Lowend is and will always be one of the hardest thing to manage in a mix.
This is even more crucial if you produce bass-heavy genres or EDM.
In this week’s Instagram post, we intend to give you 7 tips to improve low end.
AVOID TOO LONG KICK
Make sure that your kick has a perfect length and doesn’t interfere with the bass. Simply using fades can help a lot in getting the best interaction between both.
If you use a long kick, tuning it to the key of your track will help in this matter. If you have a long bass, use a short kick and vice versa.
PROPER USE OF VELOCITY
If both your kick and bass play together, make sure the bass hits quieter by using velocity.
By doing this in addition to sidechaining, you ensure to carve enough room for your kick to cut through.
PROPER SIDECHAINING
A compressor changes its sound depending on the signal that is fed into it, while volume shapers are more consistent and have the exact same ducking curve every time it gets triggered.
In a nutshell, a volume shaper produces a much cleaner and constant sound while compressors are signal-dependant. Picking the right option is important to get a strong and clean low end.
ENOUGH COMPRESSION
If you produce EDM, chances are you don’t need a lot of dynamic in the low end: Most EDM tracks low end are quite heavily compressed, don’t be afraid to compress your lows quite a lot.
Done properly, multiband compression can drastically improve your bass presence and consistency.
You may also be interested in...INDIE CHILL PALETTE
► 130 Serum presets
► 116 Music loops
► 133 Drum hits & loops
► 42 Midi files
Check out the full content on the product page !
USE SATURATION
Saturation makes your mixes warmer, helps smoothing out dynamics and increases perceived loudness.
Use saturation on individual channels or groups/busses to add consistency and presence to your low end, and help your bass cut through on small speakers by adding mid range harmonics.
CHOOSE THE RIGHT EQ
Analog EQs can be a bit harder to use since most feature fixed frequency bands and no spectrum display, which means you’ll have to use your ears more than with a digital EQ.
However, with some practice you will notice that good emulations often help to achieve warmer and tighter sounding bass.
USE BUS PROCESSING
Group processing is what glues instruments together: Processing multiple bass sounds together can help a lot in this matter.
If you feel like your kick and bass are not well glued together, try processing both in a group/bus: A few dBs of compression can go a long way to tighten your low end for instance.
