Adding a reversed, stereo-widened tail to a Hardstyle kick creates the genre's characteristic 'swelling' sustain layer

After processing the main Hardstyle kick, a common ‘magic touch’ is to take the rendered kick’s tail (the body/sustain portion after the transient attack), reverse it, and place it as a separate layer underneath the kick. This reversed tail is then sent through a high-pass filter (to remove competing low-end) and a stereo widener plug-in (e.g. Wider by Polyverse) to spread it in the stereo field. The result adds an evolving, swelling texture to the kick’s sustain that is characteristic of the Hardstyle genre. Additionally, the attack and tail of the kick can be separated and processed independently — bitcrushing and extra distortion on the attack adds crunch while the tail keeps its body.

Examples

Render the kick, cut the last 2/3 of the file, reverse it; send to a bus with HPF at ~200 Hz + Wider plugin; blend with original kick at moderate level.

Assessment

Describe the purpose of reversing the kick tail in Hardstyle production. What problem does the high-pass filter solve on the reversed tail bus?