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Learn how to build a proper hardstyle kick tail
Prefer to watch? Full video below
Release on the 31st of august 2026
How I Build A Hardstyle Kick Tail In Serum 2
If you are just getting started with Hardstyle, one of the things you will probably notice pretty quickly is that the kick is a big part of the sound. And although there are plenty of kick samples and presets available, I personally prefer to build the sound from the ground up.
In this blog, I want to show you how I approach the basic tail of a Hardstyle kick. I start with Serum, build the different layers, create the crunch and then add the low end. This isn’t the finished kick yet. It is the starting point I use before I start editing and shaping the kick further.
I also made a video tutorial of this process, so you can see and hear exactly what I mean while reading through the steps.
Starting with Serum
I start with Serum 2. The first thing I do is turn on the Noise module and combine it with a Saw Wave.
I then run them through Serum’s Distortion module. I keep the distortion type on Tube and turn the Amount all the way up.
I’m not trying to make the final sound at this point. I’m looking for a raw, aggressive sound that I can work with later.
Creating the Pitch Movement
I’m not actually creating the final tok in this tutorial. I’ll cover the tok itself in a separate tutorial later.
What I do here is pitch the sound so that it mimics the movement of the punch that will eventually sit in front of the tail. This gives the tail a small amount of pitch movement of its own.
That might seem like a small detail, but it makes a big difference when you put the tail underneath a tok. Instead of the tail starting completely static, it naturally follows the movement of the punch. This helps the two parts flow into each other and makes the transition from the tok into the tail feel much more natural.
Using Serum's drag and drop Memory
Serum also has a drag and drop feature that I use here which makes this process quite practical. When I play the right note on the keyboard and let it run for around ten seconds, Serum can hold the sound so I can work with it further. I show exactly how I use this in the YouTube tutorial.
I repeat the same process with a Sine Wave and a Pulse Wave. I like working with these different layers because they each bring something different to the sound.
I design the tail mostly in the pitch of a F or a G note, depending on the route note of a song.
At this stage, don’t worry too much about making everything sound perfect. The next step is where I start turning these layers into something much more aggressive.
Building the Crunch
Now I start playing with the phase of the different layers.
I set the layers against each other and then run them through a clipper, for the character, I use filters from ShaperBox and RC-20 to take off the edges. and to create movement. This is where the simple waveforms start turning into a much more aggressive and crunchy sound.
The phase relationship makes a big difference here. Move one layer slightly and the character of the crunch can change quite a lot.
This is one of those parts where I would recommend not getting too focused on copying exact settings. Listen to what happens when you move things around and find a sound that works for you.
Adding the Low End
The crunch alone isn’t enough for the sound I want, so I create a separate low-end layer using Drumazon.
I add distortion and EQ to this layer and cut it around 200 Hz so that I’m mainly keeping the low-end part I need.
Again, 200 Hz isn’t a magic number. It is simply where I start. The important thing is that the low-end layer does its job without bringing unnecessary frequencies into the rest of the kick.
Using a Tok as a Placeholder
Now I want to hear what the tail does when it is played with a kick attack.
Because I’m not creating the tok in this tutorial, I use a tok sample as a temporary placeholder. This lets me hear how the pitch movement of the tail works underneath a punch.
The placeholder isn’t the important part here. I’m listening for the way the tail flows out of the tok. If the pitch movement matches the movement of the punch, the transition feels much more natural.
I’ll go into creating the actual tok in a separate tutorial.
From Tail to a Full Hardstyle Kick
This is where I stop thinking about the tail as a finished sound and start using it as the foundation for the kick.
From here I can edit the tail, combine the crunch, lowend and tok with 2 clippers and inflator in a groupchannel (buschannel)
The right order for the clippers and inflator:
Clipper
Inflator
Clipper, adjust the distortion and work on the relationship between the tok and the tail until the kick starts to sound the way I want it to.
That’s the part I really like about building kicks this way. You are not stuck with a finished sample. You have the individual parts in your own project and can keep changing them.
Want to Take It Further?
What I’ve shown here is the starting point I use to build the tail. There is still quite a bit of work to do before it becomes a finished Hardstyle kick.
In my Music Production Masterclass, we can take this exact kind of foundation further and work through the editing, processing and shaping needed to turn it into a complete kick.
If you’re a beginner, don’t worry if this looks like a lot at first. The more you understand what each layer is doing, the easier it becomes to make your own decisions instead of just copying someone else’s settings.
That’s ultimately what I want you to get from this: not just one Hardstyle kick, but an understanding of how you can build and shape your own sounds.
Now, no matter which DAW you choose or use, as long as you get the job done, that’s what matters.
I’ve heard amazing things coming from producers using FL Studio, and even from people who started in GarageBand. The thing is, there is no perfect DAW — it’s the skill set you have as a producer or composer that makes the difference.
— FAQ
Do I need Serum to build a Hardstyle tail?
Serum is what's used in this tutorial because it makes layering and phase manipulation easy, but the same principles (noise + waveform layering, distortion, phase, clipping) can be applied in other synths.
Why use a clipper and Inflator instead of just distortion?
Distortion shapes each individual layer, while the clipper and Inflator on the group bus glue the layers together into one cohesive sound and give more control over density and aggression.
Is this a finished Hardstyle kick?
No. This is the starting point for the tail only. Turning it into a full kick involves further editing, processing and combining it with a tok, which is covered in a separate tutorial.
Do I need to copy the exact settings shown?
No. Numbers like 200 Hz or specific plugin settings are starting points, not fixed rules. Understanding what each step does matters more than copying exact values.
Where can I learn the full process of turning this into a finished kick?
That's covered in the Music Production Masterclass, where the foundation from this tutorial gets taken further into a complete, release-ready Hardstyle kick.
