Beat Producers: Now it's time to roll out the 909, since we hit the 808 kick drum sound in the last tech tip. Here we cover the 909 kick, building one from scratch in Pro Tools! Little history, the original 909 kick drum sound came from a Roland® TR-909 Rhythm Composer drum machine.
This is where the 909 kick gets it's namesake along with other new generation 909 sounds coming from the TR-909. Rumor has it that the infamous 808 kick sound actually started life off as an acoustic wave generated from a "tom" sample and altered through eQ'ing and mixing in low-freq sub-harmonics with the sample in the 50-100 hZ range to come up with the super low sub sound.
ProTools: 909 Kick Drum»
Open a new Pro Tools session,
+add new "kick/fx/master" tracks,
and import or record a new acoustic
kick drum sample into the session..
drag new import kick sample into track..
in the mix window,
buss the kick drum on
"aux-send" to "fx" aux-track
[ie: bus17 in this sess],
insert a signal generator
+gate on the "fx" channel,
and set the buss send from
kick channel to unity gain..
open signal generator plug-in,
and adjust settings on oscillator tone
[example: 90hZ tone @-9dB sine wave]..
gate the kick with normal kick settings
[high ratio comp, fast attack, slow release]
and click "sidechain" to allow
key input from kick track..
hit "play" on transport to hear 909!
sample2:
909 kick w/90hZ +boost tone!
909 kick w/90hZ +boost tone!
In your project studio, open a new Pro Tools® session and manufacture your own 909 kick samples for awesome low-end on any demo/cd. Homemade 909 samples boost the LOW END of any project studio or professional release.
Tip2: to get an original 909 sound, eQ the kick [-drop mids @250-400hZ/ +boost hi's @3-6KhZ] and mix in the signal generator/oscillator boosting the 90-150hZ range, sweeping the freq to find the sweet spot. Adjust the settings to find YOUR sound..
and go kill it w/909!
Mike the audioK9
indie audio engr
For more details on ProTools session signalflow,
