By bass I mean heavy bass, like Datsik/Excision/Virtual Riot/Barely Alive (you get the idea)
When applying EQ to heavy bass like that mostly effecting the mid to high frequencies, what frequency ranges are best to look out for? To scoop or cut?..
Of course id imagine you want to cut the sub frequencies, but what else generally?.. I remember Feedme on one of his videos he said he scoops out the low mid frequencies to clear it up but ive noticed when doing so, it still muddies up the mix a bit.
Like LOTS of audible frequency masking, which a lot of those frequencies are being used by instruments needed to keep the track alive.
Or does my problem simply lie elsewhere?.. like.. the stereo image... or arrangement?..
Frequency scooping for bass
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- KVRian
- 598 posts since 10 Jan, 2017
It could certainly be an arrangement issue. The bass sounds in this genre are *extremely* rich in harmonics... spanning almost the entire audible frequency range. Listened to a few recent tracks by Datsik and in the "bass drop" sections, it's essentially kick, snare, bass and that's it.
Which frequencies to cut (if any) depends on the what's already present in the signal - though it wouldn't surprise me if some judicious cutting of the lower mids would help you achieve the sound you're after. If I'm making a sawtooth bass line in trance or psytrance for example, I usually find a cut to the lower mids around 300hz smoothes things out and makes it a little more pleasing to the ears - while being careful not to kill the "warmth" and "body" of the track in the process. It's worth experimenting with narrower cuts too, rather than wide "scoops" and listening to the effect that they have.
It wouldn't surprise me if there's some multiband compression techniques going on in these tracks too. For example, making room by "ducking" a particular frequency range with the kick or snare fed into the sidechain of a multiband compressor on the bass. Heavy DnB/Dubstep snares often have a lot of energy around 200hz, for example - so that could be one area to address. Or maybe allowing the upper midrange "snap" of the kick or snare to be heard more easily by ducking that area.
Hope this was of some use!
Good luck!
Which frequencies to cut (if any) depends on the what's already present in the signal - though it wouldn't surprise me if some judicious cutting of the lower mids would help you achieve the sound you're after. If I'm making a sawtooth bass line in trance or psytrance for example, I usually find a cut to the lower mids around 300hz smoothes things out and makes it a little more pleasing to the ears - while being careful not to kill the "warmth" and "body" of the track in the process. It's worth experimenting with narrower cuts too, rather than wide "scoops" and listening to the effect that they have.
It wouldn't surprise me if there's some multiband compression techniques going on in these tracks too. For example, making room by "ducking" a particular frequency range with the kick or snare fed into the sidechain of a multiband compressor on the bass. Heavy DnB/Dubstep snares often have a lot of energy around 200hz, for example - so that could be one area to address. Or maybe allowing the upper midrange "snap" of the kick or snare to be heard more easily by ducking that area.
Hope this was of some use!
Good luck!-
- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 114 posts since 20 Jun, 2017
andymcbain wrote:It could certainly be an arrangement issue. The bass sounds in this genre are *extremely* rich in harmonics... spanning almost the entire audible frequency range. Listened to a few recent tracks by Datsik and in the "bass drop" sections, it's essentially kick, snare, bass and that's it.
Which frequencies to cut (if any) depends on the what's already present in the signal - though it wouldn't surprise me if some judicious cutting of the lower mids would help you achieve the sound you're after. If I'm making a sawtooth bass line in trance or psytrance for example, I usually find a cut to the lower mids around 300hz smoothes things out and makes it a little more pleasing to the ears - while being careful not to kill the "warmth" and "body" of the track in the process. It's worth experimenting with narrower cuts too, rather than wide "scoops" and listening to the effect that they have.
It wouldn't surprise me if there's some multiband compression techniques going on in these tracks too. For example, making room by "ducking" a particular frequency range with the kick or snare fed into the sidechain of a multiband compressor on the bass. Heavy DnB/Dubstep snares often have a lot of energy around 200hz, for example - so that could be one area to address. Or maybe allowing the upper midrange "snap" of the kick or snare to be heard more easily by ducking that area.
Hope this was of some use!
Thanks for the time you took to research and respond
You are definitely right about the drops being pretty minimal, at least for the style im after. Just crazy bass and a kick n snare. What I noticed very recently before you posted this is SeamlessR walked through the mixing process of a brostep drop (using sample packs so he didnt show any real eq techniques for the bass) and there was some stuff like synth stabs and white noise but it was all being harshly ducked while at a very very quiet volume anyways. So you could barley hear it but its just noise to make it not sound empty I suppose. So I guess that eliminates frequency clashing for the most part.
Plus I was studying some songs on firepower records and some zomboy tracks and the snares are a lot more dry than then you make them out to be when casually listening... Thought that was interesting.
Thanks again!
