Sorting out the low end in a mix can be daunting. Here is some practical advice for keeping those vital bass frequencies both powerful and in check.

Mixing low-end can be a frustrating task for engineers, both new and experienced. Not only do low frequencies come from a variety of instruments, but bass is prone to exaggeration by irregular home studio acoustics and hyped monitors, leading many to compensate with decisions that disrupt the mix balance.

Following the tips below, you’ll learn how to remedy low-end issues and mix tighter bass tracks that translate outside of the home studio.

1. Start with the Room and Monitors

As mentioned, many of the problems we face while mixing low-end stem not from the music, but the room we work in and how we position monitors.

Let’s consider monitors first. Because of the small size of most home studios, many people who work in them will place their desk and monitors up against a wall to save space. This is a mistake, since the back wall can reflect low frequencies and make the bass sound much bigger than it is at select resonant frequencies. Positioning monitors in the corner of a room is even worse, because there are now two surfaces to reflect of off!

To compensate for this bass boost, you might cut too much low end with EQ or turn your bass level unusually low. This is further complicated by the fact you will only hear the consequences of these decisions when you preview your mix on another playback system, like a friend’s car stereo. If you can, pull your setup away from the wall by about a foot to minimize the intensity of these reflections. You may want to dig up your monitors’ manual while you’re at it; many manufactures offer tips on ideal placement inside.

This being said, your monitor brand and positioning mean very little if your room is an acoustic nightmare to begin with. Though room optimization is about the least exciting part of mixing (to me, at least) you need to treat your room to get the best translation for your music. It’s quite difficult to apply the other tips below if you don’t.

Since this topic can go on for many more words than I have space for here, I suggest you visit the excellent SonicScoop article Acoustic Treatment for the Small Studio for the nitty gritty. Alternatively, you can watch the related video below, which provides tips on how to make your own acoustic panels.

2. Mix Bass According to Genre

In addition to its functional role in supporting groove and harmony, properly mixed low-end also signifies its genre. A distorted 808 immediately evokes the bounce of modern trap. Arpeggiated synth basses bring us into eighties pop territory. Want a jazzier touch? Reach for the nearest upright bass, and be sure to use its electronic counterpart for forays into fusion.

To gain perspective on your mix, take occasional breaks to compare what you have to a genre-specific reference track, especially when navigating unknown musical territory. If you mix an indie rock bass guitar with the deep ferocity of a hip-hop sub, there will be no room left for the kick to provide momentum.

Genre can give you cues as to what should be the lowest element in your mix. By definition, you can’t have more than one instrument be the lowest, and if you try, you’ll tend to end up with plenty of clutter and muddiness. So what will it be? The bass? The kick? A bass synth? The norms of the genre at hand can help point you in the right direction.

Considering the acoustic anomalies inherent in most home and small studios, you also stand to benefit simply from a sonic compass. When your low-end sounds strange, pull up your reference to check if it sounds the same way. If it does, you know the issues lie—at least partly—in your room and equipment. This way you can avoid making your mix worse by trying to “fix” problems that aren’t really there. And if the reference sounds just the way you expected it to? You can now identify the changes you need to make to get your mix up to par.

3. Unmask the Kick and Bass with Inverse EQ Curves

If you finish a mix without a peace treaty signed by the kick and bass, have you really finished the mix at all? Well, technically yes. But it’s rare that a mix is completed to any satisfaction without a struggle to get these two instruments to play nice.

The cause of their rocky relationship is frequency masking: since the bass shares similar frequencies with the kick, whenever both instruments land together, your monitors get overloaded with low-end, and the louder of the two will mask the other. Some masking can be prevented in the writing and arranging stages by having simplifying your kick patterns and taking a back seat whenever a busy bass part comes in—and vice versa—but this can be a tough restriction to give yourself, and isn’t always an option if you are only recording or mixing a project.

In search of a quick, painless solution when mixing, you might put a brutal high-pass filter on one or even both of these instruments, compromising the balance of the mix by scooping out tons of low-end. But in many cases a few strategic moves with EQ are enough to get you out of the woods.

If your kick is the lowest element in the mix, boost its fundamental, which is usually around 50-60 Hz, and then attenuate those same frequencies on the bass to avoid overwhelming your speakers. With the kick cutting through, turn your attention to the bass and boost warm (or gnarly) overtones around 200-400 Hz, making an inverse cut on the kick. These numbers are generalizations, so you’ll need to trust your ears (and eyes) to locate the qualities you want to emphasize and the problematic frequencies you need to clear out.

For more precise direction, consider the Masking Meter in iZotope’s Neutron 2 plug-in. It will monitor two chosen tracks (kick and bass, and otherwise), highlighting the areas with masking in a graph where you can EQ them in tandem.

4. Split Your Bass for Intelligibility

Though it may sound like a single instrument, it’s not uncommon for the massive basslines we admire in songs to be a blend of multiple tracks. For those who struggle to manage their low-end, splitting bass into layers will certainly help you gain some control.

Like most things in music production and mixing, intention is key, so before piling on multiple bass tracks (which will eventually shrink the impression given by your low end through competition), be sure to assign a specific purpose to each layer. Here are a few tricks:

-Get subwoofers woofing by programming a sine wave to double a midrange bass in the lower register. In EDM and modern takes on Reggaeton and R&B, the sine is often tucked just below the kick instead. Alternate between dry kicks and reinforced ones for a rocking rhythm or throw things off-kilter by placing some sine notes just before the kick, like Solange did in “Don’t Touch My Hair”.

-Add bite to round, sustained basses by layering them with a dirtier plucked synth that has a short attack. Since you don’t need much low-end here, a filtered white noise oscillator and bitcrusher can provide the same mileage.

-To help a bassline cut through laptop speakers and other tiny playback devices, stack it with a bright, square wave synth rich in upper harmonics. When the synth goes silent, occupy up the empty space with a solo bass fill for ear candy. If the synth influences the musical direction too much, try harmonic distortion an octave up from the original bass fundamental instead.

No matter the layering technique, remember to use EQ and compression to define the individual bass ranges and clean up any unnecessary frequencies.

5. Give the Low-Mid Range the Attention It Deserves

A lot of the time, what we perceive as “weight” in the bass does not come from frequencies 50 Hz and below, but from those in the low-mid range, which is between 150 Hz to 400 Hz. The snap of kicks and basslines—and the boomier parts of snares, guitars and keyboards—all stray into the low-mids, so if left unattended to, this crossing point can easily become overcrowded and muddy the mix.

Then what’s an engineer to do? When it comes to instruments that are more useful in the mid and high frequency ranges, you should feel comfortable filtering out some lows, while being careful not to thin out the mix too much. This way the kick and bass will come through with more impact. If it’s appropriate, try panning secondary instruments like keys and pads away from the center to make room for low-end sounds, which usually stay put at 12 o’clock.

If your mix feels too flat in this range, boost the upper harmonics of your bassline with an EQ. Opening up the filter on a synth bass and letting in some higher frequencies can help too.

6. Get Surgical with Sidechain

Though sidechain compression has certainly established itself as a utility of spartan power, capable of punching through layers of synths and samples anytime the kick needs to come through, it is equally useful in subtler applications, substituting in a dynamic EQ.

Let’s imagine you have a lively, acoustic bassline that keeps fumbling over the kick drum. Even with gentle settings in place, a Daft Punk-style sidechain configuration might be too aggressive, since it ducks the entire bass signal and not just the parts clashing with the kick.

You’ll have better luck setting up a dynamic EQ or multiband compressor to select only the bass frequencies that are masking the kick, so the pumping effect is less noticeable, but still active. To hear both elements with clarity, set the attack time long enough for bass transients to come through and the release fast enough to let go of the kick before the next one arrives.

Though nothing should stop you from using sidechain as a creative pulsating effect, now you can take advantage of an alternative option whenever more subtlety is desired.

Daniel Dixon is a music producer and writer who lives in Montreal, Canada.

Please note: When you buy products through links on this page, we may earn an affiliate commission.