How do you mix bass?

[Soundscaper11]

Just curious... I've been experimenting with di bass dead center, two bass signals overdriven panned each side. Really gills out the low end for guitar when listening in stereo, and I haven't had any phase issues with it. Wondering what the proper technique is, or is it all contextual?

 

[Daybreak]

As with all mixing it isn't anything "right", just different ways to do it. It if sounds good, it's good.

The way I mix my bass is I duplicate my DI track to two tracks. First one I will lowpass so it's only the sub left (lowpass around 150-200 Hz), then compress if running through maybe two compressors before finally squashing it with a limiter. I will also listen to the whole track to see if there's any notes that just jumps right at me and isn't really under control, then I will notch down that frequency a little to get at more even track. This would ideally be done with a multiband compressor if I had one, haha.

The second track I run through mostly the same amp as my guitars go through, with the "Boost+EQ"-distpedal in Podfarm, although many other pedals will do. I try not to overdo this one, just enough to get grit. Treble almost always all the way up. Some slight reverb on it. Run also this through maybe one or two compressors, finish off with a limiter, although I don't squash this one, I let it have it's own life,so to speak, with the limiter I just cut off the highest peaks. Then highpass at around 500 Hz and lowpass at 4KHz.

Then I run these two through a single "Bass Stem" track where I use an EQ to dig out all the excessive junk that shouldn't be there - Usually a large scoope in the 400 Hz-region.

I like to think of the bass as an extension of the guitar, and doing this I feel really glues them two together some - leaving lots of room for the guitar midrange in the middle. Of course, I wouldn't do this to the bass if I come across a band where the bass is more of it's "own" instrument, but this has worked pretty decent so far. Might mix things up and try it a bit different sometime, though.

Long post, haha. Oh well, hope I contributed with at least something!

 

[Soundscaper11]

Interesting... Thanks Daybreak! Yeah I feel that Bass is probably the most "open for experimentation" instrument

 

[Vice//Versa]

Whatever you do, highpass at 50-60hz. I personally leave more than just what's under the 150-200hz range on the "sub" track (instead of duplicating the di I use two sends, both getting the "amplified" signal because I use a sim on it). Then I take the clean bass and compress to hell and back and add, saturation and eq accordingly. The distorted channel takes the already amplified signal and runs it through the same guitar amp (it being pre-amplified makes it sounds a little more compatible with the undistorted bass but that is my take and only that) and then gets low passed and highpassed to make sure there's no annoying hiss or fluffy low end. Then both tracks get routed to a bass bus where there's a ssl compressor that glued them together and some more rounding eq a limited. I'm sorta running though it quickly and I am not looking at my chain at the moment but I hope this helps you, bass is crucial and you have to see it not only as an extension of the guitar end the lower end... but also as an element with the kick drum (to help them interact I boost 60kh on the kick, and dig 100-90hz and, do the opposite on the bass bus, that allows them to chime in without getting in the way of each other). Good luck, let us know how it goes.

 

[Vice//Versa]

synths!! synths are no ones land. It's a free for all... I love them but there a fucking mess on the mixing/production side of things lol experiment to hell and back on those if you feel it.

 

[Vihaleipä]

As with all mixing it isn't anything "right", just different ways to do it. It if sounds good, it's good.

The way I mix my bass is I duplicate my DI track to two tracks. First one I will lowpass so it's only the sub left (lowpass around 150-200 Hz), then compress if running through maybe two compressors before finally squashing it with a limiter. I will also listen to the whole track to see if there's any notes that just jumps right at me and isn't really under control, then I will notch down that frequency a little to get at more even track. This would ideally be done with a multiband compressor if I had one, haha.

The second track I run through mostly the same amp as my guitars go through, with the "Boost+EQ"-distpedal in Podfarm, although many other pedals will do. I try not to overdo this one, just enough to get grit. Treble almost always all the way up. Some slight reverb on it. Run also this through maybe one or two compressors, finish off with a limiter, although I don't squash this one, I let it have it's own life,so to speak, with the limiter I just cut off the highest peaks. Then highpass at around 500 Hz and lowpass at 4KHz.

Then I run these two through a single "Bass Stem" track where I use an EQ to dig out all the excessive junk that shouldn't be there - Usually a large scoope in the 400 Hz-region.

I like to think of the bass as an extension of the guitar, and doing this I feel really glues them two together some - leaving lots of room for the guitar midrange in the middle. Of course, I wouldn't do this to the bass if I come across a band where the bass is more of it's "own" instrument, but this has worked pretty decent so far. Might mix things up and try it a bit different sometime, though.

Long post, haha. Oh well, hope I contributed with at least something!

Thanks from your very helpful post! I listened to some of your mixes and liked what i heard. I have a few questions about mixing bass and would be very nice if you could share more info about some things:

You said on your post that you usually lowpass your "sub" bass track at 150-200hz, hipass "grit" track at 500hz and then on your "bass stem" group you cut 400 hz with wide q, so i am wondering does cutting 400 hz affect your track if you have lowpassed your bass tracks at 200hz and hipassed at 500hz? Also if you could tell more about adding reverb in "grit" track (never heard anyone doing that) i would be pleased.

My mix is on my sig and i would also like to get some feedback from it (if possible). Been mixing about one year so i am still a beginner and i want to improve my mixes so thats why i am asking help.

 

[Daybreak]

Vihaleipä: Hey! I'll clear some things up for you.

First of all, in theory, cutting the 400 Hz out of the bass stem wouldn't do much if you already filtered it out. But after all the compressing, some frequencies tend to crawl back up again, so the cutting is kind of my last way to make sure that those frequencies stay out of my mix. And it does make a difference, so it's worth it, haha.

Second, about the reverb, I actually like just a tad (I'm taking like only 5%-15% mix) to make it seem a bit bigger and more epic, haha. If you wanna try it, just make sure you put after all the compressing is done, otherwise it goes bananas.

 

[Vihaleipä]

Thanks Daybreak! Have to try that with my mixes.