Hi everyone! In two days I have been using Cubase for two months. The more I learn to use this DAW, the more I love it. Anyway it’s not the first DAW I’ve used.
Last year I started this amazing adventure in the world of the music production in the box almost from scratch. Being oriented towards the Urban/Hip Hop world but also Indie rock, it was a bit difficult for me, to understand which DAW and which workflow I considered most congenial to my creative expression.
I started with FL Studio, then tried Studio One for a smoother workflow. I installed Reaper but it’s more suitable on the mixing side. I also made some projects on Ableton Intro version.
Then I met Cubase and in two months I’m studying it and I’m trying to transfer all my skills into this wonderful DAW.
But… I noticed a detail that maybe is the result of my lack of experience and knowledge of Cubase stock plugins.
I have noticed sonic differences between all the different Digital Audio Workstations used.
Here, I have the impression that the kick drum on Cubase fails to achieve a punchy sound as required in musical genres such as Drill, Trap while it is excellent for old style Hip Hop, the classic Boom Bap. Can anyone confirm my impression? And above all, dear Steinberg developers, will you make me this nice surprise in Cubase 13 of some plugin that with a little push gives you that imperative kick punch like it happens on Ableton with Saturator and “soft clip” activated?
Cubase deserves to be appreciated by beat makers too
UPDATE: I’m trying to achieve a very punchy kick in Cubase as I can in FL Studio or Ableton.
Cubase’s workflow is my favourite and I find in this DAW a very huge arsenal in features e functions but I miss a very loud punchy sound for a kick drum.
I can achieve something similar only with third part plugins.
I’m trying the Backbone software today to achieve at this sound but the problem is the same as before: when I apply a saturation or a soft clipper the sound loss any powerful low end and becomes droning in the mid - high range.
I hope Steinberg can find a solution for the Cubase audio engine. It seems there is a eq filter cutting a portion of frequencies to achieve a very loud low end as in other DAWs
I can tell you with full confidence that there is not.
Here’s what I would do. Fire up your FL Studio and craft the most earth shattering kick drum you possibly can. Turn that into a .wav file and import it onto an Audio Track in Cubase. Does it sound drastically different in Cubase than it does in FL? If it does, there is likely some issues with your audio setup.
Hmm. I think DAWs sounded more different in the past. These days I think “transparency” is the goal. I find it difficult to believe Steinberg would be “cutting a portion of frequencies” from anywhere. But this has been discussed before. As mentioned here, you would need a detailed examination. It’s actually been done. The second part uses EQ and is worth a look.
I followed your suggestion. The main problem was my CR Volume too low than main volume in FL Studio or Ableton Intro.
This affected the perception of the various processing of the low end.
I also switched from 32 bit float to 64 bit float in the audio processing configuration.
Anyway in Cubase there’isnt a stock plugin like the one in Ableton to give a very punch sound with a little touch on the Drive knob in the Saturator + Soft Clip activated.
But now I’m sure the problem is not in the Cubase audio engine and with Urban Puncher, a third part plugin I can achieve a good low end in Cubase.
But as a fellow Cubase user suggested above, exporting the kick of your choice and importing it to Cubase will tell you if there is something wrong with the setup in Cubase.
Yes I followed that suggestion and it works now… I’d only like to find a stock plugin easly giving in a short time a very punchy sound for the low end for Urban / Drill / Trap Hip Hop genres.
May be it’s already here but I don’t know it or maybe it comes in the next future of Cubase …
That worked very well! I saved my preset chain too, thanks! Why there isn’t any similar preset in default? Hope Steinberg give a little more attention at modern beat makers too
Well, I generally avoid presets myself. If a kick drum didn’t sound punchy enough for me then I’d probably try another kick drum first! There’s countless options out there. And you’ll never find 1 preset that suits all of them. Pick a kickdrum that sounds closest to what you want, then eq/saturate/compress it until you get it closer to what you want. I bet you’ll get your desired result quicker than cycling through endless presets.
The only time I ever use presets is when I first open a new plugin I’ve never used before - I’ll cycle through all the presets just so I can learn what this new plugin is capable of, but after that I close the preset menu and manually tweak the plugin till I get closest to the sound I’m hearing in my head.
I’ve used a sidechained gate with a tone generator producing a low frequency to add clout and body to kick drums. No point me giving you numbers, cos each case is different. Have a play. Works great.
The gate is used to control when the tone generated sound is allowed through - ie when the kick is sounding.
This is all on its own track, with the sidechain coming from the main kick track.
It’s a good technique if the original tracking isn’t giving you what you want after normal processing.
Yes, every preset is only a start point. I created it to have a good start point with the plugins I need. This post starts from my need to achieve a good punchy kick as fast as I can get with the stock Saturator + soft clip activated in Ableton.
