Mixing the low end in your mix is something that many people struggle with. Reason for this is not because it is some rocket-science but many factors make it difficult to hear an accurate representation of the Low- end. This leads to a common habit of people overcompensating bass in their mix or conversely in some environments people will keep very less bass because the space had overemphasised bass response.
Further complicating matters is the fact that these mix imbalances are usually only noticed in different listening environments, where the mix simply doesn’t really translate as well as you would have liked.
Getting the low end right there isn’t very easy. Your speakers, your room and your headphones are tricking you. But when you do get it right, you start to notice that your mixes translate better and your music sounds powerful and impactful. A strong low end therefore is the foundation for any good mix.
1. BASICS
You cannot b the importance of room setup and balancing. If you don’t have a good listening environment and good levels first it is going to be an uphill task. If your studio’s acoustics aren’t up to the mark, it can be nearly impossible to make good low end mixing decisions. In fact, there’s a good chance that this is the single biggest thing holding you back from crafting a great-sounding low end.
Optimise your listening environment, and you’ll be able to hear the low end in your mixes more accurately. This will help you make mixing decisions that sound great on a wide variety of different speakers.
A lot of speakers and headphones simply don’t reproduce the low end with great detail and accuracy.
2. CUTTING UNWANTED BASS FREQUENCIES.
Cut out the useless frequencies from all the tracks, this will help you to achieve a much defined low end without much effort. Choose a high-pass filter to do this and eliminate all this unwanted mud from your tracks.
Various tracks in your session could have very low bass frequencies, preamp self-noise, AC hum etc. All of which will contribute to muddiness and phase issues in your mix. Therefore, getting rid of this rumble is very crucial. Apply a Low cut filter to these sounds that are not part of the low end anywhere from 60-120Hz.
The goal is to leave room for Instruments that will need that real estate in your mix . Low-end elements include the kick, sub bass, main bass sounds etc.
However also make sure that you cut with caution! Cutting too much on each track can also make your track sound thin and weak. So cut without sacrificing the original tone of the instrument.
Many a times the KICK and BASS can also generate useless low end rumble. Try cutting anywhere below 50 Hz to tighten up this sound. You may be surprised how clean and louder the mix will sound after this.
3. CREATING PEACE - KICK AND BASS WITH OPPOSITE EQ
Careful attention to kick and bass relationship is crucial. The main cause of this rocky relationship is frequency masking, since both the BASS and KICK share similar frequencies, whenever both instruments play together, your monitors get overloaded with low-end, and the louder of the two will mask the other.
Some of the masking can be prevented in the music making/writing stage itself by arranging non clashing hand in hand patterns but this is not unto the Engineer to decide. So let’s move to our solution. Try and find the fundamental of your kick which would be somewhere around 50-70 Hz and boost it, similarly attenuate the same frequencies on the bass.
Now turn your attention to bass and boost warm overtones around 200-400Hz and making an inverse cut on the kick on the same frequencies. This will help your kick and bass sit well together in the mix.
Another method would be side-chaining which drops the bass volume every time the kick plays. Side-chain is one of the best ways to avoid frequency masking and phasing problems.
Lastly, you can also try side-chaining with a multi-band compressor, which will duck only the low end of your bass every time the kick strikes, instead of lowering the entire bass. This technique will also reduce side-chain pumping and make it sound more natural.
4. LOW-MID RANGE ATTENTION!
Many a times what we perceive as “weight” in the mix does not come from only low end frequencies, but from those in the low-mid range, which is between 150 Hz to 400 Hz. The snap of kicks and bassline, and the punch of the snares, guitars and keyboards will mostly come from these low mids. So if we keep it unattended, this crossing point can easily become overcrowded and muddy the mix. Therefore, when you have instruments that have more useful content in the mid and high frequency you should filter out low end from them, being careful not to cut these low mids. This way the kick and bass will come through with more impact.
Also, try panning secondary instruments like keys and pads away from the centre to make room for low-end sounds like kick and bass, which usually stay put in the centre of the spectrum.
5. HARMONIC DISTORTION TO CREATE ARTIFICIAL LOW-END (BASS).
While listening, a lot of low-end content can suddenly disappear from cheap earbuds or computer laptop speakers. So, if you’ve ever put your mix up against a famous commercial laptop speaker and wondered why the bass is lacking in your mix, the reason is that if the fundamental of the bass in your mix is in the range of 50-100Hz then this is not going to be heard on your laptop speakers which lack in producing this frequency, but they can produce the overtones of this fundamental frequency.
So you will be able to hear these overtones over these narrow frequency carrying equipment. The trick therefore is to find the fundamental and do an octave up of this and you should be good to go.
An easier way to do this is by using something like a harmonic distortion plugin, through which you can easily try and create this illusion. This way your mix will translate much better on smaller speakers and basic consumer equipment.
To conclude, getting the low end to translate consistently across different systems takes a combination of monitor placement, room acoustic treatment and the tasteful application of certain audio processes that we have discussed above.
The goal is to have a tight and centered low end and wedding your kick and bass in the best way possible.
So try out these different techniques and do well informed and logical moves to create the best sounding mixes. Happy Mixing!