3 Controversial Tips for GREAT Low End

Get a big, powerful low end that sounds good on ALL speakers with these 3 mix tips.
☛ Learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes with my FREE Mixing Cheatsheet: mixcheatsheet.com
Watch This Next: The TRUTH About Proper Gain Staging in Your Mix • The TRUTH About Proper...
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MY FAVORITE GEAR:
Computer / Interface:
Mac M1 Studio Max sweetwater.sjv...
Avid Carbon sweetwater.sjv...
Apogee Duet 3 sweetwater.sjv...
Monitors / Headphones:
Avantone CLA-10a sweetwater.sjv...
Audio Technica ATH-M50 sweetwater.sjv...
Microphones:
Shure SM57 sweetwater.sjv...
AKG D112 sweetwater.sjv...
Sennheiser e604 sweetwater.sjv...
Shure SM7b sweetwater.sjv...
AKG C451b sweetwater.sjv...
Shure SM81 sweetwater.sjv...
Audio Technica AT4050 sweetwater.sjv...
Preamps/Outboard:
API 3124 sweetwater.sjv...
EL8 Distressor sweetwater.sjv...
Favorite Plugins:
BSA Clipper blacksaltaudio...
Escalator blacksaltaudio...
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Waves Platinum waves.alzt.net...
Slate Trigger 2 sweetwater.sjv...
SoundToys Rack sweetwater.sjv...
Auto-tune Pro sweetwater.sjv...
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Instruments / Amps:
Ludwig Black Beauty Snare sweetwater.sjv...
Gibson Les Paul sweetwater.sjv...
Evertune Guitars sweetwater.sjv...
Fender Jazz Bass sweetwater.sjv...
Sansamp Bass Driver DI sweetwater.sjv...
EVH 5150 sweetwater.sjv...
Mesa 2x12 cab sweetwater.sjv...

[@leonkloosterman]

A few years ago I bought an 7 dollar ebook of you, it’s still the best mixing course I ever bought. Love that your advice is consistent over the years.

[@JESOS101]

Learning mixing from a book sounds pretty damn smart. It must save a ton of time to not just learn by trial and error.

[@DRUGSdify]

would you mind sharing the link to get this book? or the name!

[@apocalypsem4553]

Send me that bro

[@leonkloosterman]

@@DRUGSdify it was a few years ago. The book is called the harcore mixing guide. If I remind correctly.

[@leonkloosterman]

@@apocalypsem4553 don’t know if that is allowed.

[@syzerx6789]

I don't think I've ever had such substantial improvement on my mixes from any KZbinr's advice than yours. My mixes now compared to a year ago just following what you say has dramatically improved my sound and workflow.

[@albertoochoa5468]

A few weeks ago I listened to one of my mixes from 15 years ago, when I really didn't know anything about audio, and I was blown away. This video validated my impression. There was a point where I started following every magic trick, side-chain compression, plugins for the low end. and then I compared my "experienced" mix vs when I used to just use my gut and go for it without knowing "rules" or whatever, and although my mixes back then were mostly crap, The low end was excellent. now my mixes might sound better, but I'm always struggling with that low end, so purchased even more plugins and looked for more tricks, and it always resulted in a big pile of mud. Although I'm not a pro mixer yet and I'm striving to be better every day, this might have been one of the biggest revelations i've had in a long time. I appreciate you for sharing this! I look forward to continuing to learn from you. THANK YOU!

[@trevorbennett]

I’ve been watching KZbin mixers for over a year, but I found this channel a couple days ago, and I feel like you’ve immediately leveled up my skills more than anyone on here. You say so many things I’ve never heard that also make perfect sense. Thank you!

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

Thanks! That’s awesome

[@BrofUJu]

CLA has specifically said he doesn't worry about the idea of carving out frequencies. It really depends on the source audio.

[@Atezian]

Those two sentences are completely unrelated to each other.

[@BurntMcgurnt]

​@@Atezianwrong...I got what they...and Chris was saying here

[@mcpribs]

This is the difference between (a professional) EQing while the mix plays, and (am amateur) mixing in solo. Those amateur moves are great for learning and understanding, but the sooner one can hear how the moves they make affect the whole mix, the greater their mixes improve. Great vid, as always! Thanks!

[@paytonandersonn]

I'm no guru in mixing but I think the most useful advice I've ever received is... "make the song work." If you want to boost something... boost it. If you want to cut something... cut it. Just make the song work. That all starts with a vision on how you want the song to sound and THAT is the most important thing, in my opinion. Great tutorial and definitely "controversial" but good to hear.

[@Middlestepofficial]

Speaking of subwoofers in a studio, I can share some tips as I learned and kept using subwoofers always. 1st, it can show you if your room needs a treatment by using sine wave signals to pinpoint dead spots in low frequencies. 2nd, you can use a subwoofer to create a low end reference point from songs that you like how they sound elsewhere (your car, headphones, stereo system, etc.). By using reference tracks, you can balance the sound between your monitors and subwoofer to create a monitoring environment to hear low frequencies that are otherwise inaudible on generic speakers. Last but not least, helps immensely during mono mixing so you can see whether there is balance in the low end of your mix.

[@MisterGribbles]

I came to the same conclusion through a different path. im the bass player in the band as well doing the mixes and I use to carve out my basslines to make room for the kick. So recently after years of going through a multitude of gear and setups and finally having found that illusive bass tone in my head, i sat down with a mix and went fuck it im not going mess with my bass tone. So i just slammed it together with the kick. It was a pure WTF moment because other than some mild pultec, compression and fader balancing, that low end was perfect.

[@bakerlefdaoui6801]

People tend to forget that timbre is what makes seperation in first place. If a group of instruments share similar timbre than maybe carving out frequencies makes sense. But very often a kick and bass guitar will have very distinct timbres, therefore negating the absolute need of making space in frequency domaine. The density of the mix is the key here.

[@Brandon-RZ]

Listening to KZbin mixers literally wasted about a year of my learning. With the separating everything. Spot on.

[@marcusgarveyson]

You’ve made my mixes better with your advice . I use to spend hours on kick and bass now now I only spend a couple minutes and getting better result by focusing on the overall sound and vibe on of the mix and I realize that when I do this it makes mixing much more fun for me and more than that I make less moves than I did before because and now every move I make is to make the song better and not to make an individual element of the song sound good ..thanks again and I work in a complete different genre than you do which makes what you are saying so legitimate

[@herscarletletter]

Bro, Jordan, you deserve so much credit for everything you’ve given to the community man. You easily have the best mixing advice channel available on this platform. Hands down 💯 So thank you for all the growth & insight! This channel is a life-changer my guyyy🙌🏼🤍 🔊 🎶

[@lowstringc]

As an Orchestral musician/conductor, I've always been mildly confused at the "I need to hear this instrument separately" focus. In an orchestra, your goal is to blend and create different timbres by mixing different instrument timbres together to form the new, intended sound. Sometimes a part needs to come out of the texture and be prominent, but if that is the case, the composer crafted the music around it to allow that to happen (or chose an instrument with a timbre and register that stands out). Perhaps it's an idea in music today that everyone in the band wants to be a focal point instead of serving the music/song as a whole? ("I want people to hear how awesome I am in this song..." instead of blending to serve the music.) If the texture of a song is too full and overlaps, then trying to artificially separate out the constituent parts in a mix seems a bit futile and harmful to the music; the band needs to consider that in the writing phase, not expect you to deal with a bad composition in post. I always assume (often incorrectly) that the band intended to blend the things that overlap....

[@sebastiencloutier9209]

a lot of band indeed does not think about "taking their place" in a mix in their tones or composition!!! I think you pointed out a good part of that problem!

[@TakeHit0]

Orchestral music isn't bass heavy though. Listen to it om a set of good speakers. Literally none of them makes your sub go boom. Heavy bass has never been a problem yall had to deal with. This is a modern music problem.

[@practice4089]

yup! we can learn a lot just by going through classical scores. they are the masters of form and arrangement, instrumentation and dynamics. and just one person doing it all. classical composers are foorkin amazing

[@AndyA1234]

@@TakeHit0 I think your missing his point. When an orchestra is going full tilt, with amplification remember, you can still hear the piccolo, for example, based on it's timbre, frequency and placement.

[@TakeHit0]

@@AndyA1234 You know it's a very common problem that the entire string section gets masked by the brass section and becomes almost inaudible. Anyone who thinks you can cure mixing problems with "good arrangement" has 0 understanding of basic audio engineering.

[@jprnn]

Watching this video, it dawned on me what was ruining the low end in my mixes. Or at least why I struggled so many times. From now on I'll leave the 100-400Hz range alone, unless there's an actual problem goin on :D Thank you for this video!

[@johnmichael6441]

My thoughts exactly

[@kelvinfunkner]

wish I'd have seen this video like...15yrs ago...had to learn these things the hard way as well...especially the low mid tip...and totally true for vocals as well...so many times I would scoop out all the mid lows, sacrificing all the warmth and intimacy of the vocals for "clarity"...all it did was make the vocals sound thin and powerless...such great tips Jordan! Glad you're helping folks escape the pitfalls of KZbin and providing actual real world advice that works.

[@marcvanhie4425]

Thank you for the advice Jordan. You are right, we've gotten brainwashed about cutting and making sound everything small and separate and then... we are trying every plugin we have to make it glue again. Pretty funny when you think about that. 🙃

[@jn1346]

I remembering reading an interbiew with Gordon Raphael about working on the first Strokes album. He said Julian kept begging him to take the bass out of the bass and turn the drums WAY below what was being played on the radio. Raphael said he kept saying "it wont work it wont work" until he finally tried it to humor Julian. t ended up being the sound that shaped their first two albums and had the entire rock world chasing still to this day lol. just do what works. no rules!

[@SkeleMusic]

Wow interesting just went to listen.. how thin! The drums are so quiet too its mostly julians voice and guitars

[@jn1346]

@@SkeleMusic seriously! those albums are freaks of nature from an engineering and production standpoint i highly recommend reading Gordons memoirs from those sessions.

[@JWVLL]

You nailed it man. For a few years I would watch tutorials and take ideas and sort of catalogue them as TO DO's/NOT TO DO's in my mind. Though the past year or so I've broke free from that, and like you said, began to just use my intuition and my ears to guide my process. My mixes are ten fold better now IMO.

[@giordash]

Love the honesty here. I'd even zoom out another layer and posit that you should not subscribe to any mix move, whether it's to take something out or leave something alone, as a default approach of any kind (I think you've mentioned this in a previous video). The language chosen here is so perfect "it's called mixing for a reason". One's responsibility as a mixer is to find some way of getting the different elements to coexist in a pleasing way. How you get/got there is completely irrelevant to any other song you've mixed or will mix. It's therefore important to accept that the tools and/or techniques needed to accomplish the task will change just as the music does. What I've found for myself is that having a sonic target or ideal can not only be defeating to your morale if you don't achieve it, but extremely damaging to that which makes music fundamentally conversational: reaction. As a musician, you learn your craft so that when it is called upon you to deliver it, you can react without having to think about what it is you're doing. You just play. Mixing should be the same. When you hear the track, you shouldn't have to think too hard about what you're going to do. If you've spent enough time honing your skills and your taste has informed those skills, you'll be too busy reacting to the music to stop and consider much.

[@mikakettunen7939]

You are a wise man and you speak very transparently about everything, therefore I listen to your words with certain level of trust - kudos and thank you

[@michaelobrist4716]

Yeah man. I've learned mixing mainly from KZbin and during the last three years I've obsessively watched so many clips about mixing and gained a huge knowledge about it. Still my actual mixes didn't really improve although I was applying all the tips and tricks I've seen on various channels. And have made an acceptable mix it had to do more with luck than anything else. UNTIL I FOUND YOUR CHANNEL! All those basic, somehow controversial concepts (focus on midrange, don't use reverb, compress and eq the hell out of your tracks etc.) you shared were just exactly the the problems I was facing but I didn't have the guts to simply change them, because, you know, KZbin told me not to... My mixes since then improved drastically and yet the steps were so obvious in retrospect. I don't blame other KZbinrs and I wouldn't say that what they're telling is wrong but especially in hardcore and punk rock there are just other methods required than, let's say, EDM. So thanks a lot for your words of truth. They had a huge impact on me.

[@gregfender]

I loved the Dr Brule reference! I also love this perspective. I’ve found I’ve been much happier with my mixes since I’ve stopped caring about what I “should” do and just started adjusting things based on what I was hearing.

[@WanderingWizard-]

Thank you. This was eye-opening. Got the fullest, best sounding mix I ever made thanks to your videos. I used to cut too much and do side chains everywhere. It sounded lifeless and hollow. Not it sounds like a record. I also simplified the virtual tape machine usage. Now i have one 16track on the mix bus, and that's all. That sound better than applying it to individual tracks imo

[@LyoshaTheZebra]

Great stuff. I produce and mix my own stuff but over the years I found myself in the same spot regarding the low end, I can approve of all three points.

[@DerekPower]

I know you've touched on this in other videos, but what I find interesting is that a lot of the "problems" that arise in the mixing stage could have been addressed - or even be non-issues - in the earlier stages, especially in the arrangement. I have found that mixing should really be about making those individual elements work together for a greater whole. You only need to put in additional processing when it will best serve the element for the entire whole (again, "stop mixing in solo" ;) ). In fact, even though I have accrued over 600 plug-ins that are processors, I have found myself being very minimal in using them. I think it's because I have chosen instruments well and what they play, thus having little need for additional processing. Furthermore, I've also learned - and I think this also came from you - that you should get a good mix from levels and panning alone. And finally, be prepared to hear a lot about tonal balance. While I definitely understand that it is preferred to have a song that sounds full across the whole hearing spectrum, especially when played at loud volume (Fletcher-Munson at play), this can also become one of those "mixing to an idea" rather than mixing with your ears. Sometimes a song will be more on the lower side and less on the higher side. That can be OK, especially when you are happy with how it sounds.

[@KK-hp5bl]

I have seen about maybe 10 of your videos and I'm starting to realize that I have learned more than a 100 videos from other you tube mixers,so that's a good thing ha!!! thank you!!!

[@marekvoosen]

But don´t you automatically cut the low mids by boosting all the frequencies around?

[@eightfootmanchild]

As someone who mixes my own music - a cardinal sin in and of itself, I know - I appreciate the help. I always try something new on every mix, so I'll def be giving these tips a shot.

[@joeyvpoisonfree]

Bro I only learned how to mix so I could do my own stuff and I am starting to think it was a mistake lmao I have such a hard time committing and moving on, I have been mixing the same handful of songs for like 5 years it’s insane

[@crookedriverstudios]

Guys mixing your own music can be a great way to learn and practice if you give yourself deadlines and are realistic about the results. Just make sure it translates to other projects. Keep going kings

[@MisterGribbles]

@@joeyvpoisonfree bro i know how you feel. my advice is if your dead set on mixing your own music, dont make the same mistake i made. DO NOT SELF LEARN. Do a proper course something. You wont have to deal with all the frustration plus youll save a lot of your precious time.

[@mrcoatsworth429]

So many people get into mixing so they can mix their own music. I don't think it's bad at all. Just can be difficult to "distance" yourself from the song in the mixing phase. It's way more difficult to just mute an instrument, if the mix calls for it, when it's your own song.

[@drnabs872]

@@crookedriverstudios 🙏

[@kowloonbroadcast]

overall very solid points. yet I’ve got to ask, why in the 1st example of carving the frequencies of kick and bass for each other go for such extremes as bell boost on bass on ~60Hz and carve kick eq with a full blown high pass to oppose the first move? of course the kick will loose the weight and power with a cut around 80Hz lol(?). Really the opposite move will actually work quite often in case it’s the similar weight of the opposite move - for a bell-boost on bass -> a relatively similar bell-cut on a kick track and the power in the mix stays preserved, etc. just to clarify i do think all of these techniques are surely valid, a freq overlap is certainly possible and preferred in the most instances to any other options but the symmetrically opposite eq move would do the trick in other cases, and it’s a good chunk of cases really

[@ultrajayme]

I produce drum and bass and I have never mixed or produced with a woofer. Good monitors and trusting your ears and balancing that with some simple eq settings and maybe a couple other things is all you need

[@HumanBeingWithFeelings]

I'm trying to overcome the "intermediate" level and this is just what I needed to hear, thanks

[@AnalogAndroids]

Thanks for confirming my suspicions. Thought I was going rogue with my second album on the low end but I did a lot of what you’re covering and I’m way happier with the sound! 🤘🤘

[@imagenesmentales]

This advices are what I needed to hear since I've been doing the most complex mixes (without the best results) for almost a decade, because of all the other KZbin tutorials. This is my new favorite channel to learn music production

[@brianholtzmusicsound]

Hey! I stopped cutting my low mids and my chronic back pain cleared up overnight! Also, now Im the life of the party and its girls, girls, girls! But seriously, this is great and very sound advice. And it works! In an ocean of same sounding, opinion-style advice, going against the current is well worth considering.

[@AudioReplica2023]

So true. I remember when I stared mixing I was using a tascam 2488 where no displays, no freq analysis or all of that was visible ...just a simple 3 point eq to use. Today I hear those mixes and I can swear they sound way richer , full and better balanced than what ive done in the last 7 years using DAW with bunch of visual plugins . I think is due to the fact back then I wasn't really thinking about frequencies and carvin and non of that, was just listening and making moves. Compression was something I really had to decided if was really needed or not in order to compress then bounce into a track ...no going back.

[@TraxtasyMedia]

Nice tutorial, I already try to separate kick and bass in the arrangement phase of a project, just to save a huge amount of time, before going into mixing, but I leave them on different channels, just to avoid phase issues and muddyness in the tracks.

[@davejohnsonmusic]

I'm guilty of carving. I think my low end has gotten way better with this approach for the most part, especially the punch, but I will have to pay closer attention and hear if I'm cutting when I shouldn't be. Thanks man.

[@seles1991]

Incredible advice man. And not subtle at all the energy was completely different. So much more power in the ‘glued’ version

[@roaramplification4885]

I really like your mindset. Spot on! I've gotten so confused about these "carving out frequenices"" tips, cause I've found them contradictory. I've always thought of overlapping frequencies as a "chorus" effect, at least for tone instruments: guitars, bass, vocals and so on. For rock and metal there are usually 2 guitars and a bass that are bold in the 100Hz to 200Hz, which gives a swirling chorus effect for that "big bottom end" that can also be heard on small bluetooth speakers. In the same way I'm not a fan of Hi-cutting... i.e. distortion guitars. A shelving filter often works better, which leaves some "air". But when it comes to how drums are interacting with the tone instruments, ofc the "chorus" term might not be so applicable. Here, your explanation makes perfect sense!

[@chaddonal4331]

This (boosting both bass and kick in the same range) makes sense in 2 contexts: 1) To automatically oppositely boost and carve presumes too much. It presumes that they are perfectly frequency balanced to begin with. If the kick and bass are already lower than desired at 60Hz, well then of course they will both be needing increases to bring them to a nominal, pre-optimized, level. So, auto-carving one simply assumes too much. This is why the "follow your ears" approach works. If boosting both creates conflicts -- you'll hear the conflict! And then it might be that opposite carving does work for a particular song or moment. 2. If strong, solid overall bass is what you're looking for or what the song or genre demands. As you mentioned, if they are both boosted, they likely will be compressed (or limited) together in bus processing, and the overages will be addressed there. Meanwhile, the desirable gluing will happen. This is helpful! Thanks for the reminder that the mix principle above all others is: What sounds good IS good.

[@wilhelm2016]

This is my go to channel. I've been producing music for over a decade. Mostly punk rock and music for japanese alternative Idols. These tips produce the most tangible results I've found on youtube. I know a lot, but sometimes If i get stumped I come here and HMS always gets me back on track. Thanks man. Keep up the great content!

[@3Zsoficica]

the tips valid only with very good quality tracks. the tracks you started with required almost no error-correction. this is an ideal case. usually the bass recorded with emphasized sub range, the guitars are scooped, etc.

[@lucysgrays]

Mixing mindset... MIX-SET!!🙏🏾 thank you so much for this. I’m getting into mixing more and I can feel the wisdom in your words. My new mixing sensei, seriously.

[@felixgeorgeault6079]

I usually don't comment that much but I have to. I spent over a year mixing and doing all these mistakes (listening for muddy freqs...) anything that the "mixing youtubers" were saying I did, and boy well it did not work well. And there we are a year later, I found your channel, and listen it might sound like over reacting but I swear I became such a good mixer compare to what I used to be (of course very far from a pro but getting better each day). Anyways that's an obvious way of saying that this guy just KNOWS, he did all these mistakes. He is so right about everything, and of course, don't look just listen...

[@JacobraRecords]

Not cutting mids is the way!! Recently I've been experimenting with mixing the kick ABOVE or BELOW the bass depending on if the low bass notes are living more in the sub (40-60) vs the lows (80-100) and that has made my low end quite a bit punchier and consistent. But I think sometimes I overdo it and the tips here of leaving the overlap is crucial.

[@Bret-c6n]

I like this guy, and I can totally relate to what he's saying in his videos. He has a really useful video called 10 mixing things I didn't know and it's really good and useful thank you for such help

[@TimOost]

Wow with that third example with the low mids was a great example

[@Zachskatesstreet]

can i say u actually helped my mixes. i just tried what you did with the 80 hz for the kick. and now my kick has so much more body and is much more audible throughout my mix for some reason i used to only boost at 60hz for my kick. thankyou

[@RGE_Music]

I mainly work with reggae but this channel is gold

[@paulmackpaulmack]

In the same way that NS-10s help with focusing on the midrange without being distracted by the low end, one can focus on the low end without being distracted by the midrange by temporarily inserting a low pass filter in the monitor path. I find this helpful for quickly checking if the kick fundamental is able to punch against the low end of the bass while still gelling together. Jordan is correct here -- If all is well, there is no need for subtractive EQ.

[@willzoo34]

Thank you for bringing order to the galaxy.

[@pianoatthirty]

I'm so grateful for this video. It really makes sense - just imagine all the great sounding records made before digital audio existed where they weren't able to get so mathematically surgical. I guess this is what really separates the pros from everyone else - pros just use their instincts, everyone else is looking for a copyable 'formula'.

[@bandeyekhoda3943]

Great points man. If I may add some additional tips: almost all of your listeners will use playback systems with terrible low end response, so always double check the low end on phone speakers n earbuds n stuff. Also, allways edit the kick and bass so that they are both on time and in phase with eachother on the accented beats at least. And lastly, these days a lot of producers put out mixes that are technically "wrong" in some aspects (like having super stereo subs, while physically speaking low end frequencies are omnidirectional and don't respond to a wide stereo image; but the audience has gotten used to these "wrongnesses" so don't think you have to be "right" to sound commercial anymore.

[@truckguy3]

Holy shit, FUCKING NAILED IT. My god, thank you thank you thank you. Please shut these KZbin producers who have never made a real record up. Literally ZERO people who I know personally who actually make huge production metal records that many people here probably love, think this way about low end at all. They don’t do that crap at all. They don’t worry about bass and the kick both “occupying” the same area or whatever the hell that means. Use your ears, stop worrying about what you think something is supposed to sound like. I will say though, the elephant in the room with all of this is, you need to treat your room appropriately. And no, that doesn’t mean putting up a few bass traps in the corners and blindly throwing shit on the walls because someone told you that you should do this. I will say, I mix with a sub, but I also have a room designed by one of the best in the world, and have a 12,000 dollar genelec system. But, for the majority of people, you need to get your room right, that’s what all this advice comes back to, and that’s the only way you’ll ever get any of this right. Great job, thanks for putting this up, so much of these topics have needed to be brought to light for YEARS.

[@GoGoGoRunRunRun]

Great video! I make electronic music, but your video just popped up and I thought it might be interesting. I've noticed some time ago that seperating everything does not even work most of the time and of course the game is pretty much lost when you're mixing with numbers and analysers mostly instead of listening for what the track might need. I wasn't really happy with the low end for quite some time and when I went through a ton of tracks, listening to the low end only, there was so much interaction while my tracks were totally dry - just a boring kick and a bland bass. I was working on a track at that time, so I simply disabled all the high pass filters and low shelfs on kick and bass tracks and it made it so much better. Then I went in and tried to boost some areas and switched to shelfing eqs instead of steep high passes for cutting. The improvement was mind blowing. I went back to some of my older tracks that ended up on releases and I they didn't have the ridiculous seperation. I get that being a content creator is hard work and you gotta pick up on trends and follow them if you want to stay on top, but all those 'mono the bass, high pass wherever possible, seperate your tracks, glue everything together'....idk...recently the trend on 'mono the bass' flipped 180 back. Now there are tons of videos telling people to not do it. 😅

[@tyronesellers382]

You may not believe it, but I’ve bought the SSL script for the looks of it and would use it occasionally but didn’t know what I was doing. You just made me understand it way better thank you.😢😅😂❤

[@JESOS101]

Its good that you highlight the fact that there is many ways to get a great sound. Not just what has worked for others in the past🤝

[@Izzy-fh8sr]

Loved your take on the low-mids - for heavy guitars low-mids help give resonance and make a high gain guitar sound full. If you remove too much you can neuter what was otherwise a pretty awesome source track. Of course sculpting is often necessary but again with the low-mid, you can get anemic pretty quickly if you get heavy handed with EQ.

[@producer-bc7us]

Extremely helpful thanks alot.

[@WOODENYOKE]

😅😅😅😮😅😅

[@WOODENYOKE]

😅😅😅😅😅😮😅😅😅😅😊😅😅😅😅😮😅😅😮😅😅😅😅😅5😮😅😅😅😅😮😅😅so 😮😅😮😮

[@TheArkhamRebellion]

Holy shit. I just got good at carving out frequencies for the bass and kick and now you come along with this to blow me out the water. Your bass/kick example around the 4 minute mark really opened my eyes. What I'm now thinking is that maybe both techniques could be used in different parts of the song, eg. the glued way with low shelves would work best with groovy, slower bits whilst more carving might be needed for fast double kick sections?

[@AnthonySigouin]

Everything depends of the context. The results in the examples are not great. In the carved out the kick is way too much cut. In the overlapping one he get a rumbling lacking punch kick and a thin electric bass. The second setup is better but nothing good. In fact, the carved one is the overlapping one because he comes up with the kick and the bass sounding thin one on the other letting the sub empty. And than in the overlapping one the kick take the empty space in the sub and the electric bass keeps its upper place (they do not overlap they complement each other here). It is true that you have to be gentle with placing your elements in the spectrum trying not to cut too much just to make each one its place but overlapping elements in particular in the sub and bass area will create interference/masking (sound is waves) and weakened your elements. Here is a middle ground that you develop with years of practice. In the examples, again, the overlapping sound the fuller because in reality it's the carved one. It's the one where both elements complement each other having each their place to breath (the kick in the sub and the bass upper). He is showing the opposite of what he is talking about. I heard at least 3 bad advices in this video that are not pro advices but more I don't care I go with feel kind of advices or illogical intuitive biased based advices. The one at 9:44 is ridiculous. What I think of this is: You should be able to make the difference between sub frequencies and low mid frequencies. If not, you have to practice more your brain in a analytic way for that. The solution is not not having a sub woofer because you could be fooled. The solution is to learn to hear where you have enough, not enough or too much volume in the FULL spectrum. For that, you need a system, a setup that reproduce the full spectrum. Too much feel and not enough comprehension of what is happening. Feel is absolutely needed (because we are talking about music here) but when comprehension, technicality become an automatism to be able to optimized what we want to convey as emotions. Otherwise we stay with a rough result and don't know why. I would recommend you MixbusTV. This is a professional with professional results and he is really good to explain things with logic and nuances.

[@Justin_the_Analog_IC_architect]

The key thing is: Mix with your ears, not by what someone on KZbin says. I've often been baffled by this separation of the lows thing. I've no idea where that came from and why it became a thing. I see people on YT saying...ah you can clearly hear those low's from the kick and the bass getting in the way of each other....errrrrr....no I can't, sounds fine to me! The mud ting is easy - if it sounds overly muddy, eq the mud out. If it doesn't. leave it alone! For some reason that last part seems to be not obvious to many people.

[@davecopeland5480]

Great sonic info. Usually the numbers don't lie as in "Cut this frequency so that you can heart this instrument better". I'm very interested in what is going on with that snare sound. Sounds wicked. Thanks Jordan.

[@robnagelhoutmusic]

awesome tips! The balance between separation and glue in a mix is always a puzzle, but I agree that as I've progressed I've become less inclined to achieve separation from aggressive eq carving like this, rather using panning and levels. Especially what you were saying on low mids on guitars, if you're hard panning the guitars to either side then you're already getting separation from the bass, so why make them sound thin on the sides just to get them out of the way of a sound that isn't even existing in the same space spectrally.

[@funkaforfan]

Just a few weeks ago I also stopped cutting low mids. Best decision ever.

[@sword-and-shield]

For me it was never a prob of getting low end, it was getting a TIGHT low end, not flabby or flubby, especially tight sub frequencies. A tight low end allows it to be louder and clearer in the mix. As said in the vid, what helped me the most was referencing, soloing, and comparing frequency ranges with other mastered songs being used for reference. This is where I heard, and learned, what a "tight low end was". Achieving it is going to vary depending on the the recordings, but knowing what you need, makes the most difference.

[@joemarta8221]

Love this. I always ignored the scoop-the-mids advice on guitars because I kept thinking, if it sounds good at the source when it's dialed in why would I make big changes after? If it's too woofy then tweak the amp and mic placement first

[@Pitalopin187uu3]

well i've definitely noticed not cutting low-mids prevents the mix from sounding weak. you really just gotta judge by ears. i only mix in solo when i know exactly what i gotta do to get the sound i want or when i need to really get certain frequencies out. maybe multiband compression with a wide q on low-mids just to tame things when they get too loud or if they're affect my compressor afterwards

[@ric8248]

Whether one agrees or not with these concepts, it's always great advice to stop regarding the so called rules as compulsory. l heard about scooping the bass like a million times in KZbin, and this is the first time someone talks about how overlapping frequencies can help glue the instruments together, which is something l've been consistently lacking. So maybe that's what l've been doing wrong. Thanks for the controversial tips, l've been watching a lot of your videos and l've found your approach to be very transparent and inspiring.

[@robonguitarnz]

For me, mine was just taking breaks, best advise ever, refresh your ears.

[@hardcoremusicstudio]

☛ Grab your free Mixing Cheatsheet to learn the go-to starting points for EQ and compression in heavy mixes: mixcheatsheet.com

[@m00nglass41]

Unsecured website :/

[@Il-Cane]

Well i m not 100% with this logic, because depend on the source, i Mix only hardcore EDM music like Hi-Tech, DrumNBass and psytrance. And actually u cant sound competitive with dance music for festivals if u cant hear under 100hz...... There is what makes people move, and you have to sculpt it very careful with highend expensive big monitors ;)

[@Il-Cane]

I mean just to clarify, what you do with your genre is fine.... But you have to say to people that this dont work for everything..

[@prodbyskogs4435]

Wow this video is really what I was missing

[@richardsp2794]

Amen on not scooping out the low mids on guitars if there's no problem there. I have a rock track I've done over 4 times now, every single time mixing by maths and EQ slotting. Super clean and clear.... But guess what? Thin and weedy every time. Followed the fundamental here... Use your damn ears, and there it is. Nice rich mix, nice full guitars and no sacrifice on mix clarity either because I was doing it right further up the spectrum anyway. Great advice, all round.

[@bryandubon9665]

bro please keep making these videos

[@matrixv01]

Thank you so much for calling out the KZbin mixers and this trend of frequency carving. I play Death Metal and so many modern metal records are so clean and precise which is fine but they sound paper thin when I play them on a high quality audio system. Everyone is so afraid of overlapping frequencies and favoring clarity above density and thickness at all cost. Easily one of the worst trends in modern recording.

[@chaiayling9831]

fantastic the 1st tip really helped me soo much my mix is night n day now

[@joanbartoli7933]

Thank you so much. I am so happy and grateful for everything I am learning with your channel.

[@MW-sw6ou]

when the student is ready the teacher appears, Thank you sir Bless You❤‍🔥

[@neillogan6166]

I loved this! The kick felt much fuller when boasted in that first example. Great video and your body of work is 🔥 I love Silverstein

[@GlitchmanVGM]

Wow this is amazing advice! I like how you present the information in a way that's easy to understand, so we know why or why not to do certain things. Great video! 👍😃

[@paypaul5167]

wow - this video was eye opening. You nailed on the head what the youtube comunity is missing!

[@joiglans]

What an eye opener video! Thnx

[@Gladicuss]

This was a great video my friend! Thank you for taking the time to make it [ I know how long it takes to make a video, rendering, uploading, etc ] Your great at explaining things. Can you do a video on adding samples to drums [ kick, snare, etc' ] Was watching your video of you covering your last 15 years of mixing. In the video @16:45, you mentioned that " I started using my own drum samples and stopped using slate or any others ] This comment got me thinking. See I use Superior Drummer 3. I love my drum sound I get from that VST. Love it! BUT, I didn't know how to interpret that comment. So for someone like me SD3 is all I use. Let's say you did a mix for a band and used SD3, did you mean that you use that VST but ONTOP of it [ snare, kick, toms ] you add your samples? Cause you also said " I just figured out how to do it " So if that is the case can you make a video about how it's done. If it's not the case can you explain what you meant please. I dont know if you can type that out here or if it would be better to just make a quick video explaining what you do, or how it's done, and should it be done [ if it is ] on Superior Drummer 3. Thanks again my friend, wishing you the best!

[@JustinConenna]

This is more of a Public service announcement rather than a series of tips. If this were LinkedIn I would celebrate this video. Great advice!

[@ryanmartinez2876]

Great video. Beginners are encouraged to make mistakes since that’s how you learn. For example, if you want monitors that pack extra bass in the studio then do it because a lot of ther terminology regarding music production is alien to you anyways. A professional knows what a frequency is, what a hertz is, what an oscillator and side-chaining is, the list goes on! Even pros will make mistakes but the only difference is that a pro will use it to build and a beginner might give up.

[@cheery-hex]

I like you cuz we think the same. "I'll just do it, I don't care". Amen dude!

[@TheJTish]

nice. I like to watch your channel. no nonsense. Thanks for sharing.

[@toddbarriage]

SUPER important video, thanks for letting the people know!!

[@icaanul]

I think there are 2 sides of it that are both right. The overlapping of the kick and bass will create a nice energy and there's a sweet spot where they will just mend perfectly. The other side is referring to muddiness and low end buildup in the mix which can affect the compression "pump" and prevent proper loudness for a commercial mix. BOTH are right. But the latter goes into left field when they try to turn it into brain surgery. But it sells a lot of online courses and plugins so they'll never stop.

[@k.2768]

I haven’t had my low end and mids right before I discovered this channel. And at first it was hard for me to believe it. I started by rolling out the mids in my guitars and bass less and less and after a few month I realized that I came so far that the mids are almost not touched. And guess what, it sounds killa. It’s like I trained my ears because of KZbin wrong and I had to undo it step by step.

[@spencerb2631]

Another awesome video! I was wondering if you could do a video on your process of checking live drums for phase. I’ve seen some big mixers go as far as moving room mics back so all the transients match up for a bigger sound

[@xsonicassassinx]

the "carved" version is more aggressive and tighter. i've not heard a good mix from someone who used a sub. 3-350 tends to get removed from the bass, but 1-200 gets plenty of action.

[@AnthonySigouin]

The carved version sounds weak lacking low end energy. Given the fact that the bass is already thin and that massive low cut on the kick, now both the kick and bass are thin and stting on each other. The carved version is in fact the overlapping version. In the overlapping version, the kick is sitting in the sub (although way too much lacking punch and having that long rumbling decay) and the bass upper. Here they are complimentary/separate and not overlapping. And they are way too separate with the kick being rumbling and the bass tiny. So he show the opposite of what he say and do what he tell not to do (eq too much to separate things). Every professional mixer would used speakers, a setup which reproduce the full spectrum between 20 to 20000 hz. You need to hear the frequencies to mix them. You don't just let them jumpy (with some fundamental of the bass instrument notes being way louder than others by example), too/not loud enough. Pure logic. You don't adjust the bass frequencies with a simple low shelf in 3-4 minutes with headphones. Everyone can do that putting headphones and play with the gain. Mixing is way more than that (automation, eq, compression saturation etc) and you need to hear in great details what you are doing. You get 2 good advices here (don't cut too much low mids and don't eq too much the elements to separate them). The rest is ridiculous based on bad personal experiences becoming false correlations or pseudo logic.

[@xsonicassassinx]

@@AnthonySigouin bro I have no idea what you’re on about, but I’m not reading all that. I like my kicks fast and tight, not boomy and slow.

[@flaviodanza_oficial]

really great tips!! thanks for sharing. Cheers from Brazil 😊🙏🏼

[@linuxnepal]

I realized on my these things I used to eq allot now I am understanding better.... Thanks anyway

[@HeLLRaiZZoR666]

I agree 100% on all points; it really irks me when people speak about carving out frequencies for different elements of a mix, it's just completely unnecessary! For me everything lives in the midrange; especially for melodic (non-percussive) instruments, I don't understand why people aggressively scoop out vital midrange frequencies where the pitch information and body/personality reside.Carving out frequencies makes everything sound jarringly distinct in a manner that I personally find displeasing!

[@chad_kaya]

Looking forward to trying these out. Thanks!

[@MBBGun14]

Thank you, this is really valuable. So in general if "it" sounds good then.. well its good.

[@fabiorubato9434]

hey man. great stuff. love the 'no nonsense' approach to mixing. It's a great place to arrive to and whilst it's great to say 'don't get hung up on this and that', most of us have to go through the trials and errors to arrive to such a point. But your advice may make the journey a little quicker...so thanks for that. I don't use references a great deal. I'm just wondering where the site you refer to at around 6:37 is? I have found it changing to find appropriate ref. tracks for my stuff. All the best.

[@mukmusicdiary]

Thanks, heaps, for this video! I will have to practice this... I definitely learnt from EDM mixing video's precision cutting frequencies discussed in this video.

[@juiceytee]

My new fave channel contender