Compression Made Simple

Рет қаралды 33,861

4 жыл бұрын

I just started working with a new compressor plugin that's giving me my dream snare sound. Here's a complete rundown of how I'm mixing it!
Grab the AiX Intuition Compressor here: bit.ly/3aBBtdD
Join the SMG Discord! Share mixes, get feedback, make better records!
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Reaper skin is "Fusion Beta"
About Spectre Sound Studios:
I'm Glenn Fricker, engineer here at Spectre Sound Studios. I love making records, and after doing it for sixteen years, I want to pass on what I've learned. On my channel you can find tutorials on how to record guitar, bass, real drums and vocals. There's reviews and demos of tube amps, amp sims, drums, mics, preamps, outboard gear, Electric Guitar, Bass Guitar, and plugin effects.
We've covered Moon on the Water, played Bias FX, given you the absolute best in Stupid Musician Texts, ranted & raved about bass guitar, and this channel is where The Eagle has Landed.
Everything you've wanted to learn about recording Hard Rock & Heavy Metal can be found right here on this channel!
I also respond to your comments & questions: The best make it into the SMG Viewer's Comments series of videos. Loads of fun, lots of laughs.
Thanks for checking out my channel & please subscribe!

Пікірлер: 162

@leonardomilliava7080 4 жыл бұрын

We all are asking what Glenn thinks but no one is asking what Glenn feels Glenn, my man, how are you?

@slavesforging5361 4 жыл бұрын

Wait, Glen has feelings other than annoyed? I don't buy it.

@33savage70 4 жыл бұрын

Slaves Forging Glenn has been taken hostage by line 6 and this is a clone.

@Evilwhiteclownpunk 4 жыл бұрын

"We want CRACK, CRACK, CRACK!"... sounds like Glenn is anxious to get back to California...

@Souchirouu 4 жыл бұрын

Being able to visualize your music can be really important and we see more and more plugins picking up on this. I wonder how this will look in a few years with VR where we can walk through our music and adjust things by touching them. Gonna be cool.

@samchoate1719 4 жыл бұрын

Sign me up for beta

@MonsterLp1000 4 жыл бұрын

Hey Glenn, i really dig your tutorial videos. I just recently started using a real amp with small diaphragm mics on the speaker instead of software sims and really had the feeling that it took the sound to the next level. Keep doing what you do and cheers from Germany!

@janvirtanen6199 4 жыл бұрын

THX Glenn! I've seen some videos about compression and stuff, but this video finally broke down some walls in my head. :)

@calvintraviserickson 4 жыл бұрын

In several years of learning compression and countless videos I've watched, never has someone said to break the common rule of using small amounts of compression for drums. I see this video and boom! Instant awesome snare sound. Thanks endlessly Glenn

@jonathanwapner6262 4 жыл бұрын

I prefer the snare on "The Eagle Has Landed". It could be the drum itself or the tuning. I'm not blown away by this snare.

@acidbath3226 4 жыл бұрын

new york compression/dry signal ratio

@justiceforcier3853 4 жыл бұрын

I’d have to agree

@teroanttonen2718 4 жыл бұрын

The reso-head is tuned way too low. Can be fixed in the mix, as we can hear, but it will sound so much better when you do it beforehand.

@jonathanwapner6262 4 жыл бұрын

It's so wet sounding. There's no attack.

@nicholascowan1731 4 жыл бұрын

Def an opinion, I personally don’t like the snare from the eagle has landed, compared to this or not. Tastey taste. Also I think he’s purposely using one with hardly any attack to show how far compression can go to help

@TheBluemanBenny 4 жыл бұрын

Hey thanks Glenn! That was actually really useful! I'll give this a shot in my next project!

@austinfreeman9040 4 жыл бұрын

That kick sound makes me smile :)

@Khunvyel 4 жыл бұрын

Unrelated; I involuntarily stretch my neck and straighten my back looking at the low position your monitor is. If you love your spine, please raise the screen a little it if possible :) allows you to store more stuff underneath too!

@SantaKalauz 4 жыл бұрын

The best and straight to the bone video on YT about compression! Well done mate!

@joepacevicius785 4 жыл бұрын

Thank you for shedding some light on compression !

@leavethedeadband 4 жыл бұрын

This is probably the most informative vid, thanks heaps Glenn!

@johannes4218 4 жыл бұрын

Perfect timing. I was just today trying to get a better snare sound (and failing at it).

@serenemachine9110 4 жыл бұрын

This is the kind of tutorial video I like. Thank you!

@voronOsphere 4 жыл бұрын

Great lesson. Thanks, Glenn!

@jeffbridges6110 4 жыл бұрын

WoW. The AIX stuff really brings the drums as a whole , out. Sounds great. I want to get their drum production pack.

@DarkstOfficial 4 жыл бұрын

Man, I was just trying to research this, thanks for everything

@TheGarageRecordingSC 4 жыл бұрын

This company is really doing some great things. Your last video on that drum Q was awesome. Can’t wait to see what these guys do next. Hopefully they don’t raise the prices 😂

@jonathanskowron8734 4 жыл бұрын

That's some great isolation. Something i've found to be pretty necessary in order to pull off an aggressively compressed snare.

@georgemickel6608 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Glenn!

@MrTerrormonkey 4 жыл бұрын

Another compression video from Glenn? FUCKING THANK YOU :D

@DemonApple1982 4 жыл бұрын

It dawned on me that an interface design suggestion on the knobs which might make it even more understandable for people new to compressors is some way that the Ratio and Hold knobs are smaller and to the side(s). Because the ratio is related to the threshold, maybe have the Ratio knob smaller and to the bottom right of the Threshold knob. Since Hold is not used in as many applications as the Release but still is like a delay for the release, have the Hold knob smaller and to the bottom left of the Release knob. Just a thought if it can make a compressor more understandable since it took many of us years to gain an understanding what every knob is useful for.

@NHndrsn1234 4 жыл бұрын

Real Drums!! Awesome!!

@PylosLight 4 жыл бұрын

Now that's the drum sound I've been dreaming about all along... xD

@uwebaganz5144 4 жыл бұрын

That's why I love the free melda MCompressor it also has this visual representation since years and a free-form input output curve

@pipelineaudio 4 жыл бұрын

I love the MComp too, so much I bought the pack it comes with. Its visual is half wave and doesn't have a hold control and no BPM sync (I think)

@uwebaganz5144 4 жыл бұрын

@@pipelineaudio just left click on some values and if it´s frequency stuff you´ll see a piano roll, and if its time stuff you´ll see note length values to choose from

@brylner 4 жыл бұрын

Thanks Glenn, take care dude!

@weedeemorrison 4 жыл бұрын

Just hire the dude that did the sound for the PanterA - Live in Seoul (2001). Greatest snare sound EVER......

@DoubleDoubleU 4 жыл бұрын

Well, apart from the uncommon long reverb tail on that snare, what is so special about it?

@1234567890noone 3 жыл бұрын

@@DoubleDoubleU The fact that it sounds like a fucking shotgun, just with the shitty sound of a shitty recording So imagine what it ACTUALLY sounded like live

@TazzSmk 3 жыл бұрын

sheesh seems I completely misunderstood the release to do exact opposite -_- many thanks for the video!

@alexeypolevoybass 4 жыл бұрын

This isn't the only plugin with analyzer like this. Open source LSP Compressor and Limiter plugins have that too, so you can even download the source code and see how is it made code wise.

@jthunderbass1 4 жыл бұрын

3000 kilohertz?!!!! What?!!!! Love the videos!!!! They are so great!

@fredwaters9105 4 жыл бұрын

Hey man, It would’ve very cool if you did a video reacting to song from the fans! Love ur vids! Keep the good work

@KKoserYaks 4 жыл бұрын

Hey Glenn, this comp is great and I'm quite interested in it, but still thinking about it. I'm just curious about how well it handles ghost notes, since I use them a lot and they're quite integral to my playing. I really like this awesome-sounding snare, but also want my ghost notes to be able to cut through guitar distortion. Great video though, and thank you much for it.

@dexgames4366 4 жыл бұрын

Love your stuff man, can you do a follow up on the relation between the snare(s) with the reverb ? Kinda a struggle here, on reverb parameters. Because to me, reverb is part of how you can get that massive drum sound (especially snare). And we clearly see this here, when you On/Off the reverb, it makes all the difference. I'm always tweaking things without really achieving the big drum sound you manage to get. I wish you could adress that relation between the two. Here's what buggling me : Do you send only the snare top to the reverb ? top and bottom ? Do you send toms aswell, ? To a different reverb with different parameters ? Is that a thing to send overheads to a reverb ? Do you send 100% of top but only small % of the bottom mic ? 100% both ? All that stuff... So many thing I'm trying to figure out, kinda hard to get my head around all of that :\

@dirkbonesteel 4 жыл бұрын

HAIL SAGAN My new favorite shirt

@alrecks619 4 жыл бұрын

Sagan was real, so did Hawking, Turing, Asimov, Pascal, Newton, Galileo Galilei...

@laserfloyd 4 жыл бұрын

I need that shirt. 😂 Also, great vid. I'll need to give that compressor a closer look.

@MysteriousCo. 4 жыл бұрын

Great video! The under-snare seemed to be captured in a really nice way. What mic was used for the under-snare?

@dDoOyYoOuUtTuUbBeE 4 жыл бұрын

I wander how much of it could be achieved by adjusting microphone positions.

@vedasticks 4 жыл бұрын

really nice plugin. there is other plugins that have been doing this. fab fukters proc shows a graph

@SlotsNStuff 2 жыл бұрын

Drummer spends 30 years perfecting dynamic snare technique and ghost notes. Engineer - removes everything except the 2 & 4 lol. Love you man! Just messing with you buddy keep up the great content!

@metalmyke1 4 жыл бұрын

How to have a great snare sound. Listen to Metallica St Anger and do the opposite.

@Dave-Rough-Diamond-Dunn 2 жыл бұрын

and WASP, Live in the Raw!!!

@TachyBunker 2 жыл бұрын

If you use FL Studio, Fruity Limiter and Maximus do that vidual compression :)

@jasonzdora 4 жыл бұрын

Great lesson on compression but as far as the plugin, I am kind of surprised they didnt put their own cool/unique spin on this like they did with the EQ and the Gate. This is just a regular compressor. Lots of them have the same visualization.

@pipelineaudio 4 жыл бұрын

Which other ones have a really defined O-Scope function? That's the exact spin we're going for with this. I mean to eventually have this every bit as functional as a traditional O-scope plus some functions only really available in the DAW environment like tempo sync for the O-Scope. I had been begging manufacturers for years for a really really defined, O-scope style before and after that looked like the pictures we had in our recording books way back in the day. I haven't seen one, but maybe I missed it. I'd love to have a look at what's available as we will just keep building from there, so please let me know which ones you have seen.

@djhrecordhound4391 4 жыл бұрын

My thing is more along audio restoration of old media, though lots of this applies to what I've learned so far. It's partly why I subscribed. Sometimes I use compression's Bizarro twin 'expansion' to strip out excessive hiss or surface noise. Thanks to you showing it in action, I can fine-tune both compression and expansion as needed in my software. That deserves tipping a Recordhound's collar to you, saying thanks!

@sartoriusrock 4 жыл бұрын

That visual feedback is also on iZotope dynamic plugins like Neutron and Ozone

@largeuselessness 2 жыл бұрын

"shut up, siri" hahahahahahaah

@PieterGNel 4 жыл бұрын

Sick vid! Thanks Glenn. Can you maybe make a video on mixing cymbals? I've had some weird shit happening with cymbals. Blending room, and overheads. Comp on cymbals and mixing them. Also how much mastering effects it. Thanks

@alrecks619 4 жыл бұрын

the key is to cut between 3k to 6k for the overheads, and give it de-esser the harsher sound can come from the room mics, you need to really smoothen it out on the overheads least that's my SOP on cymbals

@PieterGNel 4 жыл бұрын

@@alrecks619 Sick man, Thanks!

@alrecks619 4 жыл бұрын

my pleasure, dude

@venusinfurs7033 4 жыл бұрын

Loads of people have said this but that Hail Sagan shirt rules!

@jasonboyce4160 4 жыл бұрын

Great set up! I’m fairly new at engineering and not new to playing & recording. Mac Book Pro, Focusrite, Kali LP. This clears up a lot of the “compression mystery,” thank you, though I’m at work on a shitty iPhone so I’m not hearing a ton of audio changes. I think checking this out on a decent set up will help me hear the difference (fingers crossed). Only improvement I could suggest on this video is maybe not have such an amazing drummer? A few “odd” hits might also shed some more light on things for noobs. Other than that, thank you & fuck you Glenn!

@christopher9000p 4 жыл бұрын

Hey Glen, any chance you could do a video on expanders?

@kravesound806 4 жыл бұрын

Do these guys make plugins for live sound applications? The tune able eq would be a great asset

@nathanlewis4252 4 жыл бұрын

What is your opinion of mastodon. Your knowledge is great and have learned a lot from you. Hope you are well Nathan

@junkawakami3193 4 жыл бұрын

Mastodon is definitely killer

@callienaude470 4 жыл бұрын

Hey Glenn thanks for all the awesome content. I have been drumming in bands for the last 20 years and it makes me all warm and fuzzy to see that there are still people out there trying to make us sound good as opposed to trying to replace us :). Always wanted to get into producing but used the excuse of being broke and not having the equipment, environment etc. to stop me from starting. Hoping to get a 2 for 1 here, for a broke fk like me (having only a computer with reaper) what would you suggest I spend my first cents on and is there any ear exercises you could recommend? (I started trying to mix based on what I see on your and Warrens channels and get nice results on individual tracts but can't seem to get them to gel/balance nicely together. Can I train my ears??) Sorry I know this is long winded. With the utmost respect, fuck you:) From South Africa

@Kahores 4 жыл бұрын

Hi Glenn! How do I set all the reverb, delay and compression for the drums for a very fast death metal that has a lot of blasts?? Trying to do that correctly for a while. Not the real drums just the software unfortunately, greets!

@RicardoCassal 4 жыл бұрын

Uouhhh, I wanna mix like that one Day in my life...

@kaf90sn 4 жыл бұрын

HAHA Siri went off on my phone too while watching this! Great video!

@camdendebruin6667 4 жыл бұрын

I play hard enough where I have found that I sometimes need to get rid of some attack on the snare because the transient is too sharp. I've been experimenting with trying to tame it and smooth it out with a pretty fast attack time to bring out the body, and then add as much as I like back in with a transient designer. So far it has gotten me some pretty huge sounds on low tuned snare. Haven't tried high tuned yet, because I am still in a J-rock recording mode.

@matturner6890 4 жыл бұрын

You could try just hitting 10% less hard. You'll choke the sound of the snare a bit less by not over-exciting it and you won't have to chase your tail later in mix. I know it feels counter intuitive but you'll get used to it.

@camdendebruin6667 4 жыл бұрын

@@matturner6890 I'll try it. Any suggestions for how to still get a good room sound then? My room is dampened heavily and soundproofed so I don't annoy others. Its prob 30ft long though

@matturner6890 4 жыл бұрын

@@camdendebruin6667 at that length you can have a mono room mic a good distance from the kit (experiment with different placements) and then add a reverb/room simulator plugin to it in your daw. Delaying it by around 18 to 22ms will give it some realistic depth as well. Compressing this room mic with a high ratio will typically bring out a lot of energy and you won't have to hit as hard, as it's doing some of the work for you in terms of making it sound big and exciting.

@camdendebruin6667 4 жыл бұрын

@@matturner6890 I tried that yesterday and it sounded great. I used pointed the room mic so its polarity was opposite the drums, and pointing the one far untreated end of the room (its kind of diagonal), and it worked great. After barely any eq and a little bit of fast-attack/release compression I swear that it sounds like a sample of a big live room. I also had a low-mid tuned snare that I was not hitting rimshots on, and was not beating the living crap out of. Thanks!

@timjourdanmedia 4 жыл бұрын

my problem is less understanding the effects and plugins but my shit snare itself... still waiting for my full custom cannon of a sjc snare... havent even received the design mockups yet, been waiting since december But the aixdsp DrumEQ helped a lot... Not sure if I should get the compressor, because I also have the scheps omni channel.... while not being ,,visualized,, like this one, you have an 1176, a LA2A and an SSL Compressor at your disposal

@pipelineaudio 4 жыл бұрын

By the time of this video, it should have some new ratios from infinity to 1 to expansion of 0.5 to 1

@evilst.management8810 4 жыл бұрын

Piccolo Pete's ain't IEDs.

@norwaydude6 4 жыл бұрын

What reverb are you using on the snare? It sounds fucking perfect, and I'm not that satisfied with the results I'm getting from the ones I have

@josephgooch1451 4 жыл бұрын

80s snare with a little less low end 😱😀😀😀😀

@rolithesecond Жыл бұрын

Just checked their website and I love their name "Dorftrottel Productions". Dorftrottel translates to village idiot, haha.

@julianviel5816 4 жыл бұрын

Did I miss the reverb trick?

@Charlyfromthenuclearcity 4 жыл бұрын

MULTIBAND GATE ! FINALLY !

@joeybaronstudio 4 жыл бұрын

F$&$$ nice!!!!

@Gainovermg 4 жыл бұрын

Glenn, other than Pro Mix Academy, where would you suggest checking out to find mixes to practice on? I've had a bunch of mix practice files from the Sneap Forum, but many of them come with MIDI files for drums and I'm tired of dicking around with MIDI drums.

@junkawakami3193 4 жыл бұрын

some select NTM sessions like Opeth, Periphery, Between the Buried and Me, Gojira (basically involving Jens Bogren or Nolly, i know both of em try to avoid quantizing and/or sample reinforcement/replacement) other than that most of em are sample reinforced/replaced, or even worse, quantized guitars

@danardalin 4 жыл бұрын

cambridge-mt.com/ms/mtk/

@Gainovermg 4 жыл бұрын

@@junkawakami3193 Can you access bands from previous months of NTM if you're subscribed?

@junkawakami3193 4 жыл бұрын

@@Gainovermg apparently, you can offers.nailthemix.com/ntm-2016-sep-sp23423? idk, but just check that one out, for that particular session, just throw the samples to the garbage if you can't, tough luck, i guess, unless you've previously subscribed and you still remember your previous email

@skinnee 4 жыл бұрын

fuck that hail sagan shirt is so fucking awesome

@uncleKai_SWW 4 жыл бұрын

Will it slam? ⚒

@jeffbieber1111 4 жыл бұрын

Do you have a link to any songs you have mixed?

@turboesther36 3 жыл бұрын

GLENNNNN!!!! That’s it, I just wanted to yell.

@armandroyce7975 4 жыл бұрын

I can’t find out what the intro song is. SOMEONE HELP

@TheFuneralFrog 4 жыл бұрын

it's called "The Eagle Has Landed"

@FRANANGELICOONA 4 жыл бұрын

You’re the new Bob Rock!

@JohnWard1872 4 жыл бұрын

Hey glen, what DAW do you use?

@semperrockosuarusgiganticu7452 4 жыл бұрын

Great snare sounds come from great snares. And compressors, Equalization and good engineers who aren't baby sitting bass players.

@junkawakami3193 4 жыл бұрын

you forgot the main course, a decent drummer that can consistently play while not hitting their cymbals too hard

@chrisdigital 4 жыл бұрын

That's what I was thinking, why not just make the snare sound the right way and not like a bongo and have to go back and use compression and all kinds of s*** to clean it up?

@junkawakami3193 4 жыл бұрын

@@chrisdigital that's where Linndrums, 808s, etc kills real drums lmao

@chrisdigital 4 жыл бұрын

@@junkawakami3193 I personally use a Dr770 for my music that I program by hand. :) Always consistent!

@cary3428 4 жыл бұрын

D. M.k Don’t forget the drummer. Ya gotta hit the fucking thing correctly.

@quintenturner4807 4 жыл бұрын

What is that mic stand though?

@BosbluzGuitarMethod 4 жыл бұрын

ya know....i almost bought the aix....but ....i realized that i can get almost the same exact results, using rea x comp..and the Russian limiter No.6.....any thought s on that?....by the way, when im done mixing our album, I plan on letting you judge the quality of the mix/master....and, if you approve...i would like to give you some credit.....since ive learned EVERYTHING....from watching your videos.....buuuuut.....not sure how to P.M.....you...and, we're still, at least 6 months out from finished product....F-u Glen....you one bad ass mo-fo!....cheers

@matturner6890 4 жыл бұрын

too...many...useless....ellipses.

@EmptyKingdoms 4 жыл бұрын

Is it bad I prefer the raw drum track?

@cary3428 4 жыл бұрын

EmptyKingdoms it’s very bad, go to your room and wait for Glen. He will fix you😉

@edwincrain986 4 жыл бұрын

And ....What is soft knee ??

@evansellars8728 4 жыл бұрын

Hey can you please do a shootout or review of the m audio 192 air vs their 2x2? Looking at both but can't decide which for recording metal guitar and the useless cunt bass

@sadller 4 жыл бұрын

This is awesome plugin to understan a compression. Definetly not my fav sound of a snare in a mix. Sound to far, little bit to thin maybe)

@russwilson2305 4 жыл бұрын

Haha! Glenn is working on the new Ugly Kid Joe record?

@BabyFlickBuster 3 жыл бұрын

Oui

@ThunderBassistJay 4 жыл бұрын

2:57 ...right above the 3000 kHz mark... 🤣🤣🤣

@clintonmaher6930 4 жыл бұрын

When someone can show me how to get a snare sound as good as Therapy's Troublegum or Cleave album I'll take notice

@gibhopkins6919 4 жыл бұрын

104 snare sounds like a squirrels head with a hammer

@N8oRMusic 4 жыл бұрын

Why not just replace it with a sample?

@belcarra 4 жыл бұрын

Yall wanna hear a joke? The mixing of Under the Knife

@rk28984 4 жыл бұрын

The visualization of this plugin is awesome but I'm not that fond of the snare sound (and the drums in general) you have here, sounds too sanitized for me. My perfect snare sound is on Betty by Helmet (just listen to the song Milquetoast), the drums sound so organic and rough, exactly the way it should be!

@clintonmaher6930 4 жыл бұрын

Helmet had some great snare sounds... So do Therapy? And the Mark of Cain. Therapy's "Cleave" album has the best snare sound I've heard in years

@clintonmaher6930 4 жыл бұрын

Helmet had some great snare sounds... So do Therapy? And the Mark of Cain. Therapy's "Cleave" album has the best snare sound I've heard in years

@crashzero6517 4 жыл бұрын

always flip your phase, anyone can send me to a video where he explains that

@axemancj 4 жыл бұрын

St. Anger has the greatest snare sound

@bojack-horseman 4 жыл бұрын

jesus, who tuned that snare? sounded like dogshit when you turned the plugs off

@nicholasb8420 4 жыл бұрын

Since when does Glenn use Mac?

@alexnasla 4 жыл бұрын

Since I built him a Hackintosh to use Mac with!

@Projacked1 4 жыл бұрын

No pif-pif but crack-crack lol

@finscreenname 4 жыл бұрын

GLEN!!!!! I subbed to you like 2 years ago and still have yet to see that you subbed to my channel. Just saying. Pass the love brother.

4 жыл бұрын

Who is also annoyed by the snare sounding like there's a double hit?

@djabthrash 4 жыл бұрын

You mean the kick right ?

@itscuzimemo 4 жыл бұрын

GLEEENNNNNNNNNN If your hands were tied would you rather have to mix on a pair of good headphones or the shit mid 2000's computer speakers you just dug out of a basement

@ledheavy26 4 жыл бұрын

Headphones

@leavemealoneyouprick 3 жыл бұрын

not gonna do much mixing with your hands tied anyway, so i dont see how it really matters...

@itscuzimemo 3 жыл бұрын

@@leavemealoneyouprick lmao facts

@torchlord11 4 жыл бұрын

It probably better to start with a good sounding snare in the first place.

@SpectreSoundStudios 4 жыл бұрын

Hey look, we found the “samples only” guy!

@alrecks619 4 жыл бұрын

nah, raw snares sounded like that

@junkawakami3193 4 жыл бұрын

boo hoo, go back to EZDrummer if you don't want to learn beyond changing presets and moving faders

@ofbloodnloss 4 жыл бұрын

Don't need EZDrummer. Just a Black Beauty, distressor, and a drummer that isn't shit. Sorted.

@cary3428 4 жыл бұрын

Start with a great drummer. The rest is easy.

@rabatzbumm 4 жыл бұрын

looks like htey've copied fab filters.

@dylanrobins 4 жыл бұрын

Not going to lie, I'm really not feeling this sound. There's no bloom to the snare, only transient and digital reverb. To each their own I suppose, this sounds very 80's-ish to me and that sort of stuff doesn't resonate much with me. Much prefer what you had going on in the How to Record Heavy Drums snare vid. Compressor looks cool though, and the kick sounds killer!