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Need some advise in on how to mastering kick and bass in Metal Style


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Well as the title say, anyone may be experienced in this style, to help me

in a power metal track for exemple, in some music muted rythm guitar, bass and kick are blasted together,

but the probleme is kick and bass is sharing the little frequencies,

This may result to have to ear the kick and we don't ear the bass so much or vice versa,

well in other style of music we can solve this problem by make for exemple a Slide chain,

but when kick and bass are blasted like that, forgive it, i have the idea to take the bass volume control down only one bass for two,

i may be become a more instersting result, but realy there is not other better way, or even a real way to solve this problem ?

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Well, one general thought is to emphasize frequencies in each part that don't have to overlap. That way you can still clearly hear instruments without worrying about muddiness. For example, although the kick can have lots of low sub-bass frequency content, you might choose to cut some of that and punch up the upper bass (100-200Hz). Similarly with the guitars. Although they can have lots of lower frequencies, you might choose to emphasize the lower mids (around 500 Hz).

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First of all, this is very compressed! If that's the sound you're going for, fine, but while you're mixing it and changing the EQ, I'd take the compression off. This much can severely change the relative volume of the instruments and you don't want to have to deal with that AND the stuff that's sharing the same frequencies.

Secondly, it sounds like you still have a lot of lower frequencies to play with. I'd try increasing the low frequencies on the kick and lowering the volume of the bass. Also, since the bass is playing such high notes in it's range (starting around C3) I'd layer the bassline with a simple sine synth an octave below what you have here. Add only enough volume to punch up the sound without making it muddy.

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I'm not the biggest metal expert who ever lived, but in most forms of metal, you want the kick drum to be kind of "clicky" without a lot of low end but tons of attack and have the guitars and bass provide the bassiness. This works especially well when the bass drum is very busy like in double bass-heavy styles. In some metal styles, the bass is pretty inaudible, but if you do want it to be heard, cut the guitars' bass frequencies as well and boost the bass at 250 and 500 Hz, which will give it a nice "body" so it won't be just rumble.

Plus, I'd advise against using any mastering effects that are supposed to "excite" the low end, in my experience this will only cause mud when it comes to songs of this type.

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Metal music has a sort of both thumpin' and clickin' bass. You gotta find the balance. Some of today's metal you'll hear more clickin' than thumpin'.

For that type of attack, add some EQ (parametric or graphic. I prefer parametric) and spike it at around 5K. Don't spike it too much though. Adjust the Q if you have to. And to add more thump to it i'd raise at about 100. Again, not too much. Just enough to get a little sub on it. It's gonna take some trial and error but you'll see what I mean.

If anything, don't be afraid to tinker with things. We can point you in the right direction but from there try to find what seems fitting for your ear. Never be afraid to experiment.

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