How to not drown in bass
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- Опубліковано 21 тра 2024
- I tend to over-do my bass frequencies when I'm composing electronic music. Maybe you do too? Here's a way to check, and also some techniques on how to deal with it. I'll also introduce you to the metaphor of frequency "buckets" per octave - does each bucket have enough sound energy in it? Do some have too much? Let's discuss!
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Contents:
0:00 Putting too much bass
0:44 How to know if it's too much
2:48 Let's tilt the frequencies
3:43 Thinking in octaves
5:46 Bass buckets
6:33 Cleaning up low-end mess
7:50 Obsessing more about octaves
11:55 A lot of little moves
My Foundations courses ► courses.underdog.brussels
Underdog Mailing List ► eepurl.com/gZmNbv
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Man can’t thank you enough for the videos. I’m an FL Studio user, but your way of explaining things is some of the best I’ve seen on UA-cam. You helped me so much in the early days. It’s now been over 1 year of producing regularly.
Love to read it
Very interesting. As a "livingroom muic maker", I sometimes feel a little overwhelmed by the flood of music/production related information I can get on the tube and to tell what is exactly important for me to know right now. Maybe I should finaly invest some good money into one of your courses... Great video and thanks for sharing! ✌️
My number 1 on UA-cam. Every time I watch one your videos it makes me a better producer! Thanks man!!!
Love the video Oscar. Just a quick note that Tonal Balance Control is not from waves, it is from Izotope.
Thank You (Slapping the table)
indeed it's IzoTope
I really appreciate you talking about this topic. Still think you’ve omitted the most obvious treatment, which is adjusting the volume of your tracks. Most often it’s about getting the levels right and not even touching Eq or multi band compression. So instead of changing the tonality of the bassy tracks, most people should just reach for the track volume first
100% agreed, honestly.
I would have clicked off this video so fast if he started talking about gain staging instead of what the actual title says.
LP filter at 0:21 had me thinking my finger was over my phone speaker 😅
Haven't subbed for a few months but with all the help with music you have given just on youtube, I'd be damned if I didn't subscribe to your channel. Appreciate the vids I have learned a ton from them.
More of this content if you have the time please, this is so helpful and so important to understand.
I love the theory, song structure and music development but the mixing and mastering is where I need to put more work in.
Thanks so much ❤
Hey Oscar, long time fan! I've got a suggestion you might like regarding multiband dynamics/compressors: Downward Expansion. I only know how to do it in Ableton's Multiband Dynamics, but the logic is as follows:
You set a "below" threshold in band and set the compressor for that band to a negative ratio. As a result, all audio in that band from that track that is quieter than this threshold will get "expanded" downwards towards -inf dB. So lots of muddy tails (like your pads) will get pushed down even further, but the inital hit won't be affected.
Lovely way you have explained mixing process! Definitely reinforced things I've learnt since starting couple months ago in a much simpler way. Also more importantly you make mixing sound fun and link the musical octave side to frequency scientific side of prod which I think is super important! Have a good one mate earned urself a sub :)
your videos recently have been worded in an excellent manner. words matter and youre using them effectively kudos
Great content Oscar. Utilising frequency band compression and EQ is an evolving topic, yet with more experience becomes more fun compared to newbie days.
Dude that was brilliant advice, big love!
Thanks for this healthier vegetable tray of EQ usage. I've relied too much on saturation to fake mixing in the past. It's sort of like using broad brushes (both saturation and layering) to smear the mountain range instead of removing what you need (in which buckets) to "tilt" the EQ in a needed direction. This more dub-house (correct me if wrong) track is a useful demonstration of this minimalistic approach.
I also appreciate that this is not a top-down mixing approach -- I think it's an immature technique to do a master tilt EQ, especially if the mix isn't finished. There's something about how a clean mix breathes between the instruments that makes me happier than, say, a squashed master. The only person who has proven me wrong is Alan Parsons, but in his analog world, his use of compression/limiting was probably very subtle and controlled. I find myself pursuing a no-touch-master mix with a sensible -3db headroom and never being happy with mastering beyond gentle limiting to 0 (always feels like a set of compromises afterwards).
I see some comments going into "Just use a highpass" mode. I'd rather have the organs and bells breath a bit instead of being completely sucked dry of their natural warmth. You could also sidechain stuff as well, but I'm getting tired of that sound these days. Maybe I'm getting old.
Simply excellent 👌👍 Even by less than halfway through this video I had already sent myself the link to it, because I know for sure that I'll be referring back to all these tips a lot in the future. Thanks, Oscar, much love from Warsaw 😘
Another way to fix this issue is to keep your bass notes and kicks short with fast decays. Would probably help with this track as well. The high crest factor on tonal balance control seems to indicate that.
One of the problems of this is if you don't like that sound. Like. At all.
Super nice video, wasnt aware that the tonal balance could solo the specific frequency/bands. Thanks for sharing the knowledge as always! 🙏
Another awesome video, thanks for the help!
just what i needed, keep up the good work
Learned so much from this one, thanks!
One of your best videos, great job Oscar!
Oscar your tutorials are simply the best :). Happy new year 2024 !
dude your track preview at 1:20 gave me super "shlohmo bad vibes" vibes
rly nice
Very helpful video, many thanks! 🙂
Oscar… these tutorials are awesome! Thanks again cuz my low end quickly gets sludgy.
Looks Like a Small Mastering Video here , Niceness, thanks for the extra extra effort Oscar, sounding good, chill vibe
Another great lesson! Thanks!
Awesome videos. Another gold mine of information
Nicely explained, Thanks very much.
Eye opening. Very much appreciated!!!
I could listen to that loop for hours! Great job, Oscar :)
Another banger video man, tnx
"Quantum Physics" is my new safety word...❤
Really loving that track idea, Oskar
always great. thanks. please keep up the excellent work X
This one pure gold
Cheers buddy
Another great tip and great video.
Really really nice Tutorial
very helpful Great video!
Great video 🙌🏻
Thank you very much.
Thank you for the quallity content! Keep it up! :-)
Good video! Sick track - hope it gets released
thank you so much for this tutorial ...👍👍👍
What a nice video!! Thanks!!
Love your videos man
Im not in that music style you do, but I always enjoy the approach and explanation. I'm glad you are on 270k. Anyways you deserve more
so nice man. that's sweet.
Great video as always! I agree your way of presenting the information and the content you share is amazing.
I noticed you said Tonal Balance Control is by waves when its Izotope. Looks like a great plug-in tho.
Great vid, definitely (one of) the biggest problems when producing in 'bedrooms' and esp for beginners, but i kept mixing too much bass for ages haha. All these tools we have right now in 2024.... 🙌
Great tutorial ❤
super helpful 🙏
Thank you for this insight into taming things. I mix and produce a lot with headphones, as I don't have the space allowance for a studio and i always find myself in a lowend bog
Another awesome video! Oscar! I have also learned a ton from your videos! =)
Best explaination ever ❤
Good education thank you 🙏
Bucket analogy FTW. Thanks Oscar :)
Very helpful video! :)
This idea of thinking in octaves is really cool. This was real "lightbulb" stuff, and you explain it really well!
You can use the dynamic feature of Fabfilter Q3 to replace the multi band compression if you want to decrease the number of plugins the signal goes through.
Love the sound of thia track! A bit of acid pauli style
really cool! So far I've just been low cutting the bass on the intruments that clash with the bass/kick so it's good learn other techniques.
Btw for those that don't have fabfilter Pro-MB you can use multiband dynamics in ableton
Tonal Balance Control is by Izotope and not by Waves. I also use it a lot.
Yeah, realised that just before uploading that I misspoke hehe. My bad.
Oscar im really vibing with that track. Can we get a track breakdown? There are some sounds in there i wish i knew how to make
Great topics
I usually use voxengo span for this. You can side chain the vst with your reference track or material. And have both your and ref track are compared and shown.
Good stuff!
this is very good , thank you for the tutorial , did you release the project or no ? cause I think it s really good
2:16 "This is a plugin from waves" has iZotope logo on the top right haha. Good video tho, keep it up!
Hahaha just noticed that before publishing and I facepalmed pretty hard.
That would have been my smartass contribution, too, had you not been earlier!! 😀👍
very good vid 👌
This is really helpful for me since I often end up in that muddy bass situation. Now all I have to do is go back and do this on all the tracks I've made recently.... there's 27 of them.... yikes :D
well done. Keep Going 🐼
It sounded really good before that last tweek 😅 Nicky explained, tnx.
what helped me is Eventides Equviate, it can learn a reference track EQ, and apply it to your mix. Problem with headphones for everyone is: too loud high frequencys, so your tonal balance is screwd, because you compensate with more bass. Better mix wirh low volume small speakers, imstead of head phones.Use these to even out the room.
thanks so much for these vids man, so helpful.
Do you remember the name of that 90s techno track you did a video on recently where its just 31 8th notes of a guitar sounding note, then the 32nd note slightly off beat and has a slightly different pitch? Just super repetitive but the hook of the change makes you anticipate the whole way through. Sorry cant seem to find the video anymore!
Renato cohen pontape i think! Its on youtube!
@@OscarUnderdog that’s the one thanks!!
Thanks a lot. Or another approach is to realized that you have the wrong sound in your chords and move them away from the 100 Hz area. Sound selection is an important factor as well
something ive noticed with low end is the more i take out the more powerful my track can feel, its a weird phenomenom, i think its something to do with the headroom being made which lets you push the master more, which in turn flattens the spectrum more when a compressor or limiter gets more room to work with.
Definitely think you're right about that.
Multiband compression and dynamic EQ is the key.
This is a great insight!
Curious on this particular track you were demonstrating the fixes on... you did a video almost a year ago about decay tails. This track you're working on seems to have a decay tail problem more than an EQ'ing problem. While recognizing you wanted to take what you had near to hand to demonstrate the method you wanted to teach, in terms of actually turning this track into a finished piece you're going to publish, would you actually address the decay tails rather than just doing some elaborate version of tilt EQ'ing? Do those chords really need to ring out that long?
Honestly just curious. Is there a time to ignore the decay tail rule & this is an example?
The bucket-metaphor is brilliant. I noticed that this track has a pop arrangement. Maybe you could make a video about it, would definitely be interesting. Let’s go with “CamelPhat ft. Ali Love - Spektrum” and “Rodriguez Jr. - Pegasus” for today. Until next time!
Definitely spending a lot of time thinking about pop music recently! I'd say expect to see more on the channel!
Grande 😮
Fu*king love you Oscar!! ❤
Amazing stuff, Oscar. Some of my work sounds a bit wobbling in my car stereo. I think, exactly here is where I can change something. But, holy moly, producing music can be expensive. I'm always asking myself if those premium plugins are really required. If you follow some people on UA-cam who show you how to make this or that, they always tell you, buy this and buy that. Is there really no possibility with the stock plugins?
I like the way you explain those topics. It's great how easy you can clean up your mix. Now, let's see if the stock plugins or the free plugins do the trick as well.
Hiya Henning! Yeah you're right, I'm a bit annoyed I only showed a paid plugin workflow here. Alternative workflow could be: Solo the lowest band on the Ableton Multiband plugin! Then it's up to you to do that on a few reference tracks and maybe use a free loudness analyser plugin (I think Melda have one?) to see how loud that low end really is then. Then apply that to your own mix!
@@OscarUnderdog Well, YouLean would do, too. But you are right, the Multiband thing in Ableton would be worth a try. Thank you.
I quite like the track (loop).
hey where can i find the music you were making in the video? sounds good
Very nice video! I was wondering, why don't you cut the low frequencies of for example those chords completely? I try to cut out all frequencies that the individual tracks don't 'need', why leaves room for the elements that should be emphasized in that frequency range. You seem to be a bit more moderate in your approach (bringing down the low frequencies of the chords rather than low cutting completely)
with complete filtering the low end you kill the depth of your sound, try it, Oscar knows quiete a bit, its legit advise.
So not sure if fhis is the right place to post this underdog but I’m struggling with for bass whether to keep it wide (which seems like now in 2024 peeps are saying monoing the bass isn’t always needed now) or mid side eqing the bass TO make it mono. Anyways as always your vids are always helpful 😊
very nice but my approach is usually i lower volume and sidechain and i always thought that nothing should sit in the lows sharing this thought might help and correct me if im wrong thx
really great video! Too bad tonal balance control ain't sold alone anymore:/
I've seen somewhere the tonal balance boundaries are closed to the PinkNoise spectrum
Or just use a reference track of your favorite genre. If your mixing at -6 dB max lower the reference -6dB put a lowpassfilter on and cut around 150Hz. Then use Span(free) to see where your reference track is hitting. Now adjust your bass accordingly.
Bad a$$ ba$$ is important! Importantly not overdo it is a “challenge”😂 Right on!
Maybe I missed it if you had a specific reason, but it’s pretty much a hard rule that you don’t start with adding processing in the master of you have access to the individual channels when you’re “fixing” and issue (obviously buss compressors and such are different).
This causes more issues.
Thanks for the videos but this may be confusing some of the newer mixing buffs.
Small detail, tonal balance control is an iZotope plug-in, not Waves.
❤
Quick question... If on an EQ8 the low-end frequencies go above 0 db does that mean it's going to automatically translate to the bass distorting when exporting the track and playing it in let's say car speakers or studio monitors?
Where can I buy this track? It’s amazing
Important stuff. However for me EQ-ing is often a kind of fixing problems, that sit before. Why not moving up an instrument into the 100 or 200 Hz region? Or doubling it and then balance the loudness.
I underline, what you already said, half of the range of the keyboard sits below 256 Hz. There is not just "bass". There are three different octaves at least. All should be covered by instruments. Wall of sound!
Especially the range between 128 Hz and 256 Hz is important, as many cheaper "midrange" devices can still play these. There shouldn't be any rhythmic pattern, that only plays below. Overtones are not enough to express the rhythm, if the base is cut off .
You already have this issue with the kick drum and you only hear the overtones on cheaper devices. When choosing the kick, it ideally needs to sound nice in the range above 200 Hz without the rest. And still fulfil its rhythmic function!
I try to think like a classic orchestra first. They can't fix problems by EQ-ing. They have to control the sound by the right choice of instruments and loudness.
That techno has very catchy melody. Is that 4,5,6 chord progression?
I know in techno kicks are usually 1/8th. In house, dubstep, midtempo, dnb, and other mid bass focused genres they're 1/16th to accommodate for the mid range and dedicated subs.
But I'm not hugely familiar with techno. I've only ever heard the more minimal side with rumbly kicks. I always just assumed techno could get away with (and somewhat needed) slightly longer kicks because they literally don't use sub patches or mid bass sounds at all. I thought techno was all just rumbly kicks and lots of atmosphere.
Then today I watched a video by Alice Yalcin "Investigating how best kick samples are made". In her techno examples, all of the producers used 1/8th or longer kicks, yet their tracks had a lot of bass patches in them. These weren't rumbly kick techno tracks. That's when I learned there's a totally different sound of techno I was unaware of.
Deadmau5, Baphometrix ("Why your great sounding kicks might not sound so great"), etc. have touched on the terrible reflections in live club environments caused by kicks being too long. Baphometrix basically concluded that in basically any genre where there will be any low end or low mid range that isn't just your kick, your kick can't be any longer than 1/16th note.
So, how is it that those tracks got away with using 1/8 kicks? Do techno tracks like that (non rumbly ones) still not use dedicated sub patches at all? Are their basses high passed much higher up than in genres like dubstep or dnb?
Lastly, if I can tack this on, do you yourself worry about manually aligning the phase of your kick and sub at all, in tracks where you have a full spectrum kick and separate sub(s)? My understanding is as long as you pitch a kick up a few semitones higher than the sub's fundamental and you duck properly, any phase cancellation is negligible and it's overkill to phase align them at that point.
Appreciate your insight.
You can use kicks of any length. The problem is that if your kick is longer then it's more tonal (so tuning might be needed to fit in more) and also you'll have less space for things around the kick (which means more sidechaining and other things to make space for the kick). You just have to know the consequences of the length of your kick so you can make a good choice. If the consequences of a long kick aren't going to affect your track or you just don't care about it affecting your track then you can use the kick.
Aligning the phase is also the same thing... Just know the consequences of not aligning your sub (your kick and your sub can sum in weird ways). So you use an oscilloscope and your ears and then make a decision on aligning it or not, or if you hear a problem you might just think of another solution.
@@Worr. Absolutely my thinking. I have a habit of asking questions when I might already have an answer. But you literally just echoed my exact thoughts back to me. Thanks lmao
@@Worr. You on Discord?
@@serapheogen I don't have one yet
this ozone tonal balance tool always shows too much bass; i don't know which tracks were they analyzing when they made that tool; also some pretty decent professional tracks that have really great mix are somehow to bassi (trentmoller, hunteman).