{"id":310,"date":"2008-02-17T02:41:03","date_gmt":"2008-02-17T10:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benvesco.com\/tonemonster\/mixing\/2008\/mix-recipe-bass\/"},"modified":"2009-11-14T21:17:33","modified_gmt":"2009-11-15T05:17:33","slug":"mix-recipe-bass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.benvesco.com\/blog\/mixing\/2008\/mix-recipe-bass\/","title":{"rendered":"Mix Recipes: Bass EQ and Compression"},"content":{"rendered":"

The bass guitar is an important element of every contemporary mix even though it rarely plays a prominent role. Sometimes the bass is felt rather than heard while other mixes have the bass in a much more audible sonic space. Your home recording studio is well equipped to shape your bass tracks as long as you have a basic equalizer and compressor. <\/p>\n

The bass big three<\/em>: girth, definition, attack<\/h3>\n

Girth<\/strong> is a good description for the lowest fundamental frequencies of your bass track. These frequencies give your bass most of its low end energy and sustain. Too much girth will make your mix muddy while not enough will leave a thin sound or give an unnatural relationship as you try to make other instruments fill in these key frequencies. Start your search in the 80-100Hz range while looking for girth. A low to moderate boost will typically do the trick if your bass needs some help in this range. If you find yourself needing to use a more extreme boost to enhance girth then you would do well to also use a high pass filter<\/a> to keep from adding too much in the sub-bass frequencies.<\/p>\n

Definition<\/strong> helps the listener to pick out the melodic structure of the bass line. Our ears have a difficult time determining pitch at low frequencies. While the girth <\/em>allows the listener to feel<\/em> the power of the bass line, definition<\/em> allows the shape<\/em> of the bass line to come forward. The midrange frequencies are most important while trying to define a bass sound. A good start is a healthy boost aound 800Hz, but sweep around<\/a> to find the sweet spot.<\/p>\n

Attack<\/strong> is the result of either the pick or the fingers plucking each note. A strong attack will provide your bass track with its rhythmic percussiveness. The attack helps draw the ear to the beginning of each note. Dense mixes where the bass lacks attack tend to give the bass a sound of sliding around from note to note without any real rhythmic excitement. This might be fine if you are specifically going for that effect but is generally not what we want. Look in the 3-5kHz area to find your attack. Your bass track will cut through your mix more as you boost this range. Be careful not to boost too much unless you want your bass to come right to the front of the mix.<\/p>\n

There are a few frequency ranges you can work on if you find your bass taking up too much sonic space in your mix. Some gentle cutting in the 200-500Hz window can work wonders for cleaning up the track. Be very careful though because the on the low side you could affect the important girth<\/em> of your instrument while the high side gets perilously close to hurting your track’s definition<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Bass big three eq quick chart<\/h3>\n

More girth +6dB at 80Hz
\nMore definition +8dB at 800Hz
\nMore attack +4dB at 3.0kHz
\nLess mud -3dB at 220Hz<\/p>\n

Bass eq recipes<\/h3>\n

Start here for a modern slap and pop type sound<\/p>\n