In this lesson you’ll learn how to make a hardstyle kick in FL Studio with Sytrus. Sytrus is a native FL Studio stock plugin. So are all the other effects in this lesson. Everything is made with FL Studio stock plugins only.
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Hardstyle kick basics
Just like the previous How to Make a Hardstyle Kick in FL Studio lesson , this one also contains a similar mixer effects chain for the TAIL part of the kick. The mixer effects chain is the collection of effects that actually create the sound of the hardstyle kick.
It’s really part of the fundamental basics to learn how to make such a chain. That is, if you want to make your own hardstyle kicks. That’s why I encourage you to watch and re-watch this video, just like the previous hardstyle kick lesson.
Hardstyle kick layering
What separates this lesson from the other one is the fact that this could actually be a finished hardstyle kick. It contains a tok (punch or attack) and a sub bass (low end).
To make a finished hardstyle kick, you want to use samples and build a layering. To build this hardstyle kick layering, you mainly need 3 elements:
- Hardstyle tail
- Hardstyle tok (punch)
- Sub bass (low end)
In this lesson and the previous hardstyle kick lesson, you’ve already seen how to make a tail. But now you can also get an idea how to make all these 3 elements work together.
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Making the hardstyle tok
My “to go” strategy to make a tok is simply to use the tail of the kick and cut the attack part from the sample. Let’s say that’s about the first 100 milliseconds. I use this attack part as a tok on the playlist. It can be tweaked individually to make it melt together with the whole kick.
I also add a snappy “tick” sound to the tok. This helps the kick punch through in the mix. Furthermore, I like to layer a normal 909 kick underneath my tok to give it a bit more balls.
Making the sub bass
For the sub bass there are different strategies. Typically, I just use the low end of the hardstyle kick itself, but with a much cleaner mixer chain. Another way to make the low end is to simply use a synthesizer, like Sytrus, and create a sub bass.
What’s most important is that the sub bass has a good amount of lower harmonics. This means it should contain the frequencies below 160-200 Hz. Also, the sub bass needs to be tight. The waveform should be centered and look like a sausage.
Again, use the samples from Sub Bass Impact so you don’t have to worry about any of this.
When you got a sub bass, also add it to the playlist and layer it with the rest of the elements. Make sure you give this part a slow attack, because you want the sub bass to “rise”. At the beginning of the kick, there’s the tok. The low end should start a little bit later.
Sytrus hardstyle synth & Sytrus hardstyle screech
If you’d like to learn more about Sytrus and sound design, I invite you to check out the Sytrus Hardstyle Synth and Sytrus Hardstyle Screech lessons.
Plugins
In this lesson, the following FL Studio stock plugins were used:
- Sytrus
- Edison
- Fruity Parametric EQ 2
- Fruity Waveshaper
- Fruity Reeverb 2
- Fruity Love Philter
- Fruity Compressor