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Thread Mixing: need help with bass highs

6 replies
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wifiborg

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First post

1 Posted on 09/09/2014 at 05:05:32

Been working on a track and the bass hits hard and sounds awesome. Maintains warmth and presence without lows that over the track, but as soon as the bass increases in pitch, it becomes barely audible, loses its warmth, and 'empties' the song, if you will...

I feel like this is a rookie mistake that I need to learn. What are some ways to maintain consistently loud, warm smooth bass regardless of the pitch? Should I use more compression? Cut the highs of other tracks to accentuate those of the bass? Any go-to plugins to help with bass, given the situation?

As you can tell, I haven't had my skin in the game for too long but am trying to learn as fast as possible, thanks

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voodoomagic

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2 Posted on 09/09/2014 at 05:46:00

I still have similar issues at times. A decent (while rough) fix I've found is to automate to accentuate those dull notes. If you're happy with where the low notes are, as well as how the rest of your tracks fit in the mix, I would just automate instead of use compression (so you don't mess up an otherwise balanced mix). Light distortion (nothing crazy) on the high notes might help as well.

Sound Toys Decapitator might be a good plugin in tory out for you. And if it's a DI bass track you're using, it never hurts to send a copy to an amp simulator. Also look into parallel compression

puppetmaster

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3 Posted on 09/09/2014 at 06:27:45

it all depends on how your overall mix sounds. if you're ok with risking the sound of the rest of your mix, you can try cutting higher frequencies on other tracks, use a multi-band compressor or something. the volume automation and saturation on highs isn't a bad idea, but I prefer to always start by subtractive EQing to gauge if anything else even need be done.

parallel bus channel isn't a bad idea, focusing on the highs. that would probably be my next step, if necessary

beatdrop

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4 Posted on 09/09/2014 at 09:08:55

Might sound a bit out-of-the-box but I would try doubling the bass track, roll off the low end on the duplicate so you're effectively doubling only the higher frequencies while keeping the same satisfactory low-end. Give it a whirl

gneyhart

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5 Posted on 09/10/2014 at 07:51:01

Multiband Compression.

My guess is your bass track doesn't have enough space in the mix in the higher register so your higher notes get swallowed up. With mb compression you can keep the same level of lows in low notes while increasing them in the higher notes to cut through. Automation and eq boosts can also help.

In general, higher notes on bass are, well, less 'bassy' than the lower notes, so it does pose more of a challenge but goes relatively unnoticed as higher notes on bass are a less common occurrence than on a guitar for example.

wifiborg

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6 Posted on 09/11/2014 at 00:29:07

Quote from voodoomagic:

Sound Toys Decapitator might be a good plugin in tory out for you.

I never heard of that plugin before but I just read an AF member write a review on that https://en.audiofanzine.com/plugin-distortion-overdrive/soundtoys/decapitator/user_reviews/r.124541.html.

I must say it sounds pretty intimidating (I mean, it has a control called "punish"...) but I'm considering giving it a shot.

Everyone else, I really appreciate all of the advice. I've started incorporating them little by little and it's clearly making a difference already. Thanks!

Mike Levine

Author

7 Posted on 09/11/2014 at 12:50:42

Quote:

I must say it sounds pretty intimidating (I mean, it has a control called "punish"...) but I'm considering giving it a shot.

I've used Decapitator a lot (mostly on drums), and it's an awesome sounding plug-in. It's not intimidating to use at all. It also has a bunch of presets, which can get you in the ballpark pretty quickly.

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