Hi, I've wondered about this for some time. When I listen to commercial masters, a lot of them have a percussive blip that affects the entire mix when the kick hits.

A few examples:
- Renegades Of Funk by Rage Against The Machine (0:30)
- Papercut by Linkin Park (0:09)

My first guess is converter clipping during the mastering stage. Second guess would be just drum saturation but master compression fooling me into thinking the side elements are affected by that saturation as well.

That leads me into the next question: How would I go about setting this up? I know tonal balance will play a big part in how the saturation will react, as well as style of clipping/saturation. Are there any tricks to make this reaction happen more easily? (I.E: smiley face EQ before processing then reverse afterwards).

I appreciate it.

I'll be honest, I listened to both songs at the times you mentioned and for the life of me I can't think of what you are talking about when you say "percussive blip".

Could you specify what you are talking about?

I went and listened to those songs as well and I am not sure what you are describing either. When you are playing back an entire mix and "the kick hits" - well, the kick hits. Couldn't that be the beginning and end of it?

This is my question as well. How are you determining that what you are hearing is not just the kick hitting but something happening to the entire mix? I could understand if you were the one mixing and you had a view of things like the subgroups and bus compressors and mastering limiter and so on

As I said, I am personally not hearing anything obvious in these examples - but one thing I might guess from your description is that many times the detector in a bus compressor is high-passed. This means that peaks in the lows will not trigger the compressor compared to peaks in the mids and highs. The compressor will let low peaks "punch through". This is a very popular technique and I do it in nearly every mix.

again, I am not hearing it, but while we are on the subject, how about your listening equipment clipping during loud playback? I mean if you hear it in many places even at low volumes, it could be ruled out, but otherwise...

I would try the high-pass on the bus compressor's detector circuit if you do not do so already.

Personally, I tend to be really stingy with the saturation. I think it is over-represented in the internet discussions about mixing compared to how much it is actually used.

I am not understanding how this would work to get you the result you seek.