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Surefire formulas for getting perfect kick and bass every time
1 Let’s explore tried and tested formulas from various genres for producing and mixing satisfying low end. Unfortunately, there’s not one simple format that works every time for every track in every genre, but there are some principles worth learning, as well as some universal rules of thumb that we’ll mention in passing as we dissect specific genre formulas.
4 If the kick’s pitch sweep starts too high, it can sound muddy or take on a sort of laser effect. If the fundamental drops too low, there’s less time spent at critical frequencies around the 100Hz mark. Likewise, centre the bassline around a low G (49Hz) and avoid going lower than Eb (39Hz), below which it will lose most of its power on most sound systems.
2 One of the easiest and most obvious bass formulas is the four-to-the-floor kick drum plus offbeat bass. The trick here is to keep the kick and bass parts from overlapping in time, so make sure every kick drum is trimmed to within half a beat, and likewise with the bass. Keep a short release time on the bass too, as even the smallest clash can ruin things.
5 Because there’s no overlap, you needn’t worry about EQing frequency clashes between kick and bass. Aim for roughly even levels between the two below about 200Hz. You’ll often find that both kick and bass take on a pretty solid-looking waveform, with a sustained amplitude. You can synthesise them this way or use a clean limiter to achieve a similar effect.
3 Within the confines of these tight lengths, the kick drum’s fundamental frequency should cover as broad a range as is practical. This probably means the kick’s fundamental frequency will drop from as high as 300Hz, down to as low as 30Hz, but typically, somewhere within the 200Hz to 50Hz range is more practical. There are good reasons for these ranges...
6 So what about simultaneous kick and bass parts? Here I’ve given the kick a higher-frequency position than the bass’s fundamental. For this to work, you should ideally have your bassline written before you tune the kick. Again, the bassline – where possible – should centre around a low G (49Hz), but avoid moving more than four semitones higher or lower.
7 The bassline should flow with long rather than short notes, and will ideally follow the rhythmic pattern of the kick drum so that they hit with a combined power. The trick is to tune the kick drum high enough for it not to interfere with the bass, but low enough that you create the illusion of the kick drum actually being much lower than it really is.
10 Our next formula puts the kick drum’s resting frequency at the lowest limits of the mix (hopefully not much lower than around 40Hz), and uses harmonics on the bass part to keep it audible in the midrange. This way, the power you feel on a large system comes almost exclusively from the kick, but you still get the impression of a powerful bass on every note...
8 The kick’s length should also be minimised – perhaps as short as a 16th-note, if that works – and its fundamental frequency should slide in a downward motion for its duration. With careful tuning, no EQ should be necessary. Compressing and/or limiting kick and bass together will even out the power as the bass notes change over time.
11 This works particularly well for superlow basslines, or those basslines that play intermittently. In this case you’ll probably choose to go for a much longer kick drum (perhaps close to a full beat), and you’ll a bass sound that’s still rich if you filter out the lowest frequencies. Keep both parts playing as you set the filter frequency to make sure you get a tight fit.
9 Combining these two formulas, you could go for a big kick and big bass that play simultaneously, but you’ll have to use as short a kick as you can get away with, plus extreme sidechain compression to silence the bass when the kick plays. Try a compressor offering negative ratios (such as Elysia’s Mpressor). In a full mix, this compression can be invisible.
12 All of these formulas assume that you only have one bass note playing at a time and that you don’t play other instruments in the same range as the bass at the same time as the bass. With this in mind, you could actually juggle multiple bass sounds by making sure they A) don’t overlap; and B) contrast similarly against the kick drum.