3 Tips for Mixing Bass

3 Tips for Mixing Bass

Audiotent Tip 331. 3 Tips for Mixing Bass.


Bass has to be one of the most tricky elements to fit into the mix, here are three little techniques to try:
1) Saturation. Run your bass through some tube or tape saturation. It will phatten the sound and generate extra harmonics to make it sit better in a busy mix.
2) Give it lots of room. If you want to have a big bass, you have to give it large space to sit in. This means, carving out the low frequencies from any other element that doesn’t need low energy.
Also, make sure that the kick is not competing in the same area as the bass. Shortening the kick will give extra headroom for the kick to sit.
3) Parallel Compression. The level of your bass can be very dynamic, especially if it was a recording of bass guitar, rather than a synthesiser.
Compressing the bass can help to even out the levels. However, some transient detail and punch could be lost in the process. A great way to avoid that is to use compression in parallel.
Just blend the compressed signal with the original to taste and keep the best of both signals.

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