Intense Tech #11 — Kicks Part 2: Kick Heaven in Version 7 (Defense Mechanism)

The second kick lesson of intense-tech: what lsdj 7 changed for DRUM pitch, wave snares, drums on the pulse channels, the PU1 hardware sweep, noise kicks and layering channels (defense-mechanism).

Key claims#

• LSDj 7 (7.0.6 at the time): "Transpose now works with DRUM pitch", and P/L/V was renamed PITCH.
• Kick into bass with DRUM: start two octaves above the bass note; the table has a fast P followed by an L with transpose E8 (−24 semitones) to slide down two octaves.
• Wave snare: the same table design as a kick — fast P, then L transposing to the note the snare is tuned to — "gives a sense of tonality to the snare that can then be augmented with a noise snare for a very full-bodied sound"; E commands lower the volume to shape the decay.
• Pulse drums: DRUM pitch works on pulse instruments; the 50 % duty square gives "the most impact"; the pulse channel cannot reach the wave channel's lowest octave but still makes effective kicks. The pulse snare table is the wave snare without E commands (the instrument envelope controls the decay); toms use a shorter instrument LENGTH with the P commands placed directly in the phrase.
• Hardware sweep drums (PU1): the sweep is "mostly good for making pitchless, bleepy bloopy sounds", but S values of F4 (kick) and E3 (snare) make drums; similar E-values give toms.
• Noise kicks: any noise shape ending in 0–7 produces a more tonal sound; transposing down in steps of 10 lowers its octave, giving a descending-pitch kick (Boy Meets Robot's noise-channel video is the reference).
• Combining channels: a very short noise kick in the lowest octave (the lows) plus a pulse kick (the falling pitch and tone) gives "a fuller kick sound than using either of the channels by itself" — from the author's remix of Cyanide Dansen's Dox The Fash.

Practical takeaways#

One table shape — fast P, then L to a target — serves kicks, snares and toms on wave and pulse alike; the hardware sweep and the noise channel are two more kick sources, and a two-channel kick beats either alone.

Notable quotes#

"An exciting update in this version is that Transpose now works with DRUM pitch, as well as 'P/L/V' being renamed to 'PITCH' to avoid confusion."

Pages touched#

instrument-design · wavetable-programming · pitch-slide-and-portamento · lsdj · intense-tech · defense-mechanism · semitone-math