£80 / £30 upgrade from Kick 2, sonicacademy.com
Sonic Academy’s Kick 2 has been ruling the land of kick drum synth plugins since its release in 2016. Precision pitch and envelope editing combined with sample layering make it the go-to for fine-tuning the perfect kick sound.
Now, the long-awaited update — Kick 3 — allows even more control, extra effects and a snazzy new AI import feature. However, the 2020s have seen new kick contenders enter the fray, so are these new updates enough for Kick 3 to retain its crown?
What is Kick 3?
The kick drum is often an essential element in a track, acting as an anchor for the groove and other musical elements. Although you can get excellent results in your DAW using drum machines and kick drum samples, the editing options are often limited. You might want more precise control over the shape of your kick transient to sit perfectly with your bass line, for example. Kick 3 has been built from the ground up with a focus on giving you ultimate control over the kick drum editing. The deep pitch and amp envelopes offer a level of detail that’s usually impossible using the tools that come with your DAW.
Kick 3 gives you five layers of sound to work with, which can be freely assigned to either a synthesised sub-bass or a sample. A large collection of global presets covers various genres and styles, plus individual presets for the sub and sample selection.
Each layer offers detailed envelope control over the pitch and volume decay, so you can draw in exactly how you want them to sound. A much-requested new feature allows you to switch the view of the curve between logarithmic and linear. The former offers a zoomed-in control of the attack envelope, while the latter provides an intuitive way for editing amplitude.
In addition, you can right-click on a node and lock the phase for the remaining tail. This lets you fine-tune your tails to get them working perfectly with other layers or a bass part, and then edit the attack portion without messing up the alignment. Similarly, you can select a node for pitch tracking. This means that the tail can be transposed across the keyboard, whilst the initial thump remains at a consistent pitch; a useful feature for crafting those hard-hitting 808 boom basslines.
Kick 3 effects
Where Kick 2 had a limited harmonics generator, Kick 3 lets you select up to nine additional harmonics to add to the sub layer. These can be individually tuned and then balanced using Gain and Decay controls. It’s a useful feature for introducing inharmonic thickness, or even making a kick sound more like a synth waveform. However, it feels like a missed opportunity not to add an attack control so you can swell certain harmonics over time.
The upgraded effects section now has a dedicated tab with two buses and a master bus that can each load two effects. Each slot has access to the same 15 effects, and you can choose which layers to route to each effects bus. There’s a tasty-sounding clipper, tube, wave, tape, drive and bit crush distortions, plus a ring modulator, delay, reverb, filter, EQ, standard compressor, and 1176-style compressor.
Of particular interest are the Complex waveshaper and Brassify effects, which can create snarling bass sounds with rich, resonant harmonics. These significantly increase the sound design potential, extending Kick 3’s use as a potent bass synth. It’s a shame that there aren’t any presets that show this off fully, or modulation options to add further movement. There are, however, four Macro dials that can each control one effect parameter, potentially providing more immediate sonic control to each preset.
Outside of the Effects tab, you have a limiter for the main output with three releases and three lookahead settings. Useful for taming any wayward peaks, it can also be used as an extra layer of saturation when driven harder. There’s also an EQ tab with an incredibly fluid and reactive spectrum analyser, albeit with limited EQ options. Two bands plus high and low shelves feel restrictive on the surface, but this is alleviated by adding additional EQ modules using the Effects section.
Kick 3’s AI import tool
Arguably, Kick 3’s most interesting feature is the new AI import. Load any kick drum sample to Kick 3 and it will analyse and create an identical-sounding preset. A timesaving feature lets you drag in a slightly longer drum loop and highlight a single kick hit for analysis. It works by recreating the sub portion using the sub generator, and then presenting the top-end in a sample layer as a trim of the original sample.
Crucially, the issue here is potential copyright infringement, as you could use a portion of a sample rather than re-synthesising it. You can, however, keep and edit the sub and then switch out the top for a different click sample. Trying it with a few different drum and one-shot sounds, it works incredibly well. This could prove a useful tool if you have a kick sample that you like but it’s not long enough or not in the right key for your track. In a comment to MusicTech, Sonic Academy says this tool is “ideally [for] importing personal kick drums that you own or from sample packs that you’ve purchased and have the right to use.”
Another new section is the Trigger tab, which lets you use Kick 3 as a drum replacer. You can feed in a sidechain signal and then use an input filter and Threshold, Off Return and Retrigger Return lines to fine-tune the triggered hits. I’m easily able to add a thumping 909 kick to a live-sounding drum break, for example.
Should you buy Kick 3?
Kick 3 is a fantastic upgrade to Kick 2 that extends its sound design credentials whilst increasing its precision and usefulness. If you don’t already own a kick drum synth, and struggle to get the sounds you want, then this could prove a worthy addition to your toolkit.
That said, it’s a shame there aren’t any options for modulation. Having the ability to use key tracking and velocity, or an assignable envelope could really help add some humanising variation and bring the sound to life. There may be hope though, as Sonic Academy has just released a new beta version that adds envelope curves for the Drive amount and Harmonics section. There are also three new effects, an improved preset system and a handful of other useful quality-of-life improvements.
There’s big competition from the likes of The Him’s Kick Ninja (£60) and Audija’s KickDrum 2 (£36), which share some similar features — including the kick import and analyse function — but come at a lower price.
Sonic Academy’s Kick 3 is the most feature-rich package though. If you regularly work with kick drums and kick drum editing, then this remains one of the best options available. It offers greater control than using a drum machine or sampler, and a bespoke GUI that’s razor-tuned to the task. Plus, it’s an easy upgrade choice for anyone who already uses Kick 2.
Key features
- Kick synth/sampler with five layers of synthesised sub or samples
- VST3, AU, AAX
- 540+ presets plus 500 click samples
- New effects section with 15 effects, two effects busses and one master bus
- 4 macros
- Selective key tracking to choose which sub node responds to pitch
- Phase lock lets you lock in the tail whilst still editing the transient
- Per-layer, 180-degree phase adjustment
- AI import turns any kick sample into a preset
- Trigger section for drum replacement and audio triggering from an external source
- Output limiter
- Linear and logarithmic node editing
- Kick to WAV export
- Compatible with Kick 2 presets
- Resizable user interface
