The biggest problem I hear in self-recorded and produced music is a lack of clean, low end punch from kick drums or 808s.

Of course this would be a problem because there is a very common misconception in the audio mixing world: if you want it louder, just add more of that frequency. 🤬 

THIS IS THE WRONG WAY TO APPROACH IT! WHY you ask?

You are adding those frequencies there the entire time!

You WON’T get Punchy Kick Drums, 808s, or Mixes Using Only EQ!

If we want punchy kick drums without affecting anything else, we can use a trick that not many know about.

It’s called upward expansion.

It’s basically like using a compressor in reverse. Instead of reducing a signal over a given threshold, we INCREASE it. This way, we only add those specific frequencies when the kick drum, 808, snare, or whatever is actually playing. It will not continuously add unwanted frequencies to your mix or master!

How to Add Perfect Low End Punch To any mix

The magic about using this technique is we can control how big the initial impact will be (the transient) and also how long we want the punch to last (the decay or release). These can be controlled by two knobs on a compressor (in expansion mode) or a standalone expander: the ratio (punch) and release (decay or length).

The ratio determines how much to amplify the signal once it goes above a given threshold. The release parameter tells us how long it will take to lower the signal back down to the original level.

These two settings, ratio and release, allows us to add low end punch to any mix!

Setting the Attack and Release

The last step, is to make sure you set the attack to the fastest (shortest) time possible if you want to add maximum impact. The attack is the time it takes before the upward expansion begins. If you want to soften the impact, you can increase (make longer) the attack. It’s up to you to decide how punchy your kick drum will be.

Multiband compressors that work in upward expansion mode

• Izotope Ozone Multiband Compressor

These are affiliate links which helps support this blog. Not only will you often get a discount, but it’s equivalent to buying me a coffee for helping you out 😀

Video Tutorial

Below is a video showing you exactly how to dial this in. It is showing it for hard rock music, but this trick works GREAT for 808’s and punchy EDM snares!

WATCH HOW TO DIAL IN THE PERFECT AMOUNT OF PUNCH INTO THIS HARD ROCK SONG

Like this video?

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FINAL THOUGHTS

Below is a quick overview of WHY it’s so important to stop using EQ and start using cleaner, more focused upward expansion tricks to add impact to 808s and kicks. Take aways are:

• Stop using EQ to add punch to kick drums, snares, and basslines
• EQ will add frequencies continuously, which will blur your mix
• Using upward expansion will only want to increase certain frequencies when the initial transient hits, making it much cleaner, tighter, and more focused than EQ

If you made it this far, please share this article with others that would find it helpful! 

Do you have any tricks that you use to add punch or impact to your 808s or snare? Let’s get a discussion going below!

By the way…

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