MrKicksy · kick-drum synth
MrKicksy, a synth for one drum
Most producers make a kick by layering four samples and hoping the phase lines up. But a kick is one drum, and it deserves its own instrument. MrKicksy is a synth built for it: four sound sources, five rumble engines running in parallel, and a mastering chain voiced for kicks and nothing else. Thirty hand-tuned presets get you to the genre you are aiming at, and every one of them is thirty settings of the same machine, so you can keep going from there.
VST3 + CLAP · standalone studio app · 30 factory presets
Hear the idea
Try the layering idea in this page
Sound on. Play the layers one at a time, then the whole kick, and move the pitch drop and the decay to hear what designing a kick does that sampling one cannot.
What you just played is an illustration of the layering idea, synthesised in this page from three sources and a few controls. It is not MrKicksy's engine and these are not its presets. The instrument has four layers, five rumble engines, a full modulation matrix and a kick-aware master chain, and it sounds considerably better than this does. Hear the shipped presets at liveset.app.
The case for it
What it does differently
A kick you admire on somebody else's record is rarely one waveform, and rarely one rumble source. There is a room in it, a tail, a resonator sitting on the fundamental, and a transient that cuts through the mix. MrKicksy gives you those as layers you can set, instead of asking you to approximate them by stacking samples.
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Five engines, in parallel
Convolution, reverb, resonator, feedback delay and filtered distortion: five rumble sources blended in parallel, each with its own level and voicing.
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Designed, not sampled
The whole sound is synthesised and shaped, so it is yours to move, pitch, envelope, drive and filter, per layer.
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A genre-accurate start
Thirty presets, each tuned by hand as a reference sound for its style or its machine, and none of them generated by a script.
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Mix it where it is made
The mastering chain is voiced for kicks, so the sound is finished inside the instrument before it hits your DAW.
Sound architecture
The four sources
Each source has its own envelope, drive and filter, so the parts of the kick move independently.
Sub
Sine, triangle or saw with a pitch envelope from a tight click to a long boom. A multi-segment amp envelope, a start-phase control for transient alignment and punch, and tail damping shape the weight the room feels.
Click
A noise burst, sine impulse or saturated transient: the attack character that lets a kick cut through a dense mix without turning it up.
Body
FM-driven harmonics or additive synthesis for the mid-range fundamental: the tone that carries the kick on small speakers, laptops and phones.
Sample
Optional. Load a WAV with per-layer pitch stretch and lay a 909 on top of your synthesised sub for a hybrid sound in one move.
Five rumble engines, blended
The rumble engine is the second voice of the kick: the part that sits under the sub and makes the room move. MrKicksy runs five generators in parallel, each with its own level.
ConvRoom
Impulse-response convolution: a real room placed around your kick.
ReverbTail
Algorithmic reverb decay: smooth, tunable and sub-aware.
Resonator
Pitched resonance, harmonic layers for that warehouse bloom.
FeedbackDelay
Tempo-synced tape echo, pick the division, low-pass the repeats and push feedback for rolling low-end movement on the grid.
FiltDistort
Filtered distortion for the sub-bass weight under the transient.
A modulation matrix wires envelopes and LFOs to almost any parameter, so the movement in a kick can be as still or as alive as the track needs.
The mastering chain
The mastering chain
Each stage is voiced for kick drums and never for a generic master. The dynamic EQ knows where the fundamental lives, the saturator sweeps from analogue warmth to digital crush, and the limiter is sub-aware.
- 01 Master EQ (3-band)
- 02 Dynamic EQ
- 03 Saturator (soft / tube / tape / fold / hard)
- 04 Master filter (LP / HP / BP)
- 05 Bit crusher
- 06 Transient shaper
- 07 Sub-aware limiter
- 08 Soft ceiling
The library
The presets
Each preset was tuned by hand as a reference sound for its genre or its machine, and none of them came out of a script. Nine are shown here, all thirty ship in the bundle, and both the plugin and the standalone editor save and load your own.
- Berlin Hardgroove Hardgroove techno
- Rumble Techno Industrial techno
- Psytrance Clicky Psytrance
- DnB Punch Drum & bass
- Sub 808 Long Trap / hip-hop
- Warehouse 909 Classic techno
- Deep House Classic Deep house
- Minimal Clean Club Minimal house
- UKG Snap UK garage
Go deeper
Formats & fit
Formats
MrKicksy hosts in any modern DAW that takes VST3 or CLAP, Ableton Live, Bitwig, Reaper, FL Studio, Studio One, Cubase, and runs on its own as a standalone editor for designing kicks before you open a session.
VST3
Hosts as a VST3 instrument in any DAW that supports the format.
CLAP
A first-class CLAP build for hosts that prefer the open plugin standard.
Standalone
A standalone studio application with live audio, for building kicks outside a DAW.
No AU
MrKicksy does not ship an Audio Unit. VST3 or CLAP is the way in on every supported host.
Pairs with LiveSet
Playing kicks on stage as well as in tracks?
Render a favourite MrKicksy preset, drop it on a LiveSet sample track, and play it from hardware pads. We built the two to sit next to each other, because that is how we use them ourselves.
FAQ
Questions about MrKicksy
What is MrKicksy?
A synth for one drum. Instead of layering four samples and hoping the phases agree, you get four sound sources, five rumble engines running in parallel and a mastering chain voiced for kick drums. All four sources are synthesised, so all four will move when you ask them to. The thirty hand-tuned presets already sound like the genre you are aiming at.
What formats does it come in?
VST3 and CLAP, plus a standalone studio application with live audio for building kicks outside a session. It hosts in any modern DAW that takes VST3 or CLAP. Ableton Live, Bitwig, Reaper, FL Studio, Studio One, Cubase. It does not ship an Audio Unit; VST3 or CLAP is the way in on every supported host.
What are the four sound sources?
Sub: a sine, triangle or saw with a pitch envelope from a tight click to a long boom. Click: a noise burst, sine impulse or saturated transient for the attack that cuts through a dense mix. Body. FM or additive harmonics for the mid-range fundamental that carries on small speakers and phones. Sample: optional, load a WAV with per-layer pitch stretch to lay a 909 on top of your synthesised sub. Each source has its own envelope, drive and filter.
What do the five rumble engines do?
The rumble engine is the second voice of the kick: the part that sits under the sub and makes the room move. MrKicksy runs five generators in parallel, each with its own level: ConvRoom (impulse-response convolution), ReverbTail (algorithmic, sub-aware decay), Resonator (pitched harmonic resonance), FeedbackDelay (tempo-synced tape echo) and FiltDistort (filtered distortion for sub-bass weight). You blend them, and the blend is the point.
What does the mastering chain do?
It is voiced for kick drums alone, so the sound is finished inside the instrument before it reaches your DAW. The dynamic EQ knows where the fundamental lives, the saturator sweeps from analogue warmth to digital crush, and the limiter is sub-aware, with a true-peak ceiling at the end of the chain.
Are the presets usable starting points?
Yes. Each of the thirty was tuned by hand as a reference sound for its genre or its machine, and none of them came out of a script. Both the plugin and the standalone editor save and load your own, so a factory preset is a place to start from, and few people stay on one. If you play kicks on stage, render a favourite, drop it on a LiveSet sample track, and play it from hardware pads.
From the Atelier
Where to get it
MrKicksy is a proprietary Flexiana Atelier product. Hear the presets, watch the walkthroughs and get it at liveset.app.