The stars speak out on… KICK AND BASS
How exactly do the pros balance their bottom end? Find out first-hand as we interrogate top producers for their pearls of subsonic wisdom
James Wiltshire (Freemasons, F9 Audio)
“When you find a kick that sounds great, resample it from that project and use it again. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel every single time you produce, no matter what gets said on forums.
“Check your sub end carefully. Is there a ton of sub happening beneath 30Hz? Do you really need it all? So many synths kick out tons of sub (Massive can be a real culprit), and it just builds up and swamps everything. If your speakers don’t reproduce this, then all you will hear is the swampy aftermath. Headphones are the only real answer for monitoring the really difficult area of sub, as even a cheap pair will go down way further than average monitors.
James’ resonance trick
“Most recently, I found a new trick that works 75-80% of the time and actually involves a very high-quality analogue-modelled high-pass filter. It all revolves around the bit of an analogue filter we all love: the resonance. It can be an extraordinary solution if you’re struggling to get everything to work on your bass end or you just want more fatness.
“Apply a modelled filter like those made by Cytomic (now handily included inside Ableton 9.5). Select the high-pass filter and something tasty like the MS-20 filter emulation. Now crank the resonance up to about 20% and, as the kick plays, sweep the frequency down from 300Hz towards 30Hz; somewhere between 80 (for DnB) and 35-40Hz (most 4/4 styles) you’ll hit a wonderful sweet spot where the resonance peak interacts with the fundamental of the kick, bringing it forward and giving it warmth and power. Now tweak the resonance and drive (if available). I’ve often gone up to 50% resonance. If your bass track is working around one root note, this is quite easy to repeat with the bass.
“Why does this work? A high-pass resonant filter at 12dB or 24dB provides a peaking EQ at the centre frequency followed by a very quick drop beneath it, instantly taming the subs and bringing life to the corner frequency in a way that really works. Just be careful – resonance at that frequency can be dangerous!”