ive smashed the hell out of my kick drum and its ended up way off centre (is that dc offset, im not sure)
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now as much as it sounds fat and cuts through the mix like a demon, is there any technical reason why im going to run in to problems using it (sounds ok though), i have corrected the dc offset (which i think is the issue) and this is the corrected version
What exactly does “smash” it mean? You played it loud? Ot you applied some sort of processing?
Bass drum typically has an asymetrical waveform, particularly on the initial attack. I’d like to see a little more of that waveform - it looks as if you have a hf component riding on the back of a much lower frequency. Rather than applying a DC offset, try a high-pass filter. You might find the result interesting.
But I think you’re correcting something that doesn’t need correcting. Asymetrical waveforms are normal, and common.
when i say smashed it, i meant compression, not totally over the top though but i did use put it through a distortion unit aswel again only on a mild setting.
usually my sounds are (forgive me as i don’t know the technical terms) symetrical with the centre line from start to finish but this ones way off and i thought it was dc offset that was the problem, now everything ive read about dc offset seems to be negative and should be avoided.
Well, at first sight the “corrected” version seems to have a fair amount of DC offset! The attach doesn’t look like what a bass drum nurmally does - I’d expect a quite asymetrical attack (when the beater actually hits the head) settling down to something more evenly distributed.
But I’d still like to see where that waveform goes beyond the window you’ve shown us. There seems to be an underlying low frequency component. What distortion device did you use? Have you got a picture of the raw recorded data, before you started processing?
Another thing, the right wave looks out of phase to the left wave!
I would also second trying a HPF
yes i did flip the phase, and it wasnt so much a distortion i used it was that new waves tape saturation plugin but
i drove it so it sounds like a distortion.
ill have to put a filter on it to get rid of the low frequency after it, but my question is, is there any reason why i shouldnt use it in a track, it sounds right???
what effect will the dc offset have on my mix or what other issues could i run in to because of it?
I’m not going to be convinces there IS DC offset until I see a longer sample - not just the attack of a single hit.
I think there is enough ‘cyclic’ information beyond the original transient to conclude that there is a DC offset!