Making a subkick with Studio One's Tone Generator

Kick drum recordings can be challenging, and you may discover that your recorded or sampled bass drums just don't sound right when mixing a track. There are common methods that you could employ to resolve this, such as drum layering, drum replacement, or using a tone generator digital audio software plugin included in your DAW.

The recipe for making a subkick with a tone generator plugin​

Although this guide is tailored for the use of PreSonus Studio One's Tone Generator, you can replicate the same steps in your music production software perhaps using a 3rd party tone generator VST or Audio Unit sound effect. Below are the steps you gotta follow:

1. Open the Tone Generator plugin effect in PreSonus Studio One
2. Set it to produce a low-frequency sine wave, preferably between 40 Hz and 80 Hz
3. Connect it to a gated oscillator triggered by your kick drum
4. Create a new send on your bass drum channel
5. Choose the gate sidechain as the destination from the sidechain drop-down menu
6. Play your track, and the Tone Generator will be triggered every time the kick hits
7. Adjust the send level, gate parameters, and sine-tone levels as needed

That's all you have to do, mate! It ain't too hard, is it?