POUND CAKE
Wireless phase-locked low endGetting a kick to punch through an 808 usually means a sidechain route, a phase-flip check, some EQ carving by ear and a bit of saturation so the bass reads on small speakers. POUND CAKE does all of that for you. Put one copy on the kick and one on the 808: they talk over a virtual radio channel, and on every hit the 808 opens a short pocket for the kick, then comes back at full weight, lined up in phase with the kick's tail. The kick itself passes through untouched.
- One knob does the work
- 16 radio stations, zero routing
- Automatic phase handoff
- 5 flavors, from clean to torched
The interface
A CAKE copy on an 808 track, linked to the kick on CH 2, with LAVA CAKE selected.
One plugin, two jobs
Every copy of POUND CAKE is the same plugin. Clicking a sphere tells that copy which job it has.
POUND: kick transmitter
Goes on the kick track. It listens to the kick's low end and broadcasts its timing and shape on the selected station. The kick is not processed at all: its click and punch stay exactly as they were. The lava core flares on every hit.
CAKE: 808 receiver
Goes on the 808 or bass track. It picks up the kick from the station and shapes the 808 around it, hit by hit, the way a mix engineer would carve it by hand. The doughnut squeezes as the 808 makes room, and the scope shows both waves.
Pocket, handoff, rebound
CAKE reacts to each kick in a few short stages. It all happens in the first fraction of a second after the hit, and it repeats on every kick.
The hit
The kick's transient arrives. CAKE already knows it's coming from the radio bridge.
The pocket
The 808's sub and boxy low-mids dip under the kick's attack, so the punch comes through clean instead of piling up.
The handoff
The 808 glides back to full weight, turned to line up in phase with the kick's tail so the two add up instead of cancelling.
The rebound
A touch of upper-bass definition comes in as the 808 returns, and the selected flavor blooms so the note reads clearly.
The sub pocket and phase handoff work below ~115 Hz, the chest-knock dip sits around 125 Hz, and flavors only touch harmonics above ~135 Hz. The deep sub under ~75 Hz is never colored: it stays clean and centered.
Tune in, lock on
POUND and CAKE find each other by station, the way a radio finds a broadcast. There's nothing to route in your DAW.
There are 16 stations, from CH 1 // 88.1 FM to CH 16 // 107.9 FM. Click the left or right half of the display to change station. When a POUND and a CAKE share a station, the green LINK LOCKED light comes on.
One kick can feed several CAKEs, so an 808 and a second bass layer can both make room for it. Give each kick-and-bass pair its own station: the verse pair on CH 2, the hook pair on CH 3.
One knob does the work
Bake sets how strongly CAKE reacts to the kick: how deep the pocket opens, how firmly the 808 is turned into phase, and how hard the flavor bites. The default, 65%, is a strong starting point for most kick and 808 pairs.
Five ways to finish the 808
Pick a flavor on the CAKE copy; Bake sets its strength.
Plain
Just the pocket and the phase handoff, nothing added to the tone. For mixes where the 808 should stay exactly as you designed it.
Brûlée
Asymmetric tube and tape drive builds warm harmonics that swell right behind the kick. Soul, boom bap, warm pop low end.
Lava Cake
The kick's own low end drives a wavefolder on the 808's body for a tearing growl locked to the kick. Club, drill, hard trap.
Sugar Crush
Low sample-rate grit and bit-crushing on the 808's upper body only. The sub underneath stays clean. Boom bap, lo-fi, dusty knock.
Sour Glaze
Vowel-shaped resonances sweep from "OW" toward "UH" after each kick, so the bass talks and cuts through phone and laptop speakers.
Under the hood