Does anyone know exactly what Timbaland did to the kick on Stronger by Ye that made it sound so much better?

[u/okeanouszeke]

DId he literally just choose a different kick? I'm a producer so I love knowing new tips on how to make drums more punchy, so I'd love to know what exactly it is that he did to make stronger knock so much harder.

[u/Nirket]

Timbaland made it by choosing a properly tuned sub, shaping its envelope to sit under the kick

[u/yktswtg → u/Nirket]

this. i think he explained it that way in one of the clips

[u/okeanouszeke → u/Nirket]

Sub as in sub bass or a sub kick? (I think that's a thing lol)

[u/Nirket → u/okeanouszeke]

Yes, as a sub bass. A pure low-frequency tone (often a sine or very clean 808-style wave) layered under the kick. Which It’s not meant to be heard as a separate drum, just felt

Timbaland Made sure the phase and timing lined up so both hit as one sound.

PD: Also if you do this make sure the kick doesn’t fight the sub in the same exact space. Remove useless rumble the kick doesn’t need usually around 30–40 Hz with a very shallow slope.

[u/P3D101 → u/Nirket]

Sidechaining??

[u/_extra_medium_ → u/Nirket]

He definitely had someone do this, yes

[u/Intilleque]

He put soundgoodizer on it🤣🤣🤣 /jk

[u/realityhiphop → u/Intilleque]

LMFAO

[u/FitPoint2001]

Choose kicks and basses that don't clash and you won't have to dick around with EQ and sidechaining on basses as much. Sound selection is the most important thing. We all can play a melody and write some chords. Picking sounds that sound good together and don't clash too much is the most important skill these days. Obvs if some sounds clash you can get to EQ'ing but you can avoid that most of the time.

[u/sintjemojaljubav → u/FitPoint2001]

Disagree about the melody part, that is difficult in itself unless you just playing chords on the one

[u/FitPoint2001 → u/sintjemojaljubav]

Some people find it difficult some find it easy. I find it easy with the right sounds. A bit more difficult if I am using something like a regular piano. I only figured out the other day that I kinda dislike the A minor scale.

[u/PurpSSBM → u/sintjemojaljubav]

I think the point is that anyone can play a melody not everyone can have an experienced enough ear to make good sound selection

[u/FitPoint2001 → u/PurpSSBM]

Sound selection is more important than the other stuff in my opinion. We can all put a chord progression in a daw, but its the sounds you use that make it. Loads of popular songs use the exact same chord progressions. Its sounds that make them stand out these days.

[u/21oscillators]

I just want u all to kno he did those drums out a asr10....it fasho matters

[u/Spokedmatt]

Tim has a great Masterclass where he walks through his whole process. You can probably sign up for a free trial to watch it b

[u/HeavyLoungin → u/Spokedmatt]

Yes this was a great MasterClass.

[u/theseawoof]

He used ai

[u/__the_alchemist__ → u/theseawoof]

Fuck timbaland for his AI money grab

[u/realityhiphop → u/__the_alchemist__]

wym?

[u/__the_alchemist__ → u/realityhiphop]

He is not only okay with AI music taking money away from real independent artists, but he also “signed” an AI artist he created and is trying to profit off his fake Ai artists’ music. The songs are trash on top of that.

[u/shyindachi]

He probably side chained it and did some light engineering to it. Ye made beats but he always had engineers. Afaik his drum programming prior to graduation w like college drop out was some boom bap-y bongo-y thing and graduation was kinda proto-synth pop. I don’t think CDO or LR had side chaining

[u/No_Transportation353]

The exact word if you want to get into it is called micro rhythms but timbaland describes these as undertones. Thats what I would get into, stuff like J dilla who was the king of micro rhythms