ASK : WITH OWEN PALMER
Morphatron What’s the best way of dealing with the low-frequency battle between bass and kick?
Avoid the battle. If you need two sounds below 250Hz to play at once, then they need to be instruments that naturally work well together in that range. Get the kick and bass working together without processing, or you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle.
Kicks in modern music are getting shorter, so there’s more space for the bass. Also, the kicks in most genres are tuned either ‘above’ or ‘below’ the fundamental frequencies of the bass notes, so that they’re never too close together. It really is all about sound selection and choice of notes/rhythms. OP [See 231 for loads more kick and bass wisdom!] FREQIE KICKS Scott Stevenson I make old-school progressive house – I want my kick to carry the low end and the bass to be above it. Let’s say the kick is around 50Hz… does that mean I simply low-cut the bass just above this? I try this but can’t get it to work. Find the very best three examples of that music – preferably judged from personal experience of them at a live event with an incredible sound system. Figure out in detail what’s going on in the low end by low-passing them and listening closely and attentively. If you’re struggling to hear what’s going on, pitch them up an octave.
The kick won’t be ‘around 50Hz’ – kicks are always a pitch sweep from a starting frequency to a resting frequency. The resting frequency is likely to be around 50Hz, but you’ll actually find a lot of the punch and power much higher up than that. Finding/making an appropriate kick is mission-critical. If your kick covers a decent range and isn’t too long, you should be able to get a full-bodied bass in there without needing to cut anything at all to make space.
A very, very quick sidechain compression action on the bass should allow the kick to pass through cleanly without causing a huge buildup of low frequencies every time the kick plays. OP
MIX MASTER Gregor Philp
In your Geek Technique article Headroom Secrets, you hinted that there might be a way to mix elegantly with both clarity and competitive RMS levels. I can mix well and use buss compression well, but I constantly struggle with that final mastering element to bring the perceived loudness up without destroying the dynamic that I prefer.
The subject of loudness is still very poorly understood – most of the advice floating around is leftover conventional wisdom from a bygone era, and much of it isn’t relevant to modern music. If you want to get loudness out of the mastering stage, you’re going to have to heavily compromise the tone and fidelity of your mix. You need to mix it loud in the first place. OP
“As a general rule, if you’re addressing it post mixdown, you’re addressing it far too late”
GIVE US A GLUE Steve Morris
With minimal Techno, the whole mix has loads of saturation and reverb to gel it together. How is this achieved? In the case of minimal techno, reverb and saturation are taken to the extreme. I think of them in this context as giving the individual elements a character or even personality. Furthermore, you can obviously apply saturation to groups of instruments such that they’re glued together, and you can have parts share a send reverb, which can have a similar effect. Then you might even saturate reverb. There are countless options.
One thing to look out for is saturating ultrahigh frequencies (above about 12kHz), this is generally a no-no. Notice that most of the sounds used in minimal techno tracks are very dark, which in turn creates lots of space in the mix, often exploited by reasonably subtle reverb effects that sound huge in context. Don’t underestimate the role of compression on these tracks too! OP
COMING INTO FOCUS Logan Atbud
One of the main problems of amateur production is putting the focus where it should be. If we have a vocal and a very loud hi-hat, our brain tries to listen to the voice but the hi-hat tries to get special attention too, so it makes a stressful sound that you end up rejecting. What should we do so that listeners focus on the right sound? It’s all about priorities. The lowerpriority elements in the mix should typically have restricted dynamics – soft transients on your hi hats in your example – to prevent them from grabbing attention. I generally advise against panning instruments that you don’t want to be noticed too much. If you do end up panning them, then you can usually turn them down much quieter in the mix. OP
IF YOU AIN’T GOT IT… Klienfeld
Can we discuss frequency bands that are sweet spots in a kickheavy track – like Download by twr72. It seems like the 100-300 range always has some boost, but my tracks always lack there. I try increasing frequencies post mixdown (sometimes on the master chain) and still fail to get that loudness and fullness. Yes, Baaad tune! But the bump in the 100-300Hz range likely won’t be from an EQ boost; it’ll be from the sound design. Remember: EQs don’t make frequencies, instruments do!
In this case, I’m sure it’s all in the kick and percussion. That won’t be immediately clear from the average frequency analyser, but a waterfall graph will be more instructive of where those frequencies are coming from. As a general rule, if you’re addressing it post mixdown, you’re addressing it far too late – those frequencies need to be present from early on in the production process. OP