Dropkick

Name: Dropkick
Price: 59 USD
Author: United Plugins

by United Plugins · Transient Shaper · Kick drum processor

Not rated yet

Dropkick from JMG Sound (sold by United Plugins) is a kick drum processor with eight tools for fundamentals, transients, tail length and low-end re-synthesis.

It is aimed at electronic kicks in EDM, drum and bass, techno, hip-hop and trap, for $78.

Best for: Drums. Genres: Electronic & EDM, Hip-Hop & Trap.

Keywords: kick, drums, analog-sounding, punchy, bass, clean, mixing, samples & loops, corrective, enhancement, harmonic enhancer, resizable UI, simple, single-band, sub bass, warm.

What it does

Dropkick is a kick drum toolkit by JMG Sound, sold by United Plugins. It puts eight processors in one window, mixing analogue-modelled filters with psychoacoustic processing to turn weak or muddy kicks into solid ones.

Power and Focus: a resonant high-pass (2- or 4-pole, per Sound On Sound) that strengthens the fundamental and removes unwanted sub-harmonics; the fundamental is detected automatically.
Phase Warp: analogue-modelled all-pass filters that offset the low frequencies in time, reshaping the transient and lowering peak level.
Snap: a frequency-aware transient processor that adds attack and punch.
Damp: progressively removes high frequencies while letting the transient cut through.
Clean and Trim: Clean dynamically removes boxiness and mud to free headroom; Trim shortens the tail to stop boominess.
Fire: psychoacoustic low-end re-synthesis with harmonic enhancement and analogue saturation, helping kicks carry on small speakers.
Over: a compression-based dynamics stage that brings out high-end detail, tames the mids and steadies the low end.

Other features include 64-bit processing up to 192 kHz, a resizable interface, click-free smart bypass, a sleep mode to save CPU and a preset system; a Kicks Collection sample pack is included. It comes with lifetime free updates and a free 15-day trial.

Source: United Plugins product page

When to use it

Dropkick is the better pick when the job is specifically a kick drum and you want tone, length and low end handled in one place. Compared with Smack Attack or Softube Transient Shaper, it does less for snares, toms or full drum buses, but adds tail trimming, mud cleanup and low-end re-synthesis around its transient stage. Against XLN DS-10 Drum Shaper, it goes deeper on a single kick, while DS-10 is aimed at whole drum loops and buses. Unlike SPL Transient Designer Plus, it shapes the kick's fundamental, tail and saturation as well as its envelope.

Best for: punchy, controlled kicks that translate to small speakers, from sampled or synthesized sources.
Genres: EDM, techno, drum and bass, hip-hop and trap; Sound On Sound also found it suited tight metal kicks.
Look elsewhere if: you need a general transient shaper for every drum; Smack Attack or Transient Shaper is more flexible.

What producers say

Sound On Sound found it an easy, effective kick tool with only a minor display issue.

Sound On Sound (Paul White) called it an "impressive kick drum tool kit, and eminently usable", praising the intuitive layout, the warm analogue-modelled filters and reliable automatic fundamental detection.
Range: the same review said it has "tools to fit any style", from snappy metal to EDM, and is easy to dial in without presets.
Criticisms: minor graphical glitches when opening it in Logic Pro on a secondary display.

Sound On Sound review

Where to buy

Tutorials and reviews

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