bass management

[spoonie g]

how do you handle it? what are your secrets?

[miqer]

There is a lot about this on the forum.

3 things I remembered:

- The clarity of bass is defined a lot as high as 800Hz.
- Try some parallel compression. I usually spank the second bass track hard with compression and use an agressive high pass filter (maybe 250 - 400 Hz), this lets me lower the original track to where I like the lowend of the bass, but I use the second track to get the mids to shine through.
- Talk to you bass guitar every day and give it nice food.

[lowfreq33]

I think maybe he means in a surround mix?

[spoonie g]

Originally Posted by lowfreq33

I think maybe he means in a surround mix?

No, just bass management in general and not strictly related to bass guitar.

[spoonie g]

Originally Posted by miqer

There is a lot about this on the forum.

3 things I remembered:

- The clarity of bass is defined a lot as high as 800Hz.
- Try some parallel compression. I usually spank the second bass track hard with compression and use an agressive high pass filter (maybe 250 - 400 Hz), this lets me lower the original track to where I like the lowend of the bass, but I use the second track to get the mids to shine through.
- Talk to you bass guitar every day and give it nice food.

Sounds good. Thanks.

Anyone else?

[Ethan Winer]

Originally Posted by spoonie g

No, just bass management in general and not strictly related to bass guitar.

Often when a bass track is not cutting through a mix it is because of a clash with similar frequencies from other instruments. Especially rhythm guitar and piano chords, which often have a lot of energy in the "speaking" range of an electric bass.

Try sending the bass to a separate output bus. Then EQ the bass to have a 1-3 dB boost at 300 Hz with a Q of 1, and apply a similar cut to the other bus so that frequency is reduced from all other tracks. 300 Hz works well for many bass sounds, but try other frequencies between 200 and 400 Hz and see which makes the bass clearest and still keeps the tone you want.

Also, you don't really have to use two buses. If only one or two tracks are clashing with the bass you can EQ them individually to have a cut opposite to what you boost on the bass track. This is a proven trick that works with other instruments and other frequencies too. Like 800-1200 Hz to make a vocal stand out better, and so forth.

--Ethan

[spoonie g]

Originally Posted by Ethan Winer

Often when a bass track is not cutting through a mix it is because of a clash with similar frequencies from other instruments. Especially rhythm guitar and piano chords, which often have a lot of energy in the "speaking" range of an electric bass.

Try sending the bass to a separate output bus. Then EQ the bass to have a 1-3 dB boost at 300 Hz with a Q of 1, and apply a similar cut to the other bus so that frequency is reduced from all other tracks. 300 Hz works well for many bass sounds, but try other frequencies between 200 and 400 Hz and see which makes the bass clearest and still keeps the tone you want.

Also, you don't really have to use two buses. If only one or two tracks are clashing with the bass you can EQ them individually to have a cut opposite to what you boost on the bass track. This is a proven trick that works with other instruments and other frequencies too. Like 800-1200 Hz to make a vocal stand out better, and so forth.

--Ethan

Thanks ethan. That makes sense. A lot of this is stuff I've known before but have forgotten. I should have a bulletin board above my daw to remind me all of this stuff!

[vernier]

Good topic, clear bass in a mix can be difficult. One thing I've learned is its not good for the bass and kick to occupy the same frequencies. Good examples are James Jamerson ...sonic space was left open for his instrument. Another good example: Crosby Stills & Nash, their first album ...big fat bass, they used a 57 on the kick which made room for bass.