Complementary kick and bass

While processing can make a huge difference to your mixes, choosing the right kick and bass sounds in the first place is key to crafting a truly professional low end. So start by using sounds that complement rather than collide with each other – for example, a sustained, sub-heavy kick drum will clash with a huge, sub-heavy bassline, giving a muddy feel to your low frequencies. To combat this, it’s helpful to pick one sound to occupy the lowest frequencies before making the other one fit around it. If you’ll be using a heavy, low bassline in your track, then try using a lighter, higher-pitched kick drum to complement it. Similarly, if you’re making a piece with a powerful, deep kick, then writing a bass part with the energy around 100Hz will give the kick room to dominate the low end without masking the bass. Using a frequency analyser can really help with getting a more precise low end, as by carefully analysing the fundamental and harmonic frequencies of your kick and bass, you can choose the right sounds from the start, preventing your kick and bass Choose your weapons from this bass instrument arsenal! frequencies from piling up on top of each other. The simplest way to separate your kick and bass is to tune the kick so that the fundamental frequency doesn’t clash with the bassline – but make sure the kick is tuned to a note that musically works with the root key of the bass and the track. Again, using an analyser will help.

A matter of length

As well as placing your sounds in the right area frequency-wise, pay close attention to the length of your kick drum. Styles such as DnB, breaks or dubstep will typically boast big basslines that could really clash with a kick, so a good way of making them fit together is to make the sustain of your kick as short as possible – either using audio fades or by loading your kick into a sampler and using the amp envelope to tighten its sustain and release.