jordanrooben Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 What stage of production is it best to handle the bass in, mixing or mastering? I imagine one would either mix the bass to be louder in the mix, or EQ out more bass frequencies during mastering. Which is better, or does it depend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skrypnyk Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Mixing . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PROTO·DOME Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Mixing ./thread10char Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chimpazilla Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Jordan, definitely the bulk of bass processing should occur during mixing. You will most likely eq the bass to cut out extreme lows (below 30Hz) fairly aggressively, then probably you'll want to cut out some mud anywhere from 200-400Hz (use your ears, don't cut too aggressively). Depending on the patch or sample, you may want to boost (slightly) anywhere from 2000-3000Hz to bring out the click or pluck or attack. As for mastering, you may want to use a mastering compressor, gently, to melt the highest peaks (typically bass and kick and/or snare) into a cohesive range, then finish it up with a limiter to catch the wild peaks from going over 0db (just make sure the track isn't crushed or overcompressed after you limit, then something is definitely too loud, go back and rebalance the instruments). What stage of production is it best to handle the bass in, mixing or mastering? I imagine one would either mix the bass to be louder in the mix, or EQ out more bass frequencies during mastering. Which is better, or does it depend? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dannthr Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Mastering is simply the process of preparing a track for publishing to a specified media format. You shouldn't be designing a sound with it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 I would say a little of both, actually. I create or reuse some of my own bass sounds, craft it, etc. In mixing the song I naturally adjust the EQ on the bass mixer track as I go, with a subtle high pass on the Master at about 35Hz. I don't touch EQ on the master, otherwise. I consider mastering to be both what Dan said and the processing you do on the Master track to finalize a song. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rozovian Posted February 14, 2013 Share Posted February 14, 2013 Most of you guys say master when you mean finalize. As for the question, yeah, mixing, unless you consider sound design to be separate from mixing. In this case, consider starting by building an intense bass and then shaping the other instruments around that. Get your intense bass and then make it work with the kick, snare and lead. once you're there, the rest should be just a question of not making anything else so loud that it interferes with those, and you should have your intense bass right there. That's not to say there aren't things you can do in finalizing the track that'll add to it, but you definitely won't make it intense by taking a meh bess and expecting a multiband compressor on the whole mix to turn it intense. Bass-y, sure (at a cost of eg dynamics), but intense? Nope. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
volterock Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 On a side note, while you're mixing, use psychoacoustics to make the bass really intense. Something like maxx bass adds a perceived low frequency and HPFs below the physical limits of a speaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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