Low end mixing, leaving the kick and the bass to clash with each other

[filvox]

So I'm working on this song, an electronic track or whatever and I've found myself in a predicament that left me clueless. I have this huge analog bass and a kick clashing with each other. Most of the time, people will tell you to EQ out one of the low end elements and leave only one to occupy the lowest low of the spectrum etc.

The thing is I kinda like the way they clash. It sounds huge when the kick hits together with the bass, the kick is tuned to the bass' frequency (the bass is playing a single D# note through the whole song and the kick is tuned to D# too). I've tried sidechaining the kick to the bass but it loses all of its energy right when I do that. I tried EQ sculpting the two, but still, it resulted in the low end sounding much smaller.

So what should I do? I know that "if it sounds good, it is good" but it just feels wrong to leave it like that after reading all the long-time online talk about mixing etc. What is your stance on this?

[Unaspected]

There are no strict rules. As you already suggested, if it sounds good, it is good.

Forget techniques. If you know how your gear works - work it - develop your own techniques. Break rules, make rules and innovate.

If you have a room full of people telling you to do one thing but to your ears it sounds better doing differently, ask yourself, who is mixing the audio?

And, of course, the wonderful irony is that you're asking more people online what you should be doing. Just keep learning and mixing to develop your confidence. It will come in time.

[Axis1~SL61]

if it sounds good in that particular track, don't change it. You can leave all the mix theories you've read about to be applied in future tracks.

[Armadillo]

Instead of standard sidechain compression, that removes the bass completely when kick hits, try dynamic EQ or something like Devious machines' Duck that lets you sidechain just the low end of the bass.
Doing it that way makes sure that the bass is still audible when the kick hits, and only the clashing frequencies are cut out.

[excuse me please]

Well, if you have a four on the floor, and the bass is up between the beats, then there is a lot possible. It's just that things get wobbly quickly. Especially when using no sidechain compression. The beat will lack impact; you can't get things at commercial level (perceived) loudness etc etc.

[cleverr1]

Instead of standard sidechain compression, that removes the bass completely when kick hits, try dynamic EQ or something like Devious machines' Duck that lets you sidechain just the low end of the bass.
Doing it that way makes sure that the bass is still audible when the kick hits, and only the clashing frequencies are cut out.

I'd forgotten all about DM Duck which I'd demo'd a while back. It's exactly what the mix I'm working on right now needed.

I'm so glad I read this - Thanks Man!

[Unaspected]

Any low shelf with an envelope follower will do for ducking the low end - which most DAWs should be capable of out of the box. If you don't have control over attack/release or smoothing then a low pass filter between the output of the envelope and its destination (shelf gain) can help to smooth out the response. Then the cutoff of the LPF can also be modulated for added variation.

[vurt]

So I'm working on this song, an electronic track or whatever and I've found myself in a predicament that left me clueless. I have this huge analog bass and a kick clashing with each other. Most of the time, people will tell you to EQ out one of the low end elements and leave only one to occupy the lowest low of the spectrum etc.

The thing is I kinda like the way they clash.

then make an artistic choice, do what everyone does or do what you like the sound of?

tough choice...

[Googly Smythe]

If you like the way 2 elements "clash" then they are not, in fact, "clashing", they are complementing. So leave them as they are.
PS
It may help to leave a link to an audio snippet?

[Passing Bye]

If it sounds right, it's right, theory is just theory, what are you now trying to achieve really, if you want to avoid kick clashing of single note bass, than change the key of the kick, I mean it's easy as that, it will actually sound more bouncy than having exact same frequency hitting all the time, but if you like how they sound right now and that's the effect your low end should have in your track, than just go with what sound right, not feels right.

[anomandaris1]

On a big system you are probably going to hear mainly low frequencies, killing your whole mix, if you overdo the low end. That's why there is no point in having both the kick and bass to be subby. Kick is usually high-passed (in more traditional styles of music) or you use some amount of bass ducking (in edm).

[Local Man]

... but it just feels wrong to leave it like that after reading all the long-time online talk about mixing etc. What is your stance on this?

The problem is that by asking for advice here all you are going to get is more of that "on-line talk about mixing" that will just reinforce the conventional wisdom that you are already well aware of.

What you should do if possible is have a few different people listen to the track and give you feedback, without first alerting them to this issue.
You can be sure that if the bass isn't sounding right someone will comment on it, and if you didn't alert them to this dilemma in advance you can be sure that it's coming from an actual issue with the sound and not some bias toward doing things the "right" way.

[Synthman2000]

The "If it sounds good, it is good." maxim only applies if you can 100pct trust what you are hearing down to the deepest possible sub bass with exceptional monitoring, room acoustics and your knowledge. (which will have been applied during acquiring / perfecting the above 2 steps)

At that stage subjective opinion starts to have a value.