Whether it’s four on the floor Electronic Dance Music, or drop tempo Trap, the kick drum is going to be a prominent force.
Are you struggling with maintaining a smooth low end in your beats? Are you comparing your beats to the hottest in your genre to find you’re a million miles away? Can’t quite put your finger on why you’re so far away?
With the prominence of the kick drum in modern music and the fact that it’s half of what people dance to (the other half being the snare, of course!) it’s important you invest in the right samples.
This article explores some of the hottest kick drum sample packs on the market right now. We’ll be exploring new takes on an old classic, pristinely mixed samples ready to level up your mainstream appeal and samples pushed through analog gear to ensure 100% attitude.
I’m confident that within this article, we’ll find some new kicks for you. After all, why else would you visit an article on kick drum samples?
Quick Rundown
Below is a short list of the kick drum samples we talk about in this article. Scroll down for more details or click for audio demos.
- Trap Drums HQ (Big Kick Expansion)
- Mike Chav’s 808 Kick Drum & Booms
- Lenny Dee – Kick
- Big Room Kicks
- Big Bad Kicks 2
- Mega Kick Collection
- Supercharged Kicks
- Line of Legends
1. Modern Samples – Trap Drums HQ (Big Kicks Expansion)
Modern Samples’ Trap Drums HQ offers 314 one-shots and 63 bonus samples in one sick package. Analog drum machines recorded through analog hardware guarantees unparalleled tone. Every sound within this package has been tweaked to perfection to ensure each sample would spark inspiration.
Though a range of individual drum samples is available within Trap Drums HQ – kicks, hats, claps and so forth – what sets this pack apart are the bonus samples.
The “Big Kicks” expansion pack, part of the bonus samples, are even bigger and fatter than the kicks inside of main drum kit.
The Big Kicks were ran through a Calrec analog mixing console and a pair of legendary Neve 1073 pre-amps. The legendary pre-amps were pushed hard until distorted, a sound chased by many producers, blended in with the original sample and layered with extra sounds to create a bigger and fatter kick.
I have found myself in the past taking a boring kick drum, parallel processing and layering extra sounds to make it cut through the mix. With the Big Kicks expansion in Trap Drums HQ there is no need as it has been addressed in the original capture.
If your clean 808 is lacking attitude, save hours of mind-numbing tweaks by checking out the Big Kicks expansion. Here you are guaranteed to find a kick with the processing and sample layering you need to make your beats stand out.
2. Mike Chav’s 808 Kick Drum & Booms
What do J Dilla, Busta Rhymes, Snoop Dogg and Dr Dre have in common? Mike Chav’s drums.
Mike Chav’s 808 Kick Drum & Booms sample pack contains samples taken from Mike’s personal collection. How better to compete with some of the greatest drums sounds in Hip Hop than with some of those actual sounds?
This collection may only be 48 samples, but it’s 48 samples of killer no filler! Most of the samples come from an original TR-808 machine processed through a host of analog hardware.
This kick drum sample pack keeps the legendary heavy bottom end of an 808 kick drum and modernizes it. Mike Chav is the master of sub-bass, and that mastery is clear in this sample pack. Better low end = better beats = bigger sales. If your beats aren’t selling, these samples are ideal to help your beats bang harder. Ideal for any Hip-Hop, Rap and Electronic music producer wanting their kicks to slam and stand out.
3. Industrial Strength – Lenny Dee Kick
Industrial Strength’s Lenny Dee Kick brings you 960 kick drums made with various analog drum machines. This package is ideal for layering and sound design, making it perfect for the tweaker producer. This package provides a broad range of different sounds, making it a versatile choice for any producer working within electronic music.
Lenny Dee’s biggest strength in this whole pack is the inclusion of 16 Battery Kits. Having the ability to load “Industrial Strength” into Native Instruments’ Battery allows for quick auditioning of the different kicks.
Battery compatibility also allows precise sequencing via MIDI, a producer’s Godsend. The range of tonal possibilities from this singular pack is ideal for producers working across many different genres.
Add unique texture and flavor to your digital drums with Lenny Dee – Kick. Whether it’s laid back Hip Hop or Showtek influenced Hardstyle; there’s a range of kicks in this pack to help you stand out.
4. Zenhiser – Big Room Kicks
Need to add freshness and punch to your dance kicks? Enter Big Room Kicks from Zenhiser. Big Room Kicks is 199 kick samples available as “original” and “+plus” (398 kicks in total).
The “Original” samples are without processing, ideal for the producer who likes to carve their sonic environment.
The “+plus” collection of Big Room Kicks adds more punch and low end for those who prefer a more “finished” sound. Why spend hours and hours trying to create power with other kick samples; often without much luck, when “Big Room Kicks” has the “+plus” folder?
As the sample pack suggests, Big Room Kicks is an essential collection of samples for any producer filling the main room of a club (or aspiring to!). This sonic slam of bottom end kicks will breathe new life into your music and your sample library.
Big Room Kicks will help you to stand out from the rest of the crowd. An essential pack for Electro, House, Techno and Trance producers who want their kicks punchy, pushy and pounding.
5. Famous Audio – Big Bad Kicks 2
Like they weren’t “bad” enough the first time, Famous Audio hit back with Big Bad Kicks 2. Whether it’s big and fat, heavy or deep down and dirty, Famous Audio has crafted an incredible collection of polished and club-ready samples for maximum power and depth.
What makes this kit stand out is its collection of tuned kick drums. Add a ferocious low end than blends with your production musically by selecting a kick drum tuned to the key of the track. Think outside of the box and sequence a punchy bass line from many tuned kicks, that blends well with your original kick drum.
Big Bad Kicks 2 contains 250 kick drum samples and 30 kick loops. These samples are representative of the kicks heard in tracks by EDM heavies Like Mike, Chuckie, and Martin Garrix.
Although heavily processed, the range of samples available within this pack provides an enormous range of sounds for you to choose from. Whether you need to blend a little sub, want a kick layered with a clap for extra punch or need inspiration from one of the kick loops available, there’s a file in this pack for you. If you want to rock the dance floor, you’re going to need Big Bad Kicks 2.
6. Famous Audio – Mega Kick Collection
Mega Kick Collection is a selection of the finest samples from Famous Audio’s most popular packs. Combining Big Bad Kicks Vol 1, Big Bad Kicks Vol 2, Big Bad Kicks Vol 3, Big Bad Trap and Lunatic Dubstep never before has so much choice been available in one collection.
With over 1000 kick samples included in this collection, Mega Kick Collection provides an insane amount of options for you as a producer. Ideal for any producer working in Dubstep, EDM, and Trap.
As you would expect from Famous Audio, these kick samples carries on the polished, club-ready sound discussed with Big Bad Kicks 2.
With over 160 tuned kicks, you can flick through a range of different kick types, while keeping the low-end power harmonic. Why not change the dynamic of the drums by sequencing a section of soft analog kicks from the 35 possible soft analog kicks available? Radically change the track with a Dubstep breakdown using one of the 30 dubby kicks. Keep the texture interesting by experimenting with the 20 reversed kicks.
Whatever it is you wish to achieve in your production, you will be hard-pressed to find a more versatile set of club-ready kick drums.
7. Zenhiser – Supercharged Kicks
Supercharged Kicks from Zenhiser is a collection of massive-sounding kick drum samples, spanning many genres and organized into four separate phases.
Phase 1 is a set of tight, direct, sharp and to the point samples. Ideal for Progressive House, Main Room and Trance, Phase 1 is perfect for driven beats that need space.
Phase 2 provides more power, punch, and thud, with speaker blowing bottom end. Ideal for Electro House, Dubstep and Main Room where the foundation must be to pack a serious punch.
Phase 3 moves the intensity up a notch, appealing to the heavier side of Electronic music. Packed with plenty of crunch and thud, these kicks are ideal for Techno and Hard Dance. An ideal grouping for any producer trying to add aggression without losing clarity.
Phase 4 is a full-on screaming assault. With incredible amounts of distortion and overdrive, these powerful and invasive sounding kick drums are perfect for Hardcore and Hard Techno where the kick ought to offend the listener.
Though these Supercharged Kicks are split into phases, experimentation can yield a host of impressive results. Combining the incredible bottom end from a Phase 2 kick with the overdrive of a Phase 4 kick can create an aggressive kick for your track, with a tight low-end to keep the speakers pumping.
8. Real Drum Samples – Line of Legends
If you are looking to be the best, you have got to have access to what the best use. Used by the producers behind Kanye West, Jay-Z and Kenrick Lamar, Line of Legends from Real Drum Samples is a premium set of drum sounds, guaranteed to set you apart from your competitors.
Each sound has been individually EQ’d, filtered & compressed to maximize punch while remaining dynamic. Recorded using vintage drum machines and an analog SSL 4000 G+ console, Real Drum Samples’ “Line of Legends” is a sample pack sure to stamp a super producer sound on your beats.
Flicking through the kick folder, it is clear you are not dealing with a standard library of kick drum samples. From stock electronic kick drum samples to samples with large room ambiances, there’s a perfect kick in this sample pack to blend into your next beat. Take a roomy sample and layer it with a bass bomb to create an impact sound with realism. Blend one of the more “knocky” samples in with your sub kick to add punch to your kick without EQ.
The samples within the kick and 808 kick folders of this package have been recorded and mixed to maximize impact. If your kick sounds weak, blending one of these kicks is going to put your beat on steroids.
Kicking Out Time
Regardless of genre, the kick drum is an ever-present sound in a mix. With this in mind, you have to focus on having the best sounding kicks available to you. Each of the packs explored in this article is of the highest quality.
Listening to the samples on each website and thinking about how you could incorporate them into your beats is the perfect supplement to this article.
Another important point to consider is that just because it says it is a Dubstep kick, does not mean it cannot be used in other genres. I have blended tuned 808 samples into heavy metal productions to keep the low-end musical, for example. Keep an open mind and a curious ear. You never know when that particular sample could sneak into a track, or inspire you to create the next big room smash.