Layering more than one bass for edm?

[sir-haver]

Hey guys,

I played around with layering two basses and I kind of liked the result. Then I watched a tutorial about layering basses and the technique the guy used was to separate each bass with different frequency spectrum, so they don't sit on the same frequencies.

But I wanted to ask if it's "safe" to mix two or more basses that take up some of the same (not all probably) of the frequency spectrum, as in beefing up the sound. I never saw anyone does such thing.

I know it's music and you can do whatever you want, but with something like bass I want to have good practice...

Thanks in advacne!

[andymcbain]

Look up some tutorials on phase cancellation. Basically if two sine waves at the same frequency are in phase they will "sum" or combine together, i.e. "beefing up". If they're out of phase, the sound will thin out or cancel entirely.

Some phase cancellation in the bass frequencies can be ok, or sometimes it can sound like a phasey inconsistent mess. It really depends on the frequency content of the sounds you're combining together. This is where good monitors, a good listening enviroment or a spectrum analyser (or ideally all three!) come in handy - as you'll be able to hear and see what the low end is doing.

For EDM you generally want solid, consistent low end. Which is why it's often safer and more effective to give low frequencies their own space and not to overlap them too much.

Hope this helps

[legendCNCD]

Also checking the bass in mono tells you the power eg. if its cancelling it might sound odd/less powerful. Moving the crossover points should reveal how the bass sounds in the mix, one can link them for easier "one knob" move if host allows it.
One can use 3 different (or 2, or even one depending on effects available and how one can split the signal) sounds.. or as I wrote one can split the one bass signal to two or three, depending also on the sound itself, then effect those splices how one wanted result to be.

I'd keep the lowest part 0-80hz or such mono usually, then pan the next a bit to left for example, have it some saturation, and highest to have maybe some space. Just an example.

[haslo]

When I have multiple basses layered in EDM, I make sure to sidechain one to the other. Sometimes I'll use a Multiband Dynamics plugin (Ableton) and separate the bands, then use a regular Compressor for sidechaining, and sometimes I'll use Trackspacer with a high cut for it.

With a really short attack and release, and on just the bass frequencies (sometimes just below 100Hz, sometimes as high as 200Hz), you avoid phase issues and actually give all the resulting basses more clarity and punch-through-the-mix-ability, which is not a word, while retaining all important bits from both basses.

[DJ Warmonger]

It's safe as long as you control the low-end with linear phase filter. Preferably have no more than one bassline playing lowest fundamental - if that's the case though, you'd need to use a dedicated phase-alignment plugin.

[Digitaldawn]

You could use some clever panning of both sounds to let them live in the same space. Then there is the kick to protect in the mix as well

[Kinh]

When I have multiple basses layered in EDM, I make sure to sidechain one to the other. Sometimes I'll use a Multiband Dynamics plugin (Ableton) and separate the bands, then use a regular Compressor for sidechaining, and sometimes I'll use Trackspacer with a high cut for it.

With a really short attack and release, and on just the bass frequencies (sometimes just below 100Hz, sometimes as high as 200Hz), you avoid phase issues and actually give all the resulting basses more clarity and punch-through-the-mix-ability, which is not a word, while retaining all important bits from both basses.

wha-da-hell yo on about mate?

[haslo]

wha-da-hell yo on about mate?

Mixing. I'm still learning though, I'm sure you can explain it much better, or show the faults in my technique in a constructive and rational manner.