Bottom end

[bryancook]

how important, to you, is the 200 hz region with bass?

to mean it sounds so much better when i cut it. anywhere between 180 and 220 ish.

but then the problem is it only "speaks" well on more "hifi" systems capable of the sub lows and loses some of the vintage woodiness of an old P or something.

i know bass is a huge deal for all of us and in particular you are famous for it. do you make it rich and subby and add harmonics somehow to make it intelligible on sub-par playback systems?

any thoughts. thanks in advance.

[davelister6]

Dear Mr Maserati,

I write/record/produce electronic rock music by myself at home. Working with a lot of samples. I tend to leave too much low end in kicks and basses in my mixes, and even once mastered, there seems to me too much low end energy which keeps my mixes from sounding loud and punchy.

If you could share some of your low end own tricks that would be really appreciated.

Thanks,

-Dave Lister

[ssl_ambition]

The Tony Maserati low end has always been special and of course is one of the reasons your famous for.

Can you describe the mixing of Beyoncés "Baby Boy"/"Naughty Girl"* and "Crazy in love".
What plugins, gear have been used for what reason?
*I`m aware that Scott Storch most likely has used already fat & big sounding kicks and that this fact influenced the sound too, though it still sounded better/different than his tracks mixed by other engineers.

I admire your works and I`m glad you here with us.
Thank you very much!

[Telemann]

Hi Tony,

I'm a big fan of your round sound. One thing I'm always struggling with is to get the bass to fit in. It's either too bright, too boomy etc.
I suppose you're using mults there, but can you give some tips what to look/listen for?
Thanks very much.

[TLS]

Hi Tony,

Thanks for taking the time to guest moderate! thumbsup

I can tell a Tony Maserati mixed record from the incredible low end I was wondering what sort of tricks and techniques you use to achieve such a warm, full, punchy low end on your mixes.

Are there any go-to signal processing chains would you recommend as a starting point and are there any tricks (parallel compression, side-chaining, multiband compression, distortion) you find yourself turning to often?

Thanks again.

Jon

[Jules]

I have grouped all these low end related questions into one big "bass sandwich" for ya Tony! thumbsup

[Tony Maserati]

Originally Posted by Jules

I have grouped all these low end related questions into one big "bass sandwich" for ya Tony! thumbsup

Hey Jules,
thanks for grouping these together...

LOW END! Well, I had lots of problems/difficulties early on as well... I have to direct you to the Waves site and the video we created for the promotion of the Maserati plug ins. You can get there from my site as well... Because there, I explain exactly how and what I do (and what I did within the plug-ins) to get more control of that low end.

Whether it's on bass, kick or the richness of a vocal. They all add to the low end 'energy' and must be controlled and worked on to get the mix clear and energetic across the frequency spectrum.

I'll try to illuminate with a bit more detail, but it really does take quite a lot of trial and error and every mix is different. This is custom work fella's. I have tricks, but they're only 'starting points'; it's up to you to work thru each piece of music you get, same as me. The plug-ins were created to give users that starting point!

I'll leave you with this. Work with compression in frequency groups... Study the effects of slamming a compressor on jus certain frequencies of an individual track, then with a group of tracks... You will come to your own conclusions and then you'll have your own bag of 'starting points'!

Good luck,
t

[Tony Maserati]

Originally Posted by ssl_ambition

The Tony Maserati low end has always been special and of course is one of the reasons your famous for.

Can you describe the mixing of Beyoncés "Baby Boy"/"Naughty Girl"* and "Crazy in love".
What plugins, gear have been used for what reason?
*I`m aware that Scott Storch most likely has used already fat & big sounding kicks and that this fact influenced the sound too, though it still sounded better/different than his tracks mixed by other engineers.

I admire your works and I`m glad you here with us.
Thank you very much!

Dear Ambition,
Thanks for your question. I'm sorry, I couldn't tell you exactly what plug ins I used on those mixes since they were over five years ago. I can tell you that they were done on an SSL 9k at Hit Factory studio 3. They took over one week because various parts were changed and re-done as I mixed. I used similar outboard (analog) gear to what I've listed here for vocals and drums. The automation system would have been completely SSL at the time. Plug-ins would have been; EQ's used to subtract freq's I didn't like or want. Some FX like TC Chorus and Delays. At that time, I didn't do much boosting of internal (digital) eq's. I also hadn't started using internal reverbs or compressors very much.

As I've mentioned here previously, making the change to my current hybrid system of mixing took about three years. I did it along side my previous method so I could compare and better integrate my 'new' ideas.

I will admit to being the slowest engineer on the planet to make changes in my methodology. When a manufacturer sends me a set of speakers or plug-ins to 'try out', I tell them frankly, it will be several months before I get back to them. It takes time to determine if the new equipment will work into my method in a positive way.

t