
Creating kicks in Syntakt, or any synthesizer, involves manipulating oscillators, filters, envelopes, and effects to generate the desired sound. Here's a general guide on how to make kicks in Syntakt:
1. **Start with a Sine Wave**: Begin by selecting a sine wave as your oscillator. Sine waves produce clean and deep tones which are suitable for kick drums.
2. **Adjust Pitch**: Lower the pitch of the sine wave to achieve the desired depth for your kick. The pitch will determine the fundamental frequency of the kick drum.
3. **Envelope shaping**: Use an envelope generator to shape the volume of the kick drum. A typical kick drum has a fast attack, a short decay, and no sustain. Set the attack to be very short, decay to shape the tail of the kick, and sustain to zero.
4. **Add Harmonics**: While a sine wave can provide a basic kick sound, adding harmonics can give it more character and presence. You can use additional oscillators or harmonic generators to introduce harmonics. Experiment with different waveforms and frequencies to find the desired tone.
5. **Filtering**: Apply a low-pass filter to shape the tone of the kick further. This can help in removing any unwanted high-frequency content and refining the sound.
6. **Layering**: Layering multiple sounds can add richness and depth to your kick drum. You can blend in other synthesized sounds, samples, or even acoustic recordings to enhance the overall texture.
7. **Compression and EQ**: Apply compression to control the dynamics of the kick drum and EQ to further sculpt its frequency response. Boosting or cutting specific frequencies can help in making the kick sit well in the mix.
8. **Effects**: Experiment with effects like distortion, saturation, reverb, and transient shaping to add character and impact to your kick drum.
9. **Fine-tuning**: Spend time fine-tuning the parameters and adjusting various settings until you achieve the desired kick sound. Pay attention to how the kick drum fits within the context of your mix and make adjustments accordingly.
10. **Save your Preset**: Once you've created a kick drum sound you're happy with, save it as a preset in Syntakt so you can easily recall it for future use or further experimentation.
Remember that creating kick drums can be a process of trial and error, so don't be afraid to experiment and trust your ears to guide you towards the desired sound.