GEEK TECHNIQUE: STEREO BASS

Tactics for achieving a powerful stereo bass sound

1 In this tutorial, we’re going to explore the pros and cons of various approaches to creating stereo width on bass parts in your mix. Actually, some of what we’ll look at could be considered sound design rather than mixing, but the end goal is the same – to take control of the bass’s stereo content so that we can make it more appealing to listen to.

2 For years, many people have advised that stereo width in the low end is a bad idea, that we can’t perceive wide bass, and it’s therefore pointless. The main argument against using stereo bass was once that it wouldn’t cut to vinyl, but in the digital age, the most common reason given is that the mix will lose power when played in mono. This raises some questions...

3 Does stereo bass always lose power when summed to mono? Here we have a mono patch on an instance of Xfer Records’ Serum synth. If we go over to the FX tab, we can generate some stereo content by putting a Hyper/Dimension module at the end of the effects chain. For simplicity, let’s set the Hyper Mix to 0, leaving only the Dimension section active.

4 I’m not too fond of the character the Dimension effect adds to the bass part, but it certainly has some stereo width now. On Serum’s channel in the DAW mixer, we can add Brainworx’ free bx_solo plugin that allows us to solo the left, right, mid (mono), or side (stereo) feeds. Listen in mono ( M Solo) and bypass the Dimension effect to prove that it’s 100% mono-compatible.

5 This means that the Dimension effect generates sound only in the side, and is completely cancelled out when summed to mono. Incidentally, Serum’s Dimension effect is also available separately in the form of Xfer Records’ free Dimension Expander plugin. So what is it putting in the side? Click S Solo to find out – you should do this to study every stereo effect.

6 We can increase the Stereo-Width using bx_solo to hear the side signal better. It seems the side signal generated by the Dimension effect has a sort of phasey, whining, metallic quality. To a lesser extent, these artefacts are present in the left and right channels. Personally, I find them very unpleasant – the character of the original bass has been lost.