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Mixing sub bass!

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 11:27 pm
by Abterra
Hey what's up y'all, long time no talk. How have yall been?

I'm mixing a new song and it involves a sub bass analog kickdrum that produces solid bass note tones that I am using as the bassline in my song.

My problem is that the sub bass is a hard beast to tame, and to monitor for that matter, and I don't know where to start. I love the dynamic of the kick, so I don't want to use any compression, I could use a low ratio, and when I EQ, I generally roll off the lows, but it takes away from the actual bass tone.

any suggestions to get a rich, warm, and clear sub-bass-kick-bassline?

Thanks, T

Re: Mixing sub bass!

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 12:00 am
by perplex
hi cut, throw a utility on the track to make bring it mono, or mono-ish. and some subtle compression.

those are the basics, maybe someone can add more to that. sorry cant help more but whats wrong with using live on mac? i feel like its the only way to go

Re: Mixing sub bass!

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:38 am
by Abterra
good call man, I posted this on another forum originally where they always give ableton shit, I just forgot to edit it out when i copied and pasted it. sorry all!

Re: Mixing sub bass!

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 2:18 am
by Gaetano CAPUANO
Post a clip when your done :)

Re: Mixing sub bass!

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 7:43 am
by UnCL0NED
Concerning your "Monitor problem":
If you don't have very big speakers or a sub woofer you could check your low end with headphones on. Most headphones will have a frequency range that goes down to 20 Hz.

Re: Mixing sub bass!

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 8:59 am
by innerstatejt
To tame sub bass but keep the overall tone rich, it might make sense to duplicate the track & EQ 1 for the lowest frequencies (& like mentioned above, make it mono) & the other for all remaining frequencies. You can probably compress the lower frequency copy more without any problems. The higher frequencies can even be enhanced with a bit of saturation or distortion if needed.

Re: Mixing sub bass!

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 10:22 am
by ciw
Make sure all your other parts are highpassed (24db/oct usually) so your sub has room to exist. Check this with an analyser.

There's some good advice on sub bass in the dogsonacid forums. I think it might be under the interview with Noisia on The Grid.

Re: Mixing sub bass!

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 11:17 am
by Fieldy
also important to me, a cut at around 30-40 hz.... so you can gain the subbass a bit more

Re: Mixing sub bass!

Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2011 1:02 pm
by Abterra
thanks all of you for your replies! I'm going to have a crack at this tonight. So far I added some compression on the sub bass track of my drum rack. I also eq'd out some of the boominess and muddiness.

and I will certainly post it when it's done :)

Peace!
T