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10. Mixing part 2
1 Next up, we have some basic EQing to do. On a few of our sounds there are excessive low frequencies at times. Use the channel plus icon to add Bitwig EQ-5 insert devices on Thorn CM, Bass and Counting Sheep tracks.
2 On Thorn CM set high and low-pass filters on bands 1 and 5 of the EQ. We’ve used the 4-pole option and frequencies are at 134Hz and 9.46kHz. Much like VST plugins you can float the Device window, but the corner arrow icon also allows you to dock it into the top main Arrange area.
3 The Counting Sheep part has some quite variable low frequencies. We can address these quite well using EQ. From the EQ-5, set the low band to shelf -16dB at 157Hz, then set two narrow cuts with Q at 4.5 for 272Hz and 400Hz. To add some presence we’ve also boosted at 4.36kHz with a broad bell (Q=0.67).
4 Listening to the Bass in solo, it doesn’t have any serious low-frequency issues. We’ll set up a 2-pole high-pass filter at 80Hz as a precaution. On the bass Device we can see it uses two sounds. Turning down the Dusty sound is a better sound for the beginning of the track. We may automate these levels later.
5 If you click on the bass device and select its FX option it reveals the effects used in the bass preset. Adjusting the compressor ratio up to 4:1 and shortening the release to 38.9ms gives the bass a bit more pump and urgency. There’s also a Crush setting on Depth Charge that we can ease back a bit.
6 Next up, the Legend house beats. The two main hi-hats are too loud and we can fix this quite easily in the device. Open the Device panel to show the Drum Machine. Select each of the two HH parts in turn, then on the Sampler panel to the right adjust down the Out gain to taste. We’ve chosen -2dB for each.
7 The Legend House beats also need some sweetening. Add a shelf for the low frequencies and broad peak boost for the high frequencies. We’ve added 3.3dB at 144Hz and 2.5dB at 6.63kHz.
8 The guitar is the rawest sound we have and needs compression and EQ. Bitwig has some great effects presets and we’ve chosen the Parallel Compression from the FX Layer folder. We’ve added the Chorus device with the Doubler preset and an EQ-5 with a broad 2db cut at 320Hz and tiny boost at 3.39kHz.
9 Finally, for the guitar, we’re going to add some send effects. A little of both works well: our settings are -24dB for reverb and -25dB for delay. We can now add some further send effects. For Thorn CM we’re adding just reverb (-19dB) and for the Audio FX reverb and delay (-16dB and -21dB respectively).