High/Low Passes For Bass?

[Robert W]

I've pretty figured out the h/l pass settings for my guitars tracks, but was wondering what setting to apply to the bass tracks.

Any advice?

 

[Scott Horner]

I usually make a copy of the bass track and process them both separately. One track is lo-passed at 200Hz and limited so you have a nice, solid amount of low end. The other track is hi-passed at 200Hz with some compression to tame the peaks and, depending on the track, I add some grit to make it cut through. Both tracks are sent to a bass buss with further compression and limiting. Depending on the amount of grit you add to the ho-pass track, you may need to throw a lo-pass on that one as well and mess with the cut-off. Start at about 12kHz and work from there.

 

[Fbarre]

I usually high pass every signal. For Kick Drums and Bass I just high pass them around 20-30hz to remove the low freqs which you don't want to have in your mix anyway.

Try to listen to the whole mix and play with the values until it sounds right. Sometimes I really just high pass too remove possible low freqs without really-or just slightly altering the sound. Same goes for low pass.

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

^ yes, but if you're mixing in a poorly treated environment or on small monitors, this can be difficult because you can't hear the bass well enough.

If this is the case, then I would recommend making your filter adjustment and then getting up and taking a few steps back before you listen. The thought being that the lower frequencies are fewer cycles per second and take a bit longer to get to your ears - taking a few steps back gives you a better representation of the bass.

Of course, you will need to try this for yourself. In my untreated room with small monitors, I find I have to get up and listen from a bit of a distance to get a proper gauge on the low end.

 

[Jormyn]

I low-pass and multiband-comp the low end until it's nice and consistent. The high end usually gets trimmed down to 1 or 2kHz with a boost on what's left, but it depends entirely on the guitars and how much of the bass's clank/growl I want to poking through.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Low-cut below the kick's most prominent frequency.

 

[tempe]

Low-cut below the kick's most prominent frequency.

Really depends on the kick though, some smaller kick drums the humps are around 80hz, and if you HPF there you're killing the fundamental of the bass. I'd say cut below 20 - 30Hz as anything below that is inaudible and just make a slight cut for the kick at its fundamental if you've got a higher pitched kick.

Horses for courses however.

 

[Brett - K A L I S I A]

Haha true

 

[colonel kurtz]

i usually HP bass around 30hz or so...LP about 8k.

 

[P-E]

HP at around 30hz, steepest curve possible, and LP at about 5-6k, medium curve I guess. Leaving too many highs in the bass is really unnecessary IMO, clank is useful in the 1k to 5k zone anyway.

 

[Robert W]

As always, thanks for the advice, it's much appreciated.

 

[egan.]

There is some great info above on HPing. Sweep the LP with the bass in context and figure out where the highs stop being useful. It doesn't really matter what it sounds like solo'd.

 

[Giacomo]

How do you generally deal with reationship between kick and bass low cuts? I mean which is the lowest in your mix generally?
Is know that usually in a "good" mix kick is set to be the lowest (also by analizing "pro" mixing), but dealing with fast stuff in which kick can be high-passed pretty high, I am considering making the bass cut-off below the kick..
What do you think?

Giacomo