I'm getting a little better at mixing since following the advice I got from the forum. One problem I seem to still have is getting good kick and bassline definition in my mixes. I eq, but my mixes still don't have the low end clarity I want. Any suggestions?
Defining Kicks And Basslines In Your Mix
- Thread starter joeburnem
- Start date
NobleWordz
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 4
Turn the low end up then, its pretty simple. Don't have to many things competing for space if you have a thick bass line your not going to want a thick kick. Also the thing with bass is its more of a tone, it lacks harmonics but you can get around that by using some light distortion/saturation. A lot of the time people completely remove the high end (thus removing a lot of the harmonics) from the bass track then they listen back on an iPod or something and they find they have no represent ion of the low end.
Side chaining can help as does good sequencing.
NW
Side chaining can help as does good sequencing.
NW
Haze47
THE URBAN ARCHEOLOGIST
ill o.g.
you can use a technique called punching. as in you are punching a hole in the eq line. it is a techno technique that gives them their prominent kicks. basically you remove all the eq from one section of the band so that your instrument of choice is the only one using it.
so for a kick you are boosting the bass of at say between 80-120, you then notch out the 80-120 range from all the other instruments in the track, leaving just your kick to shine through in that range (this also works for bass - though you might want to notch it a bit higher)
also compression
try this ratio -20db 6:1 attack 30 release 70 then pump the volume
another technique is immortalized in argueby the greatest hip hop album of all time tribes "The Low End Theory" - this is basically a layering and filtering technique, where you take two copies of your say bass line, put a low pass filter on one of them till it sounds like you are listening to it through a wall, then layer it up witht the clean one
if you combine all three of these in one, then BOOM BAP ahoy!!!
so for a kick you are boosting the bass of at say between 80-120, you then notch out the 80-120 range from all the other instruments in the track, leaving just your kick to shine through in that range (this also works for bass - though you might want to notch it a bit higher)
also compression
try this ratio -20db 6:1 attack 30 release 70 then pump the volume
another technique is immortalized in argueby the greatest hip hop album of all time tribes "The Low End Theory" - this is basically a layering and filtering technique, where you take two copies of your say bass line, put a low pass filter on one of them till it sounds like you are listening to it through a wall, then layer it up witht the clean one
if you combine all three of these in one, then BOOM BAP ahoy!!!
Icemanbeats
Icy
cutting the low frequencies of the kick drum help it punch thru, try it u will see wot i mean, also boost around 70-90
use Waves Rbass on ur basslines, around 85hz - sick
use Waves Rbass on ur basslines, around 85hz - sick
Nothing more to add but "all the above is great advice". It will definately improve your bass responses. I tend to like using the compression like Haze mentioned but they all will help. (Im not gonna open this can but it's a helluva lot easier for me on hardware to tweak the different aspects of a beat).
MAN ON FIRE
MAN ON FIRE
Krazyfingaz
ILLIEN
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 2
Thanks for that info as well because thats one of my weak points that I'm working (Bass)
paradigmshifter
Beatmaker
ill o.g.
What about acoustics???
Keep your monitoring enviroment in mind... unless you are mixing on headphones, which is a big F'in NO-NO...
Low frequencies are omni directional, meaning they spread out in every direction in contrast with mid and high frequencies that are a lot more directional... LOWS in a room create STANDING WAVES and PHASING... Your mix might have enough low end already but if your room is not setup properly it's possible that what you hear is totally lacking lows... try putting a spectrum analyzer on your master to see what levels you are getting on the low end (like PAZ analyzer from WAVES)... if the low levels look high enough but your mix still sounds thin, then you need to treat you room to fix the problem...
Read this:
Bass reflected off walls leads to standing waves. Standing waves create huge peaks and dips throughout the low end. Without bass absorption on the walls, some spots within the room will have too much energy in certain frequencies and too little in others. These peaks and dips in the low-end response will change as you move around the room. Adding foam or fiberglass to your walls to reduce reflections can compound problems in the low end, because these products tend to work only above bass frequencies.
Google BASS TRAPS, there are some tutorials to DIY construction of a good home-made bass trap that can help
you get a more realistic sound and your mix will translate better when heard elsewhere because the room imparts less of its acoustic signature...
Peace.
Keep your monitoring enviroment in mind... unless you are mixing on headphones, which is a big F'in NO-NO...
Low frequencies are omni directional, meaning they spread out in every direction in contrast with mid and high frequencies that are a lot more directional... LOWS in a room create STANDING WAVES and PHASING... Your mix might have enough low end already but if your room is not setup properly it's possible that what you hear is totally lacking lows... try putting a spectrum analyzer on your master to see what levels you are getting on the low end (like PAZ analyzer from WAVES)... if the low levels look high enough but your mix still sounds thin, then you need to treat you room to fix the problem...
Read this:
Bass reflected off walls leads to standing waves. Standing waves create huge peaks and dips throughout the low end. Without bass absorption on the walls, some spots within the room will have too much energy in certain frequencies and too little in others. These peaks and dips in the low-end response will change as you move around the room. Adding foam or fiberglass to your walls to reduce reflections can compound problems in the low end, because these products tend to work only above bass frequencies.
Google BASS TRAPS, there are some tutorials to DIY construction of a good home-made bass trap that can help
you get a more realistic sound and your mix will translate better when heard elsewhere because the room imparts less of its acoustic signature...
Peace.
Yes I agree monitoring is very important, but mixing with headphones is not necessarily bad it's just that you should not mix entirely with the headphones.
The thing with headphones is you can get a detailed picture of what is going on with your mix but then the monitors give a more realistic picture plus good monitors will be very neutral and reproducing the sound whereas headphones will sometimes make everything sound good when in reality it might not be.
Another thing that is very simple and might seem trivial but when mixing your drums, play with the volume of the drums and bass sounds. Sometimes you can get the drums and bass to play well together just by tweaking the volume controls. Also look into sidechaining your bass and kick sounds (if you aren't familiar just google it).
Make sure your using high quality samples and/or sound sources, don't take your drums for granted tweak them and smooth out your bass with some compression to tame it. Hope this helps..
The thing with headphones is you can get a detailed picture of what is going on with your mix but then the monitors give a more realistic picture plus good monitors will be very neutral and reproducing the sound whereas headphones will sometimes make everything sound good when in reality it might not be.
Another thing that is very simple and might seem trivial but when mixing your drums, play with the volume of the drums and bass sounds. Sometimes you can get the drums and bass to play well together just by tweaking the volume controls. Also look into sidechaining your bass and kick sounds (if you aren't familiar just google it).
Make sure your using high quality samples and/or sound sources, don't take your drums for granted tweak them and smooth out your bass with some compression to tame it. Hope this helps..
God
Creator of the Universe
ill o.g.
I find that the bassline should be eq'ed with a slight bump in +db at 40 hZ. Throw in a notch of -x db at around 250 hZ and make sure that you pull down the frequencies that slam into the kick. Then slam the bassline through a compressor, or at least a programmable multiband, because your EQ settings will be different for each note-- therefore you will have to automate it.
I'm sure a lot of cats know what I'm talking about when you change EQ's during a song-- automating it, the whole EQ of an instrument in a song is not usually static, but changes, because you are constantly EQ'ing in order to complement the mix. Flying faders and automatic pots turning everywhere--- somebody--- where's my SSL at?
If you want to master the art of mixing-- read up on Andy Wallace, he's an AE that gets *points* on a record because he's that good. http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_andy_wallace/
Quick tip: The kick is usually placed above the bassline in the frequency range. You need to keep the frequencies separated or "under control" so that you can place all the sounds properly in the mix.
-God
I'm sure a lot of cats know what I'm talking about when you change EQ's during a song-- automating it, the whole EQ of an instrument in a song is not usually static, but changes, because you are constantly EQ'ing in order to complement the mix. Flying faders and automatic pots turning everywhere--- somebody--- where's my SSL at?
If you want to master the art of mixing-- read up on Andy Wallace, he's an AE that gets *points* on a record because he's that good. http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_andy_wallace/
Quick tip: The kick is usually placed above the bassline in the frequency range. You need to keep the frequencies separated or "under control" so that you can place all the sounds properly in the mix.
-God
Hypnotist
Ear Manipulator
ill o.g.
These are great tips.
Sometimes, depending on what type of kick you have, there's a trick to add the harmonics to the kick, and it fattens it up a bit. Most hip hop heads just use a low-pass filter and take everything out from, say 150 Hz and up (or 200, 250, depending on the kick and the low-end they're trying to achieve. But I've done this once or twice, and it's the opposite, but it fattens it up a little:
On a [real] kick drum sample: Say you find that the heart of a particular kick is 75 Hz, and that's the center frequency that it "sits" at. Take 150 Hz, 300 Hz, and 600 Hz, (even 1.2 kHz) and bump them slightly, each higher frequency bumping less than the previous. Also, altering the bandwidth (Q) so that the space in between is attenuated, so your spectral EQ actually resembles a waveform.
This is just a weird tip that can make a thicker kick.
Other than that, the advice on the above is great: layer, layer, layer, but layer complimentary kick drums (don't layer three low end kicks; try one that's low, another that's mid and punchy, and maybe a thin one on top, maybe even a thick snare with a low-pass filter to give it some crunch)
And yea, the kick should sit right "on top" of the bass line, so to speak.
Everything should have its own rock to sit on.
-Hypno
Sometimes, depending on what type of kick you have, there's a trick to add the harmonics to the kick, and it fattens it up a bit. Most hip hop heads just use a low-pass filter and take everything out from, say 150 Hz and up (or 200, 250, depending on the kick and the low-end they're trying to achieve. But I've done this once or twice, and it's the opposite, but it fattens it up a little:
On a [real] kick drum sample: Say you find that the heart of a particular kick is 75 Hz, and that's the center frequency that it "sits" at. Take 150 Hz, 300 Hz, and 600 Hz, (even 1.2 kHz) and bump them slightly, each higher frequency bumping less than the previous. Also, altering the bandwidth (Q) so that the space in between is attenuated, so your spectral EQ actually resembles a waveform.
This is just a weird tip that can make a thicker kick.
Other than that, the advice on the above is great: layer, layer, layer, but layer complimentary kick drums (don't layer three low end kicks; try one that's low, another that's mid and punchy, and maybe a thin one on top, maybe even a thick snare with a low-pass filter to give it some crunch)
And yea, the kick should sit right "on top" of the bass line, so to speak.
Everything should have its own rock to sit on.
-Hypno
T
TheMost
Guest
T
TheMost
Guest
Thats what the engineer told me at the studio, concentrate on making a tight beat and leave the mixing up to me.
