Most DAWs now come bundled with a plethora of really useable effects plugins. Apple’s Logic in particular has numerous great options for modulation, spatial effects, distortions and dynamic control and with the latest 10.2.1 plugin re-skin they all look pretty darn sexy. Ableton
Something that regularly crops up is questions about demystifying mastering, and whilst I’m not the person to go into detail about exactly how to master your own music, there is a case for shining some light on the subject.
Sampling is such a given in modern music that we probably don’t give it much thought these days – lifting a musical loop, breakbeat or even spoken word sample from someone else’s record is almost second nature to producers and has been commonplace since the explosion of sampling in the early 1980s.
Parallel processing is a technique for mixing an effected version of a track with a dry version. This is particularly helpful when you want to process a sound but the plug-in doesn’t have a dry/wet knob or you want to be able to control the effected signal with additional effects, such as EQ, reverb etc.
There are numerous sample packs offering club-ready kick drums and this is by no means a bad thing. However, these might not always be suitable for your track.