PHACE & MEFJUS

On the back of their latest EP, two of DnB’s most revered neuro wizards reveal their secrets for low-end supremacy

: How can our readers raise the quality of bass in their productions and mixes? Phace:

“Choose the right notes that translate onto rigs. Watch the phase of your basses and subs, and how they correlate with the other elements of your track, especially with kicks, snares and low-end-heavy FX. Separation of frequency ranges via EQ and sidechaining will help. Harmonic overtones give character, gel the mix together, and add funk. Processing will help to control things, but don’t overdo it – sometimes all you need is a clean source signal with a little top-end distortion!”

: Using one track from your EP as an example, can you tell us how the track’s bass came together? Mefjus:

“With Decisions, the song was ‘finished’ at version 7, but weren’t totally convinced. So Florian dug out an old bass made with Ableton’s Operator. Things got tricky – we deleted the original bass riff and had to force the new bass into the mix. An instance of Poizone added more character to the low-mid sounds, and a Serum layer gave the riff its transient. Several more Serums then triggered a filtered noise signal, which played the same groove as the original riff; those noises were then combfiltered over 16 bars to give a more ‘progressive’ feel, even though the notes are sparse.” : What comes first – midrange or sub? Phace:

“I make the sub part of the process from the start – it has to groove with both bass and drums. I like it when subs modulate the same as the top basses, but you can treat them separately. When you layer clean sub notes under complex mid-bass modulation, you might have more control over the mix, but it might not sound like a coherent groove. It varies with every track.” Mefjus:

“Yep, it depends. Sometimes I focus on the initial waveform of the bass sound: distort it, filter it, modulate it; then it will already feature sufficient sub bass content. But usually I duplicate the original instrument; remove all filters, distortion or modulation; then just use the bare sine wave as my sub.”

: In terms of mastering, how do you strike a balance between bonecrushing bottom end and an über-loud mix? Phace:

“To keep it simple, make room for the important stuff, and don’t just turn everything up! Use saturation, and keep every element as dynamic you can while controlling peaks. Harmonic distortion adds overtones to the fundamental and helps bass stand out. By adding these overtones, you’ll round off peaks in a musical way, giving the illusion of loudness.” Mefjus:

“You have to give each element its purpose and space in your mix. Look at envelopes – make sure sounds don’t overlap, especially bass sounds. With sub level, only so much is possible. I tend to mix bass a little quieter than I used to, which gives more room for the other elements. It is also about perceived loudness – which frequencies feel louder to your ear than others. Plus, subtle distortion, saturation and soft-clipping can help to make your song louder.”

: Finally, what’s your all-time favourite bassline? Mefjus: “To this day i really like Noisia’s Nothing Matters remix. They pretty much recreated the singer’s vocal with their bass riff – crazy stuff! And that Korg MS-20 square bass in Mr. Oizo’s Flat Beat is still one of the simplest but sickest basslines ever!”