was hardly using my DSM01 ever, but then thought "oh but this self resonates super early, it would do a great bass drum". Tried it and it did ! I stumbled upon your comment when looking for other people who have used it already for that purpose, I typed "DSM01 bass drum" :D I might do a video on it to show it.

[@kevinmcphee4805]

Any chance you could do a video on your modulation orgy? Seems like a really fun module but I already own two modules that can make some decent LFOs (Maths and Quadra), so I'm wondering if it would be overkill for my 9U setup. Really enjoyed this video btw! quick, concise and informative.

[@voltagecontrollab]

+Kevin McPhee I'll put it on the list! It's pretty nice, I must say. The built in clock divider/multiplier is particularly handy...

[@ZHIPBY]

is it the same if i would use a hi hat instead of the kick module ?

[@modularmusictv]

Just added to www.modularmusic.tv! Keep an eye out this week!

[@jaggass]

Does a sequencer or a keyboard trigger the Modular synth

[@voltagecontrollab]

In this case, just a simple gate sequence.

[@TheAris621]

The oscillator is not synced tho... So the attack sounds kinda weird and random

[@ericmosh]

Synced to what?

[@TheAris621]

@@ericmosh To the trigger. A lot of oscillators have a sync input which makes sure the phase is synchronized to whatever is sent to that input. When you take the same trigger signal that's being used to trigger the envelopes (could be from a sequencer, an LFO, or just a manual trigger knob) and route it to the oscillator sync input, the phase resets everytime the kick drum is being triggered. Therefor you'll get a consistent transient on your kick drum, which usually sounds better than when it's random.

[@ericmosh]

@@TheAris621Oh, I see. Thank you for explaining. :)

[@evwaldron]

I understand that using oscillators to make drum sounds is a basic skill that should be known... but the number of components needed to create it would end up costing WAY more. A good oscillator alone would cost twice as much as one of the TipTop drum modules. Not to mention, now you've occupied an envelope... I feel that you get significantly more bang for your buck with the purpose built module and also leave your oscillators and envelope generators free to do other cool stuff. Just my take though.

[@voltagecontrollab]

+evwaldron You are right, if you want a drum modular system, that especially makes more sense. However, the question becomes, how do they make the sounds in the drum module? :)

[@kaoslog]

you push the button "rec" on your DAW and voila´

[@dianemckimmy3261]

Voltage Control Lab this Kick Drum actually sounds like a heartbeat

[@blockchainbullies7324]

Just get the befaco Kickall

[@voltagecontrollab]

Just get a volca kick. Just do it in Ableton. Just use a sample!

[@blockchainbullies7324]

Voltage Control Lab yes you are right so many easier ways to do it and with better results and use the free time to really bang something out right I so agree with you 🍻

[@alexandersorbas1881]

I just sampled the sh*t out of this video ;)

[@voltagecontrollab]

Prove it!

[@alexandersorbas1881]

Voltage Control Lab what should I prove? I just thank you for those great kicks !!

[@voltagecontrollab]

Show us the track!!! I wanna hear what you did!

[@alexandersorbas1881]

Voltage Control Lab ah ok I‘ll do !!

[@cuentos.narrados]

@@alexandersorbas1881 10 months and counting.