how to soften a deep kick drum?

[cmw9001]

is it possible to make a very Deep and punch drum sound softer and not too deep in the back??
Sony Transient Modulator
is the only one i know seems to be able to that, but i'm not sure...
is there a way to do so?
thnkz for any inputs

 

[Michael]

You could try heavy compression with a very fast attack , that should work

 

[Eric Dahlberg]

The Transient Modulator is cool because it allows you to control the attack & decay of the sound without affecting the dynamics of the signal. However, with kick drums, you don't have or even want much dynamics happening, anyway, so you could just do the same thing by using two compressors: one to control the actual level & a second one after that one to control the attack & decay. Attack is very easy to control with a compressor, though you might need to put a pillow inside the kick to help control the decay. Evans has a special pillow that snaps off the head & then back on again, giving you extremely effective control of the drum's decay.

btw, there is a freeware version of the Transient Modulator by Blockfish called \"Dominator\" or something like that. I think you'll get better sounding results using the methods I described above but it's probably worth knowing about.