Ableton Forum

Hey guys, I'm a bit light on low end in this track and I'm just looking for some advice?

Boosting the low end, I was thinking around 90hz or stick a maxxbass on my bass group? Should maybe try both and render to see what the outcome is

Thought I would ask the question here first!

track below, advice appreciated

https://soundcloud.com/kovaxx/colours

kovaxx wrote:Should maybe try both and render to see what the outcome is

TBH these sort of questions are questions producers ask themselves constantly through a tracks development. Should I use "x" as opposed to "y" plugin etc.
The only way forward, as you suggest is to try both. Then, if you are confident with your studio listening environment and other listening reference places (car stereo for ex.), and having listened to other reference material in these environments, you should be able to make a decision on what is working best for your track.

Good luck

Bass EQ boosts reduce headroom and can be a problem on playback systems that can't tolerate it...either the amps start clipping trying to deliver the extra wattage or the speakers distort. Not to mention issues with standing waves in some rooms making the low end cancel out even though you are pushing huge amounts of air.

Bass enhancer FX like MaxBass, Aphex Big Bottom, etc. that add additional upper harmonic content to give the illusion of increased low end do not eat up headroom or require more amp wattage. They also work better on speakers that can't reproduce the low fundamentals anyway.

As a long time bassist, I prefer using the enhancers over EQ boost every time.

I never looked at is that way. So renbass falls into this category? (I also have the plug and mix bundle, clarsonic or something like that)

it's a better idea to go through each bass channel and see which one actually needs to be boosted. if you bring it up on the entire group you could end up over-enhancing on some parts.

on your record i'd work a lot more on bringing the actual sub up since that's what seems to need to come out more. the kick seems to be in a pretty good spot in regards to its bass content, not too much tweaking needed there.
once you bring up the sub then the entire record should have more movement to it.

The kick drum is pretty flat. You should beef up your kick imo, but the bass is flat too i agree. what synth are you using, what key and octave are you using.

I didn't find much of a problem with it. I thought the parts were clear w/o the usual overdone aspect. Not sure what it is that is necessary to "beef up"

I'm listening on krk8400's. They are fairly accurate cans.