PRO TIPS

SPACED OUT

When mixing a track featuring plenty of lowfrequency energy, it’s important to separate conflicting sounds – especially the kick drum and low bass – as much as possible, allowing each to live in its own ‘pocket’ in the mix.

There are several ways to assist this oftenarduous process, but an easy technique is to load up a frequency analyser on your master bus. Use it to visualise the frequency content of your mix, specifically the placement of bass frequencies across different sounds.

Find out where the kick’s fundamental lives, do the same with the bassline, then EQ out that kick’s fundamental frequency range from the bass, being very careful to avoid thinning it out too much. This basic but nonetheless effective subtractive EQ approach will provide some space for the kick to punch through.

SMALL SPEAKERS

If your track features a powerful sub bass, you’ll obviously be able to hear – and, more importantly, feel – those low frequencies when the track is played over larger club systems or studio monitors.

Most listeners don’t own high quality monitoring systems, however – whether at home or on the move, people tend to consume music on devices such as earbuds, laptops or Bluetooth speakers. The frequency response of small speakers like this usually rolls off above the sub bass range, so most of your sub weight will be missing.

Yet as the sub often plays a vital melodic role in a track, it’s a good idea to enhance your sub somehow – by ensuring those sufficient midrange harmonics cut through, the perception of power will translate across all systems, no matter the size. Personally, I find that a parallel channel loaded with distortion and EQ works wonders for enhancing tone and harmonics.