Mixing Bass: How to get a clean sounding BASS!
Let's talk about bass. We can all agree the bass is one of the hardest instruments to mix and get right since it carries the most amount of power within its frequency range. However, can we still achieve a great sounding bass with plugins only (no analog processing)?
Here are the techniques we'll be discussing in this blogpost (this is not a mixing chain):
1. FabFilter Pro Q3 (Fixing overlapping/masking)
2. FabFilter Pro C2 (Compression)
3. FF Saturn / Slate's VTM / Acustica's Dynamic Saturator (Saturation)
4. FabFilter Pro Q3 (Narrowing the bass & amplifying wanted frequencies)
5. FabFilter Pro MB (Removing noise)
6. FabFilter Pro C2 (Sidechaining)
7. Slate Digital Fresh Air (Bass Bus)
Please consider that these are not a must or strict processors & values! This is my vision of mixing the basses I usually work with, so my goal is to help some of you to make your bass sound better.
As you can see, there are a lot of plugins from FabFilter plugin company. Have in mind that I don't use them always! I mainly use them for visual presentation of what I'm doing, and I also use them quite often in my work. I use various processors that I'll surely mention in more blogs. For now, let's stick with some of these.
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Technique 1: Fixing overlapping / masking
This requires careful listening and good judgements to get right.
The very first thing I do when mixing bass is I put an EQ and look for overlapping (frequency masking) between my kick and bass. Using FabFilter Pro Q3's spectrum analyzer, I can see exactly where that happens, so I can attenuate those frequencies on my bass to make more space for my kick to live in the frequency spectrum. There are various techniques to do that, and many of them are explained in my EQ Masterclass!
Technique 2: Compression
Go easy with compression first and then exaggerate. It can easily destroy the bass if not used correctly.
There are different compression approaches and techniques depending on the bass you want to achieve.
In this example, I used a FabFilter Pro C2 with higher ration (6:1), medium-slow attack and slightly slower release (to control the sustain of my notes). 3-6dB of gain reduction is absolutely enough for this purpose.
To get even extra, try using 1176 with fast attack, fast release or LA-2A when compressing your bass. Both work & sound great!
In this example, I used a FabFilter Pro C2 with higher ration (6:1), medium-slow attack and slightly slower release (to control the sustain of my notes). 3-6dB of gain reduction is absolutely enough for this purpose.
To get even extra, try using 1176 with fast attack, fast release or LA-2A when compressing your bass. Both work & sound great!
Technique 3: Saturation
In this case I used FabFilter Saturn, but you can also try using Slate Digital VTM or Acustica's Dynamic Saturator
Using saturation, I like to make my bass feel a bit heavier than before. Some tube saturation can do the job perfectly, but I personally also find Acustica Audio & Studio DMI's Dynamic Saturator and Slate Digital Virtual Tape Machines working pretty good on my basses. Maybe their usage wasn't meant for that, but I find them sounding very pleasant and nice. Feel free to always experiment with the tools you have.
Technique 4: Narrowing the bass & amplifying wanted frequencies
You don't have to strictly use a high-pass filter for this. As you can see, I used a low shelf filter on my side channel to narrow the bass' stereo field.
I'll now use FabFilter Pro Q3 to narrow my bass' stereo field, but to also amplify some higher frequencies that I liked. This is all up to how it sounds, so please avoid copying any strict values since they might not sound good on your bass.
Try also experimenting with different processing modes to your liking.
Try also experimenting with different processing modes to your liking.
Technique 5: Removing noise
A multiband compressor will do a great job for this.
If your bass guitar recording sounds a bit noisy (which is a very common case), try using a downward expansion which works very similar to a gate, but focus this one on higher frequencies since that's where the noise is mostly located at.
Consider that this is not necessary in every single recording, but if you experience this problem, try this solution in your session.
Consider that this is not necessary in every single recording, but if you experience this problem, try this solution in your session.
Technique 6: Sidechaining
We went for FabFilter Pro C2 as our sidechain compressor.
This is pretty straight-forward and I believe that almost every single of you reading this know what sidechain compression is. It's basically a process of ducking one element in order to make the space for the other one (kick & bass for example). We'll basically set the compressor to duck our bass down whenever our kick hits and that's how we managed to make the kick & bass work together in the mix (besides other processing - sidechaining is not enough in many cases).
Technique 7: Bass Bus Trick
Free plugin: Slate Digital - Fresh Air.
Here's one trick that you might find very useful! One thing that I find very interesting is putting Slate's Fresh Air on my Bass Bus to give it more excitement. Yes, this is not how this plugin was meant to be used, but why wouldn't we experiment a bit? I amplified my bass using a very subtle settings and it sounded very nice! Try is out in your next session.
Conclusion:
Consider that there are countless of other ways to process your bass and make it sound great. These were some of the techniques I personally use and I also saw many other engineers use them too. You're very free to disagree and use your own methods which I respect. Everyone has their way of working and adapting the sound to what they're aiming for, so do I.
If you want to add a recommendation for the future blog post and get featured on, feel free to reach to our DM on Instagram or use our e-mail address: marko@md3sign.com
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