Bass keeps smoothering the rest of the track..

[fullyrecordingz]

I need everyones advice on this problem. everytime my bass keeps smotherin the rest of the tune, and it aint even that loud, its like it sqashes out any other noise.

It is the frenquency of the bass? the wrong equalizin?

any1 got any tips on how 2 deal wiv this problem?

[ramadanman]

sounds like you might have some sort of compression on the track?

[fullyrecordingz]

lol, yeh safe for that, i just checked now and a maximizer accidently got switched on in the main mastering. stupid me, i'll set my default rack to have it off.

[parson]

are you using cubase because the default compression on there tends to be good in my experience

make sure the bass isn't too loud, make it mono, and like ramadanman said make sure the synth/sampler is set to be monophonic so that tones don't overlap and mud up

if it still sounds crappy then you should use a different sound/sample

[ekaj]

EQ out anything below 30-40hz on any sound on your track, especially kicks and pads. Basically this will take out any frequencies that are not needed in other sounds. No other sounds should have sub frequencies in them except your bass.
Try that and then you may find your bass is a little clearer.

[jtransition]

Any mix should be like a good painting,Not to much of one colour.It takes a lot of practice so do not give up.
Jason

[fullyrecordingz]

safe J, lol we aint all masters like some

[jtransition]

safe J, lol we aint all masters like some

I do not want to bore you with my history but it was not so long ago that i was trying to build tunes in my home studio (witch consited of a sampler a Atari 1040ste, a 12 channel desk,a dat machine,a Behringer compressor,and a Klark Teknic reverb) I listened to a couple of old dats last year and my mixes were quite rubbish i mean all over the place.No one is born great we just have to try our best to become great.Anyway gotta get back into the lab cos my next appointment has just arrived.

[dynamixuk]

EQ out anything below 30-40hz on any sound on your track, especially kicks and pads. Basically this will take out any frequencies that are not needed in other sounds. No other sounds should have sub frequencies in them except your bass.
Try that and then you may find your bass is a little clearer.

yer what ekaj said


and j in simple terms

keep off the brown paint ^^

[narcossist]

filtering will fix it i reckon bro, not just the subsonics like ekaj mentioned but also all the bumph further up the spectrum. setup a low pass filter [or shelf it on an eq] just on yr bass an move it down til the problem clears but you've still got enough bass to shake some walls. Sure you know that everything else is generally from 200hz up [apart from the kick and some of the weight in heavy snares] so if you do the inverse to the rest of the mix [high pass it] things will prob sound a lot cleaner but watch for makin it too clean.

Re the eqing: 400hz is mud, 250hz generally sounds ghenk and taking out shit in the 60hz to 100hz bit can be really effective if you get it right. Did a presentation at college about Dillinja's sub on the "angels fell" and theres a fuckin huge gap between the sub at 40hz and his kick at 80hz. Another tip is load up some real heavy track in cool edit and use a spectrum analyser to check how it compares to yr track.

Think compression on the bass was mentioned which will keep it at the same place in the mix, watch out for too much on the master [i never go any deeper than -4db on the threshhold or 4:1 or the ratio] as it'll just squash everything together and make the loud elements double loud if that makes sense.

Hope thats some use mate, sorry for repeating what everyone else said basically but couldn't think of another way of explaining it.

[jtransition]

filtering will fix it i reckon bro, not just the subsonics like ekaj mentioned but also all the bumph further up the spectrum. setup a low pass filter [or shelf it on an eq] just on yr bass an move it down til the problem clears but you've still got enough bass to shake some walls. Sure you know that everything else is generally from 200hz up [apart from the kick and some of the weight in heavy snares] so if you do the inverse to the rest of the mix [high pass it] things will prob sound a lot cleaner but watch for makin it too clean.

Re the eqing: 400hz is mud, 250hz generally sounds ghenk and taking out shit in the 60hz to 100hz bit can be really effective if you get it right. Did a presentation at college about Dillinja's sub on the "angels fell" and theres a fuckin huge gap between the sub at 40hz and his kick at 80hz. Another tip is load up some real heavy track in cool edit and use a spectrum analyser to check how it compares to yr track.

Think compression on the bass was mentioned which will keep it at the same place in the mix, watch out for too much on the master [i never go any deeper than -4db on the threshhold or 4:1 or the ratio] as it'll just squash everything together and make the loud elements double loud if that makes sense.

Hope thats some use mate, sorry for repeating what everyone else said basically but couldn't think of another way of explaining it.

When i suggested looking at a mix like you would a painting what i was trying to say in a roundabout way was that if you choose your sounds carefully you will not have this problem.I do not think you can talk about high or low pass filters or which frequency to cut or boost without listening to the track and please stay away from specrum analysers at this stage (whilst these can be very usefull tools they encourage mental laziness which will hold you back in the long term)

Jason

[j_j]

keep all verbs off bass ..avoid muddyness.

[narcossist]

When i suggested looking at a mix like you would a painting what i was trying to say in a roundabout way was that if you choose your sounds carefully you will not have this problem.I do not think you can talk about high or low pass filters or which frequency to cut or boost without listening to the track and please stay away from specrum analysers at this stage (whilst these can be very usefull tools they encourage mental laziness which will hold you back in the long term)

Jason

yeah very true, haha i'm not really in a positon to dispute any of what you've written man. was just eating my lunch trying to think how best Fully could get round his bass problem by giving a few very loose pointers.

[fullyrecordingz]

please stay away from specrum analysers at this stage (whilst these can be very usefull tools they encourage mental laziness which will hold you back in the long term)

I disagree, I use mine all the time to look at professional tracks, how they are constructed, where things sit in the mix. it's really helped me have a deeper understanding of music. i suppose this is why i see music as i listen nowadays, an i dont even blaze !