How to Make Hollow Industrial Kicks in FL Studio

All the secret sauce to making those hollow industrial kicks that everyone is making right now, like USH, SLVL and Klofama.

In this tutorial
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    My notes from this video

    01

    Wave folding instead of a clipper

    Watch 0:46

    A lot of people make the mistake of distorting the punch the classic way, with a clipper. The trick is wave folding. It instantly makes your kick a lot more industrial. I use Distructor on Wave folder, but the sine shaper in Serum 2's effects is really good too. I'd almost prefer it.

    Keep the pre amp low though. Add too much at any stage and you ruin your kick. You're not going for the final punch sound yet.

    Distructor in FL Studio set to Wave folder mode, wave folding the punch of a hollow industrial kick
    Distructor on Wave folder.
    02

    Bring the rumble in late

    Watch 2:50

    The rumble is the clean kick through a reverb. Dry down, 50% reverb, long decay, no low cut, no high cut. Render it and process it.

    Then don't add much of it at the start. I blend it in towards the end of the kick. That's where you get these really hollow kicks, because the punch gets to stay blunt and open.

    Fruity Reeverb 2 for an industrial kick rumble: low cut off, high cut off, decay 4.7 seconds, dry 0%, reverb 50%
    The rumble reverb.
    03

    A tiny room reverb on the punch

    Watch 6:00

    At this point you might think it sounds like trash. Here's the trick. Duplicate the punch and put a reverb on it with the room size way down. You get an extremely metallic sound. Route that into the full kick, so it goes through the same wave folding as everything else. Huge difference.

    Fruity Reeverb 2 on the punch with the room size turned down to 1, for the metallic sound of a hollow industrial kick
    Room size down to 1.
    04

    Boost the bass before the wave folder

    Watch 5:30

    A lot of that noisy, rumbly sound comes from the bass. Blow it up in front of the clipper or the wave folders and that's where you really get the industrial kick. If it gets too overdriven, try a low shelf instead of a bell. It crunches up the kick without adding that clipped sub.

    05

    Upward compression and expansion

    Watch 13:17

    For the final kick I use Pro-MB. Upward compression takes the quiet parts of your kick and makes them louder. Upward expansion takes the loud parts and makes them louder. Remember those two and it helps a lot. On the highs, the compression pulls all the noise out of the kick.

    After that, just make it loud. It's distortion anyway.

    FabFilter Pro-MB with an upward compression band on the high frequencies, pulling the noise out of an industrial kick
    Upward compression on the highs.
    What I use in this video

    FL Studio·Distructor·Fruity WaveShaper·Fruity Reeverb 2·Patcher·Fruity Limiter·GClip·FabFilter Pro-MB·FabFilter Pro-L 2

    Artists are mentioned as inspiration only. We're not affiliated with them and don't sell their work.

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    The Industrial Rawstyle Kick System artwork

    The Industrial Rawstyle Kick System

    14 hours of industrial kick production, from the kick basics to every technique in this video. Comes with a huge sample pack.

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