The reason that trap kicks are often short and punchy, as opposed to long and dense, is that they’re regularly layered with 808s the kick is used for its attack, and the 808 is used for its decay.
You can hear both of these characteristic sounds in the track “Death By Dishonor (w/ Ghostemane x Shakewell x Erick The Architect)” by Pouya. Trap beats usually make use of punchy kicks and dry, heavily compressed snares. This means that if you only want the vocals to affect a band centered between 1-5 kHz, then you can do so. The great thing about the F6 is that you can toggle the SC Source of bands individually to EXT. To do this, place the F6 on your melody track, and route the vocal to the F6 as an external sidechain.
If there is some unwanted frequency overlap, use an EQ like the F6 Floating-Band Dynamic EQ to carve out space in the melody for your vocals. When it comes to the sound design of the melody you select, choose a sound that won’t conflict with vocals in the 1-5 kHz range this is where the intelligibility of vocals comes from, so it’s best to avoid frequency masking if possible. It’s easy to over-produce a beat when you don’t have vocals filling space in your mix, so anticipate the addition of vocals and arrange your song accordingly. Keep in mind that you’ll be adding other elements to your beat, so the melody should be catchy, but it doesn’t need to carry the entire weight of the song.
