Making the Kick Play the mix

[NSGUITAR]

Sorta weird way of wording that, but what are some tricks that you guys to get a nice lowend that's not TOO punchy?


In general what are some good tips you guys use to make a solid bass/kick relationship?

I've realized over time that my mixes sometimes don't sound saturated enough (Not sure if that's the right word really)... For some reason, there's too much separation, and there are a few areas that need to be filled.


Also, I have a tendancy to have a super punch low end, but a little too punchy.

Some tricks I've used:

-Side chain compressor on the bass, where the kick is ducking the bass frequency about -4 dB.

-For every boost in the kick, cut the bass, and vice versa. For example: If boosting 60Hz on the kick, narrow cut 60Hz on the bass guitar.



There was this one time where I bounced a 'master' track but for some reason the bass didn't bounce with it, so I added the bass over the master track and it sounded PHENOMENAL for some reason.. So it was like, guitars/drums/vocals on a single Stereo WAV that was considered mastered, and bass seprately, not in the masterbuss. I don't think that's a good Idea, but if I could somehow emulate THAT, it'd be badass.

What do you guys do?

 

[P-E]

I don't dig sidechaining for metal, but the cuts where the boosts are always help fo sho. Sometimes I just lowpass the 2bus at 300hz to hear if the low-end is unbalanced and stuff too.

 

[espartaco]

well if you mean to do that process you describe in the mixing session, you can make a buss for all the elements you want afected by your mastering chain. the route that buss and the bass buss to the master.

 

[koalamo]

Send the bass and kick to a buss and add a touch of ssl style compression to help glue them together slightly also you could add alittle bit of tube or tape saturation as well to that buss.

 

[rfahey86]

Send the bass and kick to a buss and add a touch of ssl style compression to help glue them together slightly also you could add alittle bit of tube or tape saturation as well to that buss.

+1

 

[LeSedna]

I like using a saturator on the kick just a VERY tiny bit, enough to make the kick bump just a little.

 

[Charles J]

Console Emulation / Saturation and for your style, def some SSL style buss comp =D

 

[NSGUITAR]

Thanks dudes. I've never sent the bass and kick to the same buss before. I should try it.

 

[amarshism]

Sound like you want to engage the hi pass on the master buss comp sidechain.