REVIEW + 2 FREE COPIES Of These Are The Kicks By Biome Digital! (CLOSED)

These Are The Kicks is a collection of deep analogue kick drum samples created by Biome Digital. The included samples were made from scratch on the Analog Rytm drum synthesizer. Keep reading for a closer look at this interesting collection of analogue bass drums and for a chance to win one of the two available free copies which have been kindly provided for BPB readers by Biome Digital!

Over the years, the bass drum has become the most prominent part of a typical mix in most modern electronic music genres, from house and electro to dubstep and trap. One of the obvious consequences of such a trend is that keeping your kick drum in tune with the rest of the track (and vice versa) can often make or break your mix. Although this might seem as a fairly easy task on paper, the problem is that tuning issues in the low end of your mix are not all that easy to identify. To make things worse, these issues can have a severe impact on the end result of your mixing session.

It’s often quite hard to detect this problem, since most of the time you’ll just feel that something is “not right” in the low end of the mix, but it’s really not easy to say precisely what’s causing the problem in this case. Naturally, you might try to fix the problem with an EQ or a compressor, however  the best solution would actually be to tune the kick drum up or down by a couple of semitones and have it in perfect tune with the rest of the track.

These Kicks Are The Solution

The latest sample library by Biome Digital was built as a perfect remedy for this issue, offering a set of 210 analogue bass drums which are labeled by key. Using key labeled kick drum samples such as these makes it much easier to get things right in the early stages of a new project. Simply match the kick drum to the key of the track to avoid any tuning issues in the low end.

The sample pack is organized into 30 folders, each containing seven pitched variations of the same kick drum. D is always the lowest pitch and C is the highest pitched variation of a kick. Obviously, if you need a sharp note such as G# for example, you can simply pitch the G kick up by a semitone in your sampler (or pitch the A kick down by a semitone).

This may raise a question – why include all those pitch variations in a sample pack when you could simply re-pitch a single kick to whichever key. Well, the thing is that changing the pitch of a sound inside a sampler can have quite an impact on the sound quality. Pitching up or down by a few semitones is fine, but the further you move from the base pitch, the more obvious the pitching artifacts will become.

But when a sound is pitched at the source (an analogue drum synthesizer in this case) the differently pitched variations of the same sound will still sound great. In the case of a bass drum, you’ll still get sharp transients and a solid low end, even if the base of the kick has been pitched up or down.

The included kick drums will fit most EDM genres perfectly, whereas the majority of them are suitable for use in house, techno, electro, etc. The pack also includes some more 808-ish kicks which would sound great in a trap track or a modern hip hop tune. In addition to these standard kick drum samples, the product also includes an additional set of 25 processed bass drums which were turned into impacts and transition SFX sounds.

Final thoughts

Priced at £11, this sample pack is definitely a valuable addition to any producers drum sound pool. These Are The Kicks features a solid collection of kick drums for use in all sorts of EDM projects, offering an easy solution for avoiding the potential tuning issues in the low end of a mix. Purchase your copy of the sample library via Biome Digital or enter the giveaway below for a chance to win one of the two available FREE copies!

The Giveaway

We have two FREE copies of the sample library for you guys, kindly provided by Biome Digital. To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment in the comments section below. By entering the giveaway, you are automatically subscribing to Biome Digital’s mailing list (it includes product announcements and promo offers).

Only one comment per person is allowed. Please don’t post multiple comments!

The winners will be chosen by a random draw at 23:59 GMT on November 27th. We will announce the winners on this page. Thanks to Biome Digital for providing the prizes and good luck everyone!

The giveaway is now CLOSED.

The winners are:

• Tubbs (comment #49)
• John C (comment #76)

Congrats to the winners (you will receive the prize via email) and thanks everyone for joining in! Also, thanks once again to Biome Digital for providing the prizes!

We’ll have another giveaway next week, so stay tuned. Also, something big is cooking for the end of December. :)