Dutch DJ and music producer The Him has recently launch his second audio plugin Ninja Kick, a versatile kick drum instrument. Regular contributor Velislav Velikov shares his thoughts after taking it for a spin.
Every producer knows that the most fundamental part of modern music is the kick. If your kick is weak, the entire mix sounds weak to the audience.
So how do we make a strong kick? If you are an advanced sound designer, you can use any modern synth to make kicks. But if you are a busy producer, who needs good results and likes massive kicks, you better try Kick Ninja. It offers top notch quality and will inspire your mix and save you time, giving you tons of options.
First, which impresses the most and it’s almost addictive, is the graphic representation of everything you do with your sound, directly in front of you on your screen. You see what you hear. It takes 5 minutes to start making your own original kicks or to recreate something.
Is it really that simple? Yes, Kick Ninja users have the option to create their own kicks visually, hearing the result in real time. Just touch pitch or amp and draw the shape with the mouse as a graphic shape, choose an oscillator shape or blend between different shapes.
The graphic line will show you if you have the right key/note for your project, and tons of options are available to reshape, correct and create a new sound. Clicking on the graphic line twice creates a series of new dots as a network of points to shape/reshape any part of your best kick.
This is high resolution digital manipulation of every sonic area inside the structure of your kick. Shape it the way you wish and according to what your mix needs. And that’s not all. In addition you have options to fine tune 4th order harmonics, which are under the main oscillator. The basic oscillator can morph sine wave with other waveforms, such as triangle, square and saw and give it more character, and that’s just the main sound source.
But Kick Ninja isn’t just a single sine wave generator and waveshaper, it’s a four-layer kick machine. There are three samplers and fx after the main oscillator, which lets you add your own samples or a pick from a wide selection that comes with the plugin to make complex kicks, mixing four different sources in one structure. Each of these sources can be tuned the same way as the main oscillator to add characteristics, temper, attack, punch, or whatever you decide and complete each other, making perfect multi-layer kicks.
The most amazing part of the multi-layer structure is that you can load and tune your own samples -if there are differences between them, in a visual and audible way. If you try this with an ordinary sample player and don’t know what key, note or Hz is used for the kicks, the final sound will be a big mess.
Problematic kicks make the entire mix sound bad. With Kick Ninja that’s not possible. We can tune each of the used kicks to the project key, perfectly adjusting the pitch and amplitude inside the mixer with the unique visual representation. This amazing plugin gives you everything you need to create your own sound.
Kick Ninja is intuitive and user friendly, built to work in a comfortable way, with everything right there in front of you. We really have endless options to tune and shape everything, which is super impressive.
Producers now have the tool and the inspiration to create their own original, fresh kicks. Listen how massive the mix becomes, when Kick Ninja hits with the right note:
If Velislav’s enthusiasm for Kick Ninja resonates with you, make sure to check out the Kick Ninja product page where you can download a free 14-day trial version to try the plugin. Additionally, you can get a 30% discount on a purchase for a few more weeks. Use coupon code REKKERD at the checkout to get the discount.
Velislav has also created a few presets for Kick Ninja, which you can download here.
Velislav Velikov is a passionate song writer / sound designer and creator of real time reshaping technology, dedicated to pushing the boundaries of known sound.
