Title: Low end conversation with kickless sections (Beginner)

Alright, welcome in. Today we’re doing a super common drum and bass trick that can either sound massive or completely fall apart if you don’t control it: kickless sections.

In DnB, the kick and the sub usually work like a team. The kick gives you that punch and timing, and the sub gives you the weight. But the moment you remove the kick for a bar or two, everything changes. The sidechain stops moving, the groove can feel like it loses its legs, and beginners often compensate by just turning the sub up… which usually makes the mix worse, not better.

So in this lesson, you’re going to build a simple, mix-ready setup in Ableton Live using stock devices, where the low end still feels like it’s talking and breathing even when the kick drops out. That’s the idea: low end conversation. The kick speaks first when it’s there, and when it’s not, the bass takes over the rhythmic job without turning into a sloppy drone.

Let’s set up the session first.

Set your tempo somewhere in the classic DnB zone, like 174 BPM. Now create a simple 16-bar arrangement. Bars 1 through 8 will be full groove, kick and bass. Bars 9 and 10 will be kickless, but still heavy. Bars 11 through 16, the kick comes back, and it should feel bigger because we set up contrast, not because we just cranked levels.

Now let’s build the foundation: the sub track.

Create a new MIDI track and name it SUB. Load Operator. Keep it simple: Oscillator A as a sine wave. This is your pure fundamental. Set the level so you’re leaving headroom, something like minus 12 dB is a good starting point.

Now shape the envelope. Attack at zero to start, but keep in mind: if you get clicks later, we’ll come back and raise it slightly. Decay somewhere around 300 to 800 milliseconds depending on how plucky you want it. Sustain can be all the way down if you want short notes, or around minus 6 dB if you want more held notes. Release around 50 to 120 milliseconds so it lets go cleanly without popping.

Now add your sub processing chain. First, EQ Eight. Put a gentle high-pass around 20 to 30 Hz. That’s not to make it thin, that’s to remove rumble that steals headroom and makes limiters angry. If later you feel mud, you can try a tiny dip somewhere around 200 to 400 Hz, but go easy. On a sub track, too much EQ can do more harm than good.

Next, add Saturator, very light. Drive around 1 to 3 dB, soft clip on. The goal is not distortion. The goal is a little harmonic information so the sub has some presence on smaller speakers.

Quick mindset check: the sub’s job is stability. If the sub is constantly changing tone or getting wide or messy, it becomes impossible to mix.

Now create the conversation partner: the mid bass.

Create another MIDI track and name it MID BASS. Load Wavetable for a fast start. Pick a basic shape like saw or square-ish. Add a touch of unison, like 2 to 4 voices, but keep it subtle. Then low-pass it somewhere between 200 and 800 Hz depending on how aggressive you want it. We’re not trying to make a screaming lead; we’re building readable bass character.

Now the most important rule for clean DnB low end: keep true sub out of the MID BASS.

So add EQ Eight first, and high-pass around 90 to 120 Hz with a steeper slope. This one move alone fixes so many beginner mixes. You’re basically saying: the SUB track owns the low fundamentals, the MID BASS owns the harmonics and personality.

After EQ, add Saturator or Overdrive. Aim the energy into that 150 to 600 Hz area, because that’s the zone that still speaks when the sub isn’t audible on small speakers.

Then add Auto Filter. This is for motion. We’ll automate it later to make kickless moments feel exciting without changing volume too much. And optionally, you can add Amp if you want a bit of growl, but don’t go too far. The main win here is separation and translation.

Now let’s program a bass pattern.

Start in the SUB track. Make a two-bar MIDI clip. Choose a key like F minor. You don’t need complex notes. You need groove. Here’s a simple example idea: short F notes, maybe a quick Eb, then a longer F to land. Second bar: a couple short F hits, a quick G, then a rest.

The big concept: note length is part of the rhythm. Short notes feel punchy and drum-like. Longer notes feel heavy and sustained. In kickless sections, you’ll lean on note length even more, because note length becomes your “fake kick” in a way.

Now copy that MIDI clip to MID BASS. You can keep the notes the same for now. Or, if you want more of a call-and-response vibe, change a couple note lengths so it answers the sub instead of doubling it. Even if the notes are identical, we can make it “talk” with filter movement.

Now add drums.

Create a DRUMS group. Put a kick track, a snare track, and hats or shakers. Program a simple 2-step. Snare on 2 and 4. Kick can be on 1 and another hit around the “and of 2” vibe depending on your pattern. Hats can do 16ths with a touch of swing if you want some roll.

On the DRUMS group, add Drum Buss. Drive just a bit, maybe 5 to 15 percent depending on your samples. Be careful with the Boom control; it can add low end in a way that fights your sub and kick relationship. Add EQ Eight after if needed, and keep your kick fundamental clean. A lot of DnB kicks sit somewhere around 45 to 70 Hz for the main weight, but it totally depends on the sample and key, so use your ears.

Now we connect the low end conversation: sidechain.

On the SUB track, add a Compressor. Turn on Sidechain. Choose the Kick track as the input. Start with ratio around 4 to 1. Attack 1 to 5 milliseconds so the kick transient gets in and the bass ducks quickly. Release around 50 to 120 milliseconds. The release is tempo-dependent, so adjust it until the sub recovers in time to feel like it’s bouncing with the groove, not lagging behind it.

Set the threshold so you’re getting around 3 to 6 dB of gain reduction on kick hits. That’s a solid beginner target. Not too subtle, not totally exaggerated.

On the MID BASS track, add another Compressor with the same sidechain input, but do it lighter. Aim for 1 to 3 dB of reduction. You want the mid bass to stay audible because it’s your translator on small systems.

Here’s the musical picture: when the kick is present, the kick speaks first. Then the bass answers right after. That’s the conversation.

Now let’s make it kickless.

Go to bars 9 and 10 in your arrangement and mute or delete the audible kick. Leave the snare and hats running. Listen.

You’ll probably notice two things. One, the pumping stops because the sidechain trigger disappeared. Two, the sub might feel either too constant and flat, or it might suddenly feel way too loud because nothing is ducking it.

We’re going to fix that with a couple beginner-friendly options. And you can choose one, or combine them.

Option one is the classic: a ghost kick.

Create a new track called GHOST KICK. Put a very short click or muted kick sample on it. Copy the same kick rhythm onto this track, including the bars where the real kick is missing. Now make sure you can’t hear this track. Turn its volume all the way down, or route it in a way that it doesn’t hit the master. The whole point is: it’s only there to drive sidechain.

Now go back to your SUB compressor and change the sidechain input from the real kick to the ghost kick. Same on the MID BASS compressor.

Play it again through the kickless bars. Notice what just happened: even though the kick is silent, the low end still breathes like the groove is intact. This is perfect for rolling DnB, because you keep that forward motion.

Option two is more “bass becomes the drum.” No ghost kick required.

In the kickless bars, edit the SUB MIDI so it replaces the kick’s rhythm. Put short sub stabs where the kick used to hit. And here’s a huge coaching tip: use the snare as your anchor. If the sub steps on the snare, the whole track feels smaller.

A simple rule you can try: don’t start a new sub note right before the snare. Give it a tiny gap leading into the snare so the backbeat hits like a wall. Think of it like negative space. The absence makes the snare feel bigger.

So in bars 9 and 10, add a short note on beat 1, maybe a little syncopated hit like the “e” of 1, and then something around the “and of 2.” Then consider leaving beat 3 more open so the snare has room to dominate the phrase.

If you want it to feel extra slick, try micro-timing. Nudge one or two off-beat sub notes slightly late, like 5 to 15 milliseconds. Super small. You’re not trying to make it sloppy; you’re trying to make it feel like it has pocket even without the kick.

Option three is about control: automate the sidechain amount.

Maybe you like the pump in the full section, but in the kickless bars you want the sub to be fuller and less bouncy. You can do that by automating the sidechain intensity.

A simple stock way: put the compressor inside an Audio Effect Rack on the SUB track. Create two chains: one chain is dry, no sidechain compression. The other chain has the sidechain compressor. Then you automate the chain volumes. In kickless bars, you can blend toward the dry chain to make it fuller without losing control.

Now, even if the kick is gone, we still want the kickless section to feel big, not smaller. And here’s the trick: perceived power often comes from mid information, not more sub.

So in bars 9 and 10, automate the MID BASS to speak more. Open the Auto Filter cutoff slightly. Or increase Saturator drive by 1 or 2 dB. Tiny moves. This creates the illusion of intensity and size, especially at low listening volumes.

If you want an extra layer that’s still “kickless,” you can create a very short tick using Operator noise. Noise on, decay around 10 to 40 milliseconds. EQ it so it’s living more in the 1 to 5 kHz area. Place it where the kick would have hit, but keep it quiet. That little transient substitute can bring back the sense of punch without actually adding a kick.

Now let’s keep things clean and controlled, because kickless sections can accidentally peak higher than the full section. That’s a classic mistake: you lose the kick transient, so you push bass harder, and suddenly your kickless bar is actually louder on the meters. It feels wrong when the drop returns.

Group your SUB and MID BASS into a Bass Group. Put a Utility on that group. First, do a quick mono check. Hit mono briefly and see if the weight disappears. Anything under about 120 Hz should basically be mono. If it collapses, you’ve got phase issues or too much width in the wrong place.

Then add gentle control on the Bass Group: either a Limiter doing just 1 to 2 dB of gain reduction max, or a Glue Compressor gently shaving 1 to 2 dB. This is just to catch spikes, not to squash the life out of it.

Now let’s do a simple arrangement upgrade that makes the kick return hit harder.

In bar 10, right before bar 11 where the kick comes back, try a tiny dropout. Like the last quarter note of bar 10: pull the bass out, or at least mute the sub for an eighth or a quarter beat. That vacuum moment makes the kick return feel like it answers the phrase.

You can also add a reverse crash or a noise sweep into bar 11 to sell the transition. Even a simple noise layer rising into the downbeat works.

Before we wrap, here are a few common mistakes to avoid, because these will save you hours.

If your sub becomes constant in the kickless section, like a flat drone, the groove dies. Fix it with rhythm: note length changes, stabs, gaps, or ghost sidechain.

If your mid bass has too much low end, you’ll smear the punch. High-pass it around 90 to 120 Hz.

If your sidechain release is too long, the bass never recovers between hits, and everything feels weak. Shorten release until it bounces with the tempo.

And if the kickless section feels empty, don’t just add more 40 Hz. Usually you need mid harmonics and rhythmic information.

Now your mini practice for today.

Make a 16-bar idea at 174 BPM. Full groove bars 1 to 8. Kickless bars 9 and 10. Kick returns at bar 11.

Then solve the kickless section in two different ways. First, use a ghost kick sidechain. Second, turn off the ghost and do it with sub rhythm edits: stabs and gaps.

Then do two quick checks. One, low volume on small speakers: can you still follow the rhythm in the kickless bars? If not, your mid bass isn’t translating enough. Two, mono check: does the weight stay stable?

If you nail this, your kickless moments won’t feel like the track fell apart. They’ll feel like tension. Like the bass is stepping forward, owning the groove, and then the kick comes back in and it feels like a payoff.

And that’s the real goal: not louder, just smarter. If you tell me your BPM, your key, and whether you’re going for a roller vibe or darker neuro style, I can suggest a specific two-bar bass pattern and a sidechain release timing that fits your grid.