Maybe I’m exaggerating a lot. it’s possible to just make the kick louder and build the volume of other elements around it. Or maybe not? Maybe not so simple, maybe you have some tricks?
How find balance between kick and other elements?
From my experience, drums are incredibly difficult all the time. Live’s spectrum analyzer comes in handy here, and typically for me transient shaping is used a lot in order to keep things sounding realistic and natural while also finding just the right levels.
Also, if you make a significant change, that’s a good time to rest your ears and come back later. You can tweak yourself into ear fatigue if you just go nuts with it.
TvMcC
#3
If you want your kick to stand out make sure to do eq cuts on other sources where it’s fundamentals are most pronounced.
It also helps to create envelopes which will sort of allow anything else that hits in the frequency range of your bass drum to get ducked when it hits. Short attack, longer release.
Hope that helps a bit
metaside
#5
Frequency-specific sidechaining is another option, especially but not only in bass-heavy electronic genres.
Edit: Just saw TvMcC already wrote something similar, so I’ll add something ^^
Trackspacer can be a nice and simple option, or any equalizer with dynamic bands and sidechain input options, or something like VolumeShaper or LFOtool, which can be MIDI-triggered.
TvMcC
#6
Haha yeah break the rules, and then simplify!
Always keep it simple and notch if necessary. But a simple bit of proper equalization will help.
One other big tip, make sure you write the song with each source in mind. So if you start write ng a killer bass line, make sure it doesn’t hit on ever bass drum hit, or every snare hit.