The mysterious bass mixing trick

[sedohr]

Hi

Once upon a time I learned a trick to put the bass in its place. Double the bass track, put it out of phase and lowpass (or highpass??) the new track up to around 100-300 hz (or something..).

I don´t remember it well enough but it went somehow like that. Do you know this trick ? Do you use it ? How does it work ?

The guy who showed it to me at the time gave me an A/B test and it made the bass sound solid and in its place..

Kalli

[Crash]

I remember doing something similar but it was with an mic'd amp and a DI. Run one out of phase with the other and play with levels. It gives it sort of a growl that is cool. Not sure if this is the what you are referring to or not.

[sedohr]

Originally Posted by Crash

I remember doing something similar but it was with an mic'd amp and a DI. Run one out of phase with the other and play with levels. It gives it sort of a growl that is cool. Not sure if this is the what you are referring to or not.

nah, It had something to do with high cut (or low cut) on one of the channels, pretty voodooish Makes the bass sound pretty compressed and tame..

[Blenn]

Intersting. Anyone know anything more........?

Paul Blenn

[blackcatdigi]

Sounds like you're using phase cancellation and a HP to emphasize the lowend and eliminate anything above (on the dupe). All else being equal, all you'll do is cancel anything above the x-over point on the filter, and double what's below.

IOW, boosting bass freqs on the original track could achieve the same result.

Now if you're trying to 'tuck the bass into a mix' I'd recommend duping the bass, using a LP to roll of the highs, spanking it HARD with compression, and bringing that in just under the original track. Smooths out the lowend of the bass nicely, without harming the transients that give you note definition. You will likely need to reduce lowend in the original track (a bit) to keep it from getting too boomy. Distortion (instead/in addition to compression) works great for this, too.