Get Sonic Academy KICK 1.1.8 for Mac

If you've ever shaped a kick with a sampler and a chain of separate plugins, you know the routine: load a sample, add EQ, maybe a touch of saturation on a return track, then compress. KICK pulls that whole chain into one window. It's the kind of tool that lives on a dedicated kick bus, handling everything from the initial transient to the sub tail.

The signal path inside the plugin

At the core is a low-frequency oscillator that goes beyond a simple sine wave — you can choose additional waveforms for sub-bass creation, which gives you more control over the fundamental without reaching for another synth. From there, the audio hits three distortion algorithms, each pushing the tone in a different direction before it reaches the built-in equalizer, compressor, and limiter. The order is fixed, but the way you drive each stage changes the character considerably. On a busy mix bus, that means fewer insert slots taken up by utility plugins.

Preset Kick Auditioning on a Dedicated Track

Most producers I know drop KICK on a dedicated kick track, often right after a MIDI trigger. The 230-plus factory presets make it easy to audition something that already sits well in a rough mix, then tweak the distortion stage or EQ to match the key of the track. Because the earlier version was known as Kick by Nicky Romero, you'll find presets that lean toward tight, modern electronic styles, but the tone-shaping options work for anything that needs a solid low end. It runs as 64-bit Intel code, so it slots into most Mac setups without fuss.

The 1.1.8 refresh lands with the developer’s latest round of behind‑the‑scenes fixes and steady improvements.

• macOS 10.13 or later
• Apple Silicon and Intel 64-bit