Baseline Keeps Draining Everything Else

[OMGChase]

hi there


I'm using FL studio 10 and I have a problem whenever I add a bassline to my tracks, everything seems to make way for the baseline. everything else becomes so soft, meanwhile the bass is playing normally

I want to stop that from happening, however still keeping a hard bass going

I'm using Toxic Biohazard for the bass (basic sine graph with the EQ on and increased the first band)

any help?

thanks

[NinjaEdit]

a) Is there a limiter on the master? I think there is by default. You can change which templates you open to in some options.
b) Are you leaving enough headroom into the master track? For further explanation, see the MONEYSHOT thread.
c) Try filtering or further EQing the bass. Some frequencies of the bass sound may be masking other instruments.

[glottis5]

eq out any frequencies not nescessary, including sub frequencies (if you don't have a separate sine wave sub layered underneath thats something you should look into)

compress it more and make it a bit quieter so other elements have more room to breathe

sidechain the bass. you can sidechain to an EQ as well, so when the snare hits you can duck the snare's frequency, making a bit more room, for example

it sound like you just need to turn it down and eq out unnescessary frequencies tho, try that before doing a bunch of fancy sidechaining shit

[sssShawnnnn]

Low-pass/hi-cut the sub around 100-200hz. Keep the volume on the sub low, but use saturation (Sausage Fattener/MaxxBass/etc.) to make it more prominent in the mix. The sub-frequency area should be equal to the rest of the mix on a spectrum analyzer.

[MaZa1]

Eq some room for your other elements. And check your levels, the bass shouldn't be the loudest. Maybe some freq splitting also might be a good idea.
But the moneyshot thread would be a good place to start

[fragments]

IMO the real solution to this problem isn't trying to shoehorn that bass into your track with any kind of compression or heavy EQing. From the first drum sample you choose/first synth patch you create should first be listening, second be looking (spectral EQ...Fruity Para EQ 2) to make sure each element is occupying it's own space in the frequency spectrum and that there isn't a ton of crossover. When there is too much cross over you are going to get frequency masking/clashing. This is more than likely what you are experiencing.

You also need to learn about gain staging. The moneyshot thread is a place to go for this. Gain staging is all about dynamic range (how "loud" the elements are compared to each other) and "headroom" as people call it. Every sound cannot be cranked to 11...in most dance music the kick drum will be the loudest element in the mix and you can set all the other element's gain (volume) based around that.

You will also need to learn to EQ. http://www.dnbscene.com/article/88-thin ... tutorial/5 <----this is the EQ tutorial that made EQing finally make sense to me. I actually re-read this every so often because I feel it's worth repeating to myself.

[OMGChase]

Thank you so much for all the replies. I shall check out the "moneyshot" thread.

I also am not that great at understanding EQ, I only started getting more into Music production a year ago, making simple beats.

Thanks so much guys!

[JBE]

Turn off the limiter or turn down the volume on the bass.

Make sure you are assigning everything to a free mixer track. Most DAWs do this automatically, but not FL. It's a habit you definitely want to get used to doing. If you're like a lot of new users to FL Studio chances are you are leaving most stuff set to channel 0, which is the master channel. This makes it very difficult to see where your issues are.

[OMGChase]

Turn off the limiter or turn down the volume on the bass.

Make sure you are assigning everything to a free mixer track. Most DAWs do this automatically, but not FL. It's a habit you definitely want to get used to doing. If you're like a lot of new users to FL Studio chances are you are leaving most stuff set to channel 0, which is the master channel. This makes it very difficult to see where your issues are.

Since the beginning, I had always had the habit of making a free mixer track

[OMGChase]

You will also need to learn to EQ. http://www.dnbscene.com/article/88-thin ... tutorial/5 <----this is the EQ tutorial that made EQing finally make sense to me. I actually re-read this every so often because I feel it's worth repeating to myself.

Wow. This seems to have done the trick. I never used EQ like that before. Thanks so much for sharing!

I thought EQ was used just for making a certain bands higher to change the sound. Thanks so much!

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

BASE line.

[bassinine]

holy fuck I must have been out of it, because I didn't answer the question at all.