Kick 3 is here

Tutorial | Sep 24, 2024

In this video, I discuss the newly released beta version of Kick3, comparing it to Kick Ninja and highlighting its parallel processing approach for better kick drum creation. Despite having the flu, I demonstrate Kick3's features, such as the ability to analyze and separate acoustic drum loops, key tracking, and a modular effects section. While still exploring its potential and acknowledging some bugs, I'm excited about its future use and improvements.

You can watch the Video on Youtube

• support me on Patreon
• Kick 3 Website

Summary #

Maybe you don't watch the video, here are some important takeaways:

Hey everyone, welcome back to another video. You might notice my voice sounds a bit off today because I've been hit by the flu for the past couple of days. Out of boredom, I decided to make a video about Kick 3, which coincidentally came out a day after Kick Ninja. There's speculation about which developer copied whom, but Kick 3 was pre-announced with its features well in advance.

Kick 3 is currently in beta, and the beta phase is open until the 30th of this month. If you want to join, all you need is a license for Kick 2. You can also buy a Kick 2 license to join the beta. One feature I appreciate in Kick 3 compared to Kick Ninja is how they handle the creation of kick drums. In Kick Ninja, the process is sequential; it starts with an attack phase sample and then crossfades into an oscillator. Kick 3, however, handles this differently and more effectively, in my opinion. The approach is parallel, meaning you have a sine kick or oscillator kick running from start to finish, with a high-pass layer on top. This results in a better overall sound.

As a demonstration, I used Addictive Drums to create a drum loop and dragged it into Kick 3. The software allows you to analyze the loop, trim it to focus solely on the kick drum, and separate the kick (or sub) from the click. You can then drag these separated components into their respective sub and sample layers. Kick 3 also features new interface tabs like Import, Trigger, Effects, EQ, and Main, making it somewhat different from Kick 2. This setup, in my opinion, makes creating a realistic kick drum much easier.

In Kick 3, the sub layer focuses on the underlying fundamentals, while the texture on top defines the kick drum's character. Unlike Kick Ninja, which limits the texture to the initial milliseconds, Kick 3 maintains this throughout the duration, making it sound more natural.

The interface in Kick 3 has also seen some changes and includes features like key tracking, which allows you to maintain specific pitch notes. This is similar to what you can do in Kick Ninja. Additionally, Kick 3 introduces a macro section and a modular effects section for added flexibility in creating custom presets with various effects.

While I do like many aspects of Kick 3, there are some features in Kick Ninja that I miss, particularly the ability to paint in automation curves for different parameters. Hopefully, this might become available in Kick 3 in future updates. Another feature that would be beneficial is the static phase feature, crucial for genres like PsyTrance, which often use static phase kicks.

I’m really excited about the new features and improvements in Kick 3. Though I haven't been able to explore it fully due to having the flu, I wanted to make sure you knew it’s out and looks promising. I’ll leave a link in the description for those interested. Thanks for watching. If you liked the video, please leave a like, ask questions if you have any, and I'll see you next time. Bye.

Transcription #

This is what im talking about in this video. The text is transcribed by AI, so it might not be perfect. If you find any mistakes, please let me know.
You can also click on the timestamps to jump to the right part of the video, which should be helpful.

[00:00:00] Hey folks, welcome back to another video and when you think "Polarity sounds really strange
[00:00:06] today", it's because I'm hit by the flu for the reason 2 days and I'm slowly recovering
[00:00:12] and out of my boredom I tried to make a video about kick3 which came out coincidentally
[00:00:19] one day after kick ninja but I think kick3 was pre-announced pretty early with all the
[00:00:25] features said so you know I don't know which developer copied which developer but that's
[00:00:31] how it is out there on the market right.
[00:00:34] So kick3 is here and it's the beta version I think the beta is live until the 30th of
[00:00:40] this month if you want to join.
[00:00:44] All you need is I think a license of kick2.
[00:00:48] You can also buy a license of kick2 and then you can join the beta.
[00:00:53] What I really like about kick3 is compared to kick ninja while in kick ninja you have
[00:01:00] like a kick drum and you analyze the kick drum or a sample it's split it up into an
[00:01:06] attack phase here where you have a sample in the beginning and then slowly crossfades
[00:01:11] into an oscillator right.
[00:01:15] In kick3 it's different we have an or we have it in parallel basically and so in kick
[00:01:21] ninja it's sequentially one after the other and in kick3 it's basically in parallel so
[00:01:27] you have like a sine kick or an oscillator kick from the beginning to the end and on
[00:01:32] top you have a high-passed layer on top.
[00:01:36] In my opinion it sounds much better and it's a much better way of creating kick drums but
[00:01:42] I want to show you this here.
[00:01:44] I used here addictive drums to make some kind of drum loop and I have this here and I just
[00:01:49] drag it into here kick3 and then you can use analyze and this is also nice that you can
[00:01:59] trim here the sloop and can say I only want to analyze the kick drum and then it takes
[00:02:05] a while to analyze or separate basically at the kick or the sub from the click.
[00:02:15] You can then drag here the sub into the sub layer and click into the sample layer here
[00:02:23] and then you have on the right side here now these kind of tabs for the import then you
[00:02:28] have a trigger thing here where you can probably analyze incoming audio signals and then trigger
[00:02:35] the kick drum based on this effects tab, EQ tab, main tab.
[00:02:41] So the interface is a bit different compared to kick2.
[00:02:46] So this is here then how it sounds.
[00:02:52] This is my kick drum before.
[00:03:01] So this is important to me sometimes when I create these kind of acoustic drums and these
[00:03:07] acoustic drums don't have a real pitch drop.
[00:03:12] They are actually all over the place.
[00:03:13] It's actually like filtering noise or something and this becomes here pretty handy to use an
[00:03:18] analyzer here and to figure out the frequencies or the pitch drop and you can see here it's
[00:03:23] all over the place right.
[00:03:25] I could never figure this out here on my own.
[00:03:29] Yeah, this is how it works.
[00:03:33] Like I said I really like that we have here this in parallel which makes the kick drum
[00:03:40] sound like the real kick drum or the kick drum sample you drag it in.
[00:03:45] So let's mute this.
[00:03:47] This is only the sub layer.
[00:03:51] So the noise or the texture on top it makes how the kick drum sounds.
[00:03:57] In my opinion that's super important.
[00:04:02] Whereas in kick ninja you have it only in the beginning at the first 10 milliseconds
[00:04:07] or so and then the rest is without texture.
[00:04:10] It's just pure sine oscillator and I don't like this to be honest.
[00:04:16] Okay, what else?
[00:04:19] Kick3 looks a bit different compared to kick2.
[00:04:24] This is kick2.
[00:04:25] In my opinion it could take some work here for these notes.
[00:04:29] I think they're a bit too small but I think there are a lot of bug requests already on
[00:04:34] feature requests already from the community to change this.
[00:04:39] Also new is that you can use here key tracking, selective key tracking and then you can say
[00:04:44] I want to key track here let's say this note right.
[00:04:49] Now it uses the keyboard exactly like in kick ninja and holds this note.
[00:05:00] So everything here in front is static pitch or static frequencies and this one here is
[00:05:05] then key tracked so you can create 808s with different notes or different frequencies which
[00:05:13] is kind of cool to have.
[00:05:16] This also your macro section which is new.
[00:05:20] A new modular effect section you can add here tube saturation stuff.
[00:05:29] There's a lot of things in here that you can use.
[00:05:32] I really like this so you can make presets completely with effects on it.
[00:05:40] What I like in kick ninja more is that you can click all these things in here, all these
[00:05:52] parameters and you can paint in some kind of automation curve here to all of these effects.
[00:05:59] This is pretty dope to be honest.
[00:06:02] Maybe we get something like this in kick 3 and also in kick 3 which is probably something
[00:06:10] that is already requested.
[00:06:12] Let me open up here.
[00:06:14] What's the name of the other one?
[00:06:17] Kick drum.
[00:06:18] Yeah this one here where they have basically an static phase at these notes.
[00:06:25] So you can change here in front the pitch but at the end you can see here the phase is
[00:06:32] fixed.
[00:06:33] It doesn't change but here you have like this phase you align it and then you change here
[00:06:37] the beginning some kind of changes here.
[00:06:42] Disable this maybe.
[00:06:47] When you change it's probably a bug.
[00:06:50] Let me close this down and then it crashes.
[00:06:52] That's also a bug.
[00:06:56] So yeah a static phase feature would be nice.
[00:06:59] I think a lot of PsyTran's producers need that to make the same loop they make for
[00:07:05] the last 20 years.
[00:07:07] So right you can see here when I change the pitch here the phase changes throughout the
[00:07:13] whole kick drum.
[00:07:15] So here it's different.
[00:07:16] This is the only plug in that does this.
[00:07:19] So I guess this is probably used only by PsyTran's producers and so on.
[00:07:25] So it would be nice to have this in there and yeah I can't wait for the next beta build.
[00:07:33] So I want to show you this here that this kick 3 is out.
[00:07:36] I haven't played around with this much yet.
[00:07:39] As I told you I have the flu at the moment so I'm not really up to you know I can't
[00:07:45] I can only hear on the right side at the moment so I don't hear anything but I want to show
[00:07:51] you that this here is out and it's really nice.
[00:07:54] It has a nice feature set and I'll probably use it in the future.
[00:07:59] So that's it.
[00:08:00] Thanks for watching.
[00:08:01] I leave you the links in the description below.
[00:08:03] Leave a like if you liked the video.
[00:08:05] Ask some questions and see you next time.
[00:08:07] Bye.