Description
“Ultra-affordable pocket-money Kontakt instruments utilising samples from a range of classic and vintage hardware synths in a very straightforward common interface… the Grit Filter sounds fabulous.
The ‘intelligent’ controls cross-reference each other to operate a range of behind-the-scenes settings aimed at optimising the character of the sounds. There’s also a similarly intelligent ‘randomise’ button onboard.
At this price all the NanoMods are well worth your attention”
– Computer Music magazine
“The potential of these NanoMods is amazing” – Harvey Jones, NYC producer and composer
Kick is a go-to box of kick drums, designed to offer up everything from massive subby thumps to snappy funk-friendly thwacks in one neat little package. Simply clicking the Glitch button yields kick after kick, each unique! Use it to find your perfect kick drum sound, or combine it with other NanoMod Drum units to build a whole NanoKit. Like all NanoMod drum units, it’s built around eight custom waveforms.
Wave 1 is a processed variation of the classic Yamaha MR10 kick: tight, thick and powerful, with an additional synthesised decay tail for greater versatility. An excellent all-round starting point.
Waves 2 to 5 are taken from a Vermona Syncussion analogue drum synthesiser. Two of them closely emulate typical unprocessed 808 and 909 kick sounds; the other two are more extreme variants with stronger settings of the Drive and Attack controls. Go here for both “classic” and unusual analogue kicks.
Waves 6 to 8 come from a circuit-bent digital Roland R5, with careful use of the glitch matrix, analogue distortion and drive circuits to roughen the digital sound. These are perfect for more aggressive, modern and unusual sounds.
About the demos: Demo 1 is a simple drum loop with Kick providing the kick drum sound. It runs through each of the base waves in turn, so you can hear what they sound like unprocessed. These are your raw materials!
Demo 2 is the same drum loop played for a bit longer, except that this time we hit the Glitch button once every bar to generate new, unique, random kick sounds. We didn’t edit this to cut out the duds, so what you hear is a good indication of the range of sounds Kick can make, and of the “hit rate” of the Glitch control in generating useful “keeper” drum sounds.
aqaraza (verified owner) –
RR NM Kick is my benchmark before exploring the other kits here. I must say, I was originally a little bit skeptical of the importance of Velocity in using some of these sounds, but no longer. This simple path to organic variation makes all the difference. The kicks themselves show an impressive variety of utility when we use glitch/rnd as any self-respecting sound designer is bound to do. Some of the glitch patches are on the high-end side, but downpitching these could do the trick, and anyway, the ones that drop the floor are truly floor-dropping. Also appreciated (even if hallucinatory) is the ever so slight built-in reverb effect (think In The Air Tonight), just subtle enough to let one doubt its existence. Think I finally figured out what the “you can only press a certain key for this sound” thing is about. What can I say? I am newish to samplism. RR NM Kick is a genuinely useful tool.
Poesque (verified owner) –
This was on sale and free after reviewing. Duh?
Chris (verified owner) –
Instant kick generator. And for such a simple to use and intuitive instrument, you can really coax a hell of a lot of different kicks out of it. Deep control with just a few parameters. Excellently done!
Gustav –
What you get for 2,5 £ is just mad. This kick instruments can really be used for some interesting stuff, like perc etc. It gives your kick a special character, which makes it sound extremely unique and original. So if you are tired of plain 808 and 909-kicks, this is the thing for you. If not, well then NanoMod 3 (Kick) does also deliver those kicks.
Brad –
In a fellow musician friends place I was lucky to try it out. It is a versatile Kick Generator which actually has very cinematic sound if you can get it right, try messing with the sweep generator.
Shannon (verified owner) –
NanoMod 3 (Kick) is an interesting and useful kick generator for NI’s Kontakt. The randomize feature allows for the quick creation of a variety of kick styles, with the vast majority of the results being useable “as is.” The controls are self-explanatory and effective in sculpting the kick to meet the user’s requirements. In my opinion, the kicks created by NanoMod 3 are more suitable for “electronica” and other non-EDM forms of electronic music, although a few resulting kicks might be appropriate for particular subgenres of electronic dance music. Excellent production tool!