Destroying Low Mids That RUIN Your Bass Tone
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- Опубліковано 19 тра 2024
- Miami explains how to identify crossover frequencies when working with bass guitar tracks. What do you want to learn about approaching the low end in your mixes? Let us know in the comments!
0:00 Introduction
1:01 Identifying the muddy low mids
1:25 Duplicating your bass track
5:05 Understanding the problem
5:45 Finding the crossover in the song
8:07 Recap
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When you start playing higher up the neck, your fundamental will rise beyond your crossover point and lose its power. Be careful with any "one size fits all" process.
Does using automation solve that problem?
@@jigawatt7126 I'd say yes, but you'd need to automate both tracks, not just the subs
@@NicBellamy Or learn to love those low mids!
to be fair, this process is easily automated. bypass the eq cut and done. or have the frequency move with the note that is played.
If you're playing higher in the neck, probably, you're setting up a melody fill, or chords. Matching pickups (neck, bridge) with a spot between these low mids for those parts and rythm in general, is a good way to solve this problem.
I'm a guitar player and this is one of the best mixing tips I've come across for bass. Everyone treats bass in metal as "bass lmao." I've been learning bass for the past year after being a guitarist for 10 years. Bass is boss 100%
Bass literally slaps! Glad you found this helpful my friend
-Miami
not everyone, but nearly everyone. but those bands who use the bass properly... OOOSH!
Wow. I've done crossovers wrong for years. For some reason my brain said "the crossover has to touch" and not leave a huge gap in the frequency spectrum. No wonder I could never achieve that "hollow" sounding bass I've been striving for.
So glad this helped clear that up for you
-Miami
same! so great info
It is the human mindtrap "IT HAS TO BE EVEN!"
Well... technically, a crossover HAS to touch (hence the word "cross"). Otherwise, it is simply NOT a crossover, just a split with a gap. Now, depending on the kind of slope you use (6dB, 12dB, 24dB, etc), they may be actually crossing even if you don't see it in the graphical interface - unless you use a brickwall slope.
Man I've been using this trick for a while now, it's really helpful, I don't use quad track for guitars anymore, the bass always cuts through the mix like a charm.
You know the secret sauce!
-Miami
Don't get me wrong, I love the splitting technique and will definitely play around with it. But now I know why my bass disappears every time somebody mixes one of my songs! I play more of a 60's/70's style, and my bass comes alive in the low mids, like 300hz. This is the same issue I have with modern kick drum mixes where they take it down to 2 ingredients - sub + click, and take out all of the "whompiness". Great video though, I definitely got some ideas from it.
100 percent right ! Everything spunds the same when the same rules are copied over and over.
yes, for your style the guitars will be cleaner and leave more room in the mids. alot of heavy distorted guitars have a buildup in the lows and thats what this is for. basically you do the opposite for cleaner styles, giving bass more mids and less low, then allow the kick to breathe more.
Mix tutorials with the best vibe! Reaper users don't need to duplicate the track, you can create a new track and make a send PRE-FX to the new one. This way if you realize during mixing that _"oh goshdarnit, this part must be edited"_ you don't need to juggle two bass tracks.
ufff amazing tutorial!!! at first I thought splitting the bass in that way sounded awful, but when you played the entire mix it sounded so amazing and detailed! Thanks for the great tips!
This is brilliant! Many thanks. Bass guitar is by far my biggest headache to mix. Can't wait to try this out tonight! I already know it's going to help.
I love these videos. I feel like I learn something new every time and my mixes have been greatly improving thanks to utilizing a lot of these techniques. Great content! Keep it up!
Thanks, Miami! This is a great video! I saw tons of bass-tone-videos, but noone explained that thing!!!
You don't understand how valuable this video was for me. It has cleared my mixes up 1000% 😄
I have never thought about processing a bass like this… definitely gonna be incorporating this many areas
Dude, I have to do a whole new project setup! There are too many new things that I learn thanks to you.
So glad you were able to grab some info here!
-Miami
One of your best ones so far, Miami. Keep it up!
So glad you think so! I’ll do my best to keep it up!
-Miami
this is really a lightbulb moment for me. thank you so much 👍🙌🏽🙌🏽🙌🏽
Miami, you are amazing. I love your jokes, your knowledge, and your vibe. Keep it up!
Learned this trick by watching the Masterclass by Joey. It legit took my bass tracks from sounding like a puddle of mud to giving it all the clarity in the world while still getting the low end energy. Which is super important for my playing in the Four Year Strong-esque pop punk style because I love intricate fills that cut through the mix, but still need to be able to set the foundation when the guitars are doing their more intricate riffing. Keep up the great work Miami!
Oh man I haven’t seen that masterclass in years! I haven’t heard any good easy core in a minute, what’s your band called?
-Miami
@@joeymusic It’s an old one, but a good one!
And the name of our band is The Heavy Truth. But unfortunately we do not have a singer yet, still hunting for the perfect fit! Have about ten songs with everything else except vocals that are just waiting to go. The mixes on those songs vastly improved after I started watching you and Joey! Can’t thank you guys enough 🙏🏼
I never knew of this until now. I usually just chop the low end of the bass and replace it with an extremely processed and beefed up sine wave that's low-passed at around 110hz ish. This technique is gonna change my life.
It really will dude! Your mixes will sound more clean than ever
-Miami
OMG this is really interesting, I cant wait to apply it
Its not really that much of an issue in a power trio setting but if you have a twin guitar scenario then this is golden. Really makes me think about carving frequencies for each instrument at least at a section or passage level that way when you mix later it all makes sense
I share the same thoughts when I discovered this trick..
The second I heard you talk about sub bass I was thinking "HERE IT COMES!!" and I wasn't disappointed 😂
Dude, you EARNED that LIKE with this. Thank you. I've been doing this wrong for a long time. Question, can do you a follow up about the best practices for sidechaining the kick?
Thank you so much Gabby! I’ve done a couple sidechain videos already. Is there something you need explained more clearly?
-Miami
@@joeymusic Nope, I'll look those up. Thanks man.
Man, I’m still processing that d’adardio joke… 👌🏼
That’s just prime cut with A1.
Lmao I thought it was fire too 🔥
-Miami
Great technique and very well explained! I've been using this technique for a while now but picked up some new nuggets of info here. Thank You! Btw- airwindows has a free plug in called Bass Drive which works well for distortion and runs perfectly in Reaper.
I’m gonna have to check that out sometime! Thanks Pete
-Miami
finally how to set the crossover. I have both bus glue and rex brown bass from JST. This has me rethinking some things. I think i asked how to set the crossover awhile ago. Thanks for the content.
Yup, a comment inspired me to make this!
-Miami
This is Pure Gold!!!! thank you Miami!!!
Thank you for this, this will take my mix game to the next level. As always, taking my knowledge base in another direction, so again thank you.
You are very welcome! Glad this shed some light on what goes into a solid bass tone
-Miami
Great video, I learned a lot so thank you!! You got a new subsciber =D and I hit that like button as well. What snare sample do you use. Sounds amazingly good. Thanks in advance wishing you happy holidays!
1st of all thank you so much for explaining this concept IN PLAIN ENGLISH . Most who have tried get you to a point where you're almost there but then they start speaking in Klingon ..... now if I could only find a 5 string bass tuner for drop tuning app.
That's some kick-ass hardware behind you in that into. I still run the same but now the software versions.
UA-cam sent me here -- for once, I'm very glad it did! Clear video, great advice -- sounds good! Well presented without cruft. Sub'd.
Glad to have you here, Lee! Appreciate you
-Miami
I'm going to try this, thanks!
as a beginning engineer that specializes in bass guitar this was helpful and cant wait to try this.
I saw others doing this and for a while I copied the technique. I didn't really understand why so I eventually stopped. Thanks to this video, I think I'll try it again.
Glad I was able to break it down and explain it Jeff!
-Miami
The grit track can also be combined with a light low-shelf if you want less of the -1k, and of course you can use a lpf, boost where you want the bass to poke through in the mids, etc.
Yes, this is also an option
-Miami
Very useful technique for sure. I've been liking Mammoth from Aurora DSP for the distortion track.
I’m going to have to try that out, I’ve never given it a shot
-Miami
i actually like that honk it gives you right around those 500s. but yeah, i will try cutting the both tracks like this in the future. i always had an overlap in my crossovers, because i was afraid i could lose something. i gotta take more bold moves.
Great tips, Miami! Thanks!!!!!
You’re welcome! I should’ve done this one a long time ago
-Miami
can’t hold you, this is next level info. thank you
Go apply it! Your life’s hopefully about to get a lot easier 😂
-Miami
Dude, loving that bit that we got to hear at around 7:49.
Thank you for the class!
i just did this and WOW my bass sounds way better immediately, thanks
Hi!Thanks for the information!I have used the 3 bass track (clean DI,Amp and distortion).The clean DI i used for the low end and the amp for the freqs over it and distortion for the high mids..What do you think about that?Cheers!!
My bass has active eq, and when I rolled off the mid knob the sound immediately sounded better.
I'm sure I'm could get surgical in the box, but the sound coming out of the bass sounds great.
I do live sounding hip hop (guitars and bass) and found this and a lot of your other reviews helpful, gonna check, but would love one on clean electric guitars, and possibly sending guitars through fx. And if you do buss processing on guitars, how you process that.
This is a fantastic trick - totally changed my bass sound.
Glad that you found it useful!
-Miami
Really helpful , one thing I want to know is how to dial in bass tones for a good starting point for recording
Based on what I learned from nolly, I find a nice clean, clear, bright sound is best to start with. You can alway add more bassy frequencies, but you can't really add note definition and clarity as easily. Something sorta thin, clangy with strong note definition seems to be working for me. Obviously, I prefer much higher bass when actually jamming with a band, but for a DI track I like a thin clear sound
Excellent video - thanks, Miami.
I love this. Thank you so much!
Seems like I tried similar approach with Andy Wallace technique. But, your demo seems much better detailed explain. Will try again.
Question: how would you handle if having a third bass track? I have DI, semi-dirty, dirty bass tracks.
Why are your lights off? It's my birthday this Friday... *clap, clap* lights on please! ;) Excellent video as always bro!
Them batteries bro! Inflation crazy in La 😂😂😂
-Miami
This is gold! Thank you!
This was interesting giving a big hole in between actually cleans up alot, thats cool!!
Once I learned this it changed my mixes forever
-Miami
@@joeymusic thats really cool dude, i need to try this.
One thing I always wonder, does using plugins that process the subs/mids/highs separately under one hood, like Neural's Parallax or Submission's DoubleTap, make splitting the bass into multiple tracks redundant? Or would you say that type of all-in-one processing is meant more for quick demos and not final mixes?
This is really helpful! I just triple track the bass and hope it turns out ok.
Now you have something new to try!
-Miami
My mans are you telling us you have 3 different bass takes running at once???
@@polpottopg Yes unless it's a Metallica styled song...then wut bass lol
Wow! That sounded so good through my phone after processing.
Allways so inspiring I fixed one song after watching your video. Reaper!
That’s awesome! Is it easier to spot that issue now?
-Miami
Distortion occurs when your audio hits a ceiling, by simply lowering how loud a specific area of frequencies is before it hits that ceiling, it won't distort, just put an EQ on your Sub to low mids pre distortion(A smooth low shelf) and lower them so they're not distorting as much, and because everything that is distorting is hitting a ceiling, those lowered frequencies will be mostly level by the end, tons of amps do this already like marshalls, its just called tightening your tone and just put a multiband compressor on the sub after and itll hit hard
Great video! I’ve been seeing some people even separate bass now into 3 parts, low mid and high. What’s your thoughts on that?
I think it’s unnecessary, Brady! But, to each his own! Whatever works though. How can I argue with platinum mixers that want to have more control over each frequency range😅
-Miami
@@joeymusic haha true. In some of the content given out at URM, you’ll occasionally get a track labeled bass amp mid and I’m like…uhhh….and just end up turning it down real low in the mix and process the low and high like you do here. Then wait for the live mix to see why they did it that way. Typically they always end up saying something along the lines of “for that extra 2%”. Well that extra 2% you add gets you 2000% more income than I do so I can’t argue it.
this was dope, that low end can be tricky
So while messing around with this, i placed a high pass filter one my high octave bass track/layer and it made my bass sound massive
just wanted to share that
What’s up Miami! Long time no see! Talk to Rudy lately? Hey man how would be the best way to achieve this live? Run two channels to front of house? DI signal for a clean low and dirty signal for top end? Then cross the two over at the board?
I got this idea from a previous vid you did, now do it on a single bass track using the Quadrafuzz multi band distortion in Cubase - solo the fundamental with drive at or around zero, solo the "interesting" band and apply drive to taste, set level of the band in between to zero and use the hi band to dump the unwanted highs - dead easy and so quick - that and a little compression and bass track done for most rock/metal and pop.
Glad you were paying attention! Yup, I do this all the time but felt it needed a breakdown for those that didn’t understand it so easily
-Miami
@@joeymusic Fo sho - first few times I tried it just as you describe, I think it's easier to get your ear into it as shown.
Using a mxr 10 band eq in what direction would I be cutting or boosting frequencies to get this desired effect live? I use a distortion pedal but to my understand it throws both a clean signal and distorted signal as to not lose the low end
This video was great. Super helpful
One question I have for you is how do you approach mixing bass for a sludge band like a Conan which is so bass driven in their tone and sound. I know the bassist tunes to drop F0 on his bass.
I ask cause it seems at odds with more modern metal mixing techniques.
BTW, what song are you using in the example at the end?
So does the bass guitar usually peak higher in relation to the guitars after these processes? And, normally I mix starting the kick around -18 db, where should a bass guitar be peaking before the mix bus?
For my tone given the style of my band, i need those low mids cause i also have a dirty channel for distortion, my preamp pedal consist of lows, low mids, high mids treble, for a deep, but gritty and cutting tone.
My question would be, how would you go about mixing/sidechaining
the sub bass with the kick drum?
so that the sub frequencies from bass and kick arnt clashing into each other, in the mix.
also, thankyou for the video man! very informative!
Just Put a compressor on the lowend bass track and Sidechain the kick to it
What are the setting you are using on the l1 on the bass di?
Thanks man. Awesome
Is this splitting of sub and midrange of electric bass also a good idea with an 808 kick drum that has say, a lot of mid range distortion but not enough sub frequencies?
100% but the only way to know for sure is to try it out and take a listen!
-Miami
I still do this! Btw, there is a JST plugin that 'kinda' does the job. It's 'JW-Bus Glue Bass' plugin. Love it, absolutely amazing.
Absolutely love bus glue!
-Miami
Also, when doing this you may come across phase issues but a possible solution is flipping the polarity.
Do you buss the 2 bass channels? If that’s so. Do you make a mono or stereo buss of the 2 channels combined?.
I saw on a recent urm clip that when buster makes a bass tone he uses saturn to distort the sub instead of keeping it clean. Can you talk about why he did this and what would do benefits or draw backs be?
I'm not familiar with the clip you're referring to, but if I can offer some input here, I'd say it's partly saturation and partly taming dynamics. Distorting just the sub bass will make it sound thick and almost synth-y with very little attack and a ton of sustain. Think Kyuss or earlier Queens of the Stone Age. But because of the saturation, it can reintroduce upper harmonics in those frequencies that tend to cause problems in the first place if you're not careful. I'd say try it both ways and see what you like, but be aware that what might work for one mix may not work for another. Always mix with your ears, never with your eyes, and don't let yourself think of tricks you see in youtube videos as rules you have to follow every time.
Amazing! Thank you
Coming from the other fedora video(getting drums and bass to gel), this fedora is styled better, but I can’t help but feel it is just a little too tilted back, the ensemble definitely works better tho.
Love Miami! Even though I never been there actuallyI Hey! My bad jokes game are still bad! Lol! The most wonderful thing in this channel is how you teach something that I already know, and I realize that I know shit after watching it! God bless ya! You rock!
It’s always a comforting feeling knowing that you’re on the right track!
-Miami
what do you mean by the term "smashing" the limiter? I dont understand all these metaphors because there are mulitple parameters in a limiter
Do you think you still need to do this with programs like Grovebass or Umansky bass?
Thank. You!
Thanks Miami!
I've having trouble getting my clean bass tapping lines the pop in a mix. The issue is that the lower strings are too loud, while the higher strings are too quiet. I've tinkered around with compression and multiband compression but feel it's still not where I want it. Any help is appreciated!
Tried adjusting pickups to be lower on low strings and closer to the strings on the highs?
@@toohardtohandle i think that could massively help but also OP have you just tried volume automation? there’s waves bassrider if you have the bundle but whatever daw automation you have will be better than that if you can be bothered to go through and set all the points
My impulse would have been to apply the high-pass *before* the amp sim on the grit track. Are you deliberately keeping in the higher harmonics from the lower information?
Some amp sims react different based on the information that it’s taking in so this is the best practice to get used to. It also works for amped as well as di tracks.
-Miami
I think you want the harmonics of the distorted sub, but not actually the distorted fundamental itself. Putting the filter post-distortion is the way to achieve that
OMG man this is gold!
This is a great trick sometimes. But lately, that low mid range 200-400hz is my favorite on bass. Check out Paramore's Igonrance for one of the greatest bass sounds ever.
Paramours has a FewOf the greatest sound sources ever recorded at this point!
-miami
Yeah, for me I find this trick works well for certain songs and the technique is especially great for more aggressive genres, hard rap, metal, punk heavy rock and I use more subtle saturation sometimes by way of bass through aux w decapitator or Tape head, spectre, or lo-fi saturation, bit crushing the copied track..
How am I supposed to listen to the advice given when the drop goes this hard!? 😅
Thanks again for some cool tips I'd have never learned before. 😁
So glad you loved the drop!
-Miami
I've been trying to use the split bass technique for awhile but my problem is finding the right volume balance between the low track and the high end grit track.
I guess a balancing track is coming up in the future 😀
-Miami
@@joeymusic That would be awesome. For some reason finding the right balance between all the tracks is the biggest challenge for me. My eq skills and compressor skills are way better than this important skill. ... so my mixes sucks:-)
I constantly doubt whether the bass, snare, kick, guitar are too loud or too quiet.
Seconded.
@@MortenAndersen-hjemmesider Reference tracks and spectrum analysis/soloing bands can really help you train your ear for that
I would definitely like to try this, but I have a question about the massive gap in the mids. Is it correct to remove all 94-500hz information?
Pretty much. But mess around with it, sometimes it’s 100-400. Just go for what the mix feels like it needs
-Miami
Went to susbscribe just because of the awful puns, turns out im already subscribed, great video man ❤️
As someone who wants to start recording their own music thanks for the reminder that I am best going to someone who knows!
I do this idea LIVE too inside my FX processor.
Informative.
Yo this is so well done
omg dude that D'Addario joke killed me hahahahah
Yeo I know this is for rock/metal but this is giving me hella ideas for my trap productions 🔥
Omg ! This was soooo useful:0
So glad that it helped Eric!
-Miami
@@joeymusic would you say the lowend would work with maxx bass ?
With the sub filtered to 94hz and the grit track just under 500?does that mean there is a big hole in the overall bass track from 94-500?
If you were to look on a Fabfilter graph you would see that it’s not as much of an empty hole there as you think! But yes, it cuts out a big part there
-Miami
great tutorials thanks bois
Parallax does this in the box. Highly recommend