Uptempo Kicks in FL Studio Only

I start in Sytrus at 200 BPM, with a note in F1. Click on presets and pick Default. Go to operator 2, enable the out and change this to 8x. This makes it two octaves higher than operator 1. Then change both of them to a saw wave. The reason we put this saw two octaves higher is because we add overtones.

Operator 2 is the high overtone, so you can change its volume anywhere between zero and 100%. You can also change either operator from a saw to a sine wave. With a sine you probably get a cleaner kick, because there aren't as many overtones.

In the second stage, use the low shelf and make it go up and down. Right click it and create an automation clip. I just do the full range, because I can double click it and change the range later, so it can never go over a certain amount. Then boost a frequency, scroll on it to make it very narrow and boost a prominent clean frequency.

Playing around with these automation clips is the last thing to change. If the kick gets very resonant and squashed, it loses the beauty of it. Click on the bass control and change the range. 100% means 100% bass, so reduce the max. It takes the bass down instead of boosting it too much. That allows the mids to breathe and opens up the kick again.

Until this point it sounds pretty simple. Here's the key part. Open Distructor, go to presets and empty it. The best place to put it is somewhere in the second stage. Add a speaker. It adds a stereo effect, so take the mix down first. FL Studio doesn't have mid side in its EQ, so open Patcher and use the mid side EQ preset after Distructor. With Distructor off the kick is purely mid. Turn it on with the speaker and you get all this side information. On the side, use a steep high pass and remove a lot of the bass and sub.

Then play around with the speaker. It adds stereo information that phases differently and goes through distortion, so it completely changes the kick. Let's go with Wide for now. Then add a filter and a distortion. One distortion mode I really like is Aperture. It adds a lot of crunch, especially when you move the asymmetry knob.

Use another EQ in the second stage and boost very small frequencies. If you make a very aggressive boost with a lot of resonance, you probably need to compensate with the bass a bit.

Then route it to another channel and open another EQ and another soft clipper. This is something you have to do anyway. The soft clipper is simply there to squash it again and clip it at zero dB. Look at the frequency spectrum and clean it up. The peaks we added are very prominent, so this is surgically removing a lot of frequencies. On this cleanup stage you can also open the Patcher mid side EQ and add stereo by boosting frequencies in the side. I like to remove a little bit of the highs in the side and maybe slightly boost the punch.