@JoshFossgreen I am really enjoying the course. I am in my 50s, played guitar (not great) since I was a kid, and recently decided to take up bass. I like your sense of humor (even if it’s corney), and I like your encouraging tone.
I would like to get better at hearing the kick drum in songs. I downloaded moises on my mac and can isolate the drums on any song, but wondering if it’s possible to “check” myself and isolate just the kick. I find it challenging to hear it, even with just the full drum kit.
Any advice on practicing this would be appreciated.
As @Barney alluded to, the easiest/fastest way is to be in the room with a kick drum. It makes itself known quite quickly.
Second best - watch some videos of drummers playing solo on Youtube so it’s easy to pick out. Listen on headphones or good speakers, phones + kick drum = no worky.
Then listening to full bands, either live (best) or concert footage / live performance videos (also good).
More effective to use sidechannel EQ to duck the kick frequencies in the other tracks. Just set the drum track as input to the sidechannel and it works great. Actually a common mixing technique.
I’ve found in different rooms and recording environments the kick can take a whole different character, and is especially informed by the genre. Sometimes there’s more beater-head in the mix and the kick can pop out more as a “click” than a “thud” (especially in metal). It can take a while for the ear to pick it out.
Dunno what you’re listening to, but for my money bands that have more focus on texture and layering tend to make more space for the kick as a drum. For an example and an easier place to start, Rammstein and the four-on-floor kick drum in “Du Hast” is pretty blatant.
Or for something completely different, go the latin-influenced pop route. “Livin la vida loca,” as played out as it is (still a great song I will not hear an argument ), is pretty instrumentally busy, but as soon as the vocal starts you can hear the kick underneath a lot better. Just checked on my phone speaker and it’s audible.
I’ve been listening to Faith No More’s album “Album of the Year” and the opening track has a lot of space in the verse to hear everything. It’s also counted in 10 so there’s some extra practice
), is pretty instrumentally busy, but as soon as the vocal starts you can hear the kick underneath a lot better. Just checked on my phone speaker and it’s audible.
