How to not drown in bass

I tend to over-do my bass frequencies when I'm composing electronic music. Maybe you do too? Here's a way to check, and also some techniques on how to deal with it. I'll also introduce you to the metaphor of frequency "buckets" per octave - does each bucket have enough sound energy in it? Do some have too much? Let's discuss!
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Contents:
0:00 Putting too much bass
0:44 How to know if it's too much
2:48 Let's tilt the frequencies
3:43 Thinking in octaves
5:46 Bass buckets
6:33 Cleaning up low-end mess
7:50 Obsessing more about octaves
11:55 A lot of little moves

[@OscarUnderdog]

My Foundations courses ► courses.underdog.brussels Underdog Mailing List ► eepurl.com/gZmNbv Patreon ► www.patreon.com/underdogmusicschool Discord ► discord.gg/trDbVcDHB3

[@jakedeutscher]

Man can’t thank you enough for the videos. I’m an FL Studio user, but your way of explaining things is some of the best I’ve seen on KZbin. You helped me so much in the early days. It’s now been over 1 year of producing regularly.

[@OscarUnderdog]

Love to read it

[@MateusMachina]

Completely agree. Im an FL user as well, but his videos explain basic fundamentals so well that it doesn't matter what program I'm using, I'm still able to apply what I've learned.

[@danieljamesoconnor6800]

Very interesting. As a "livingroom muic maker", I sometimes feel a little overwhelmed by the flood of music/production related information I can get on the tube and to tell what is exactly important for me to know right now. Maybe I should finaly invest some good money into one of your courses... Great video and thanks for sharing! ✌️

[@piotr803]

I really appreciate you talking about this topic. Still think you’ve omitted the most obvious treatment, which is adjusting the volume of your tracks. Most often it’s about getting the levels right and not even touching Eq or multi band compression. So instead of changing the tonality of the bassy tracks, most people should just reach for the track volume first

[@OscarUnderdog]

100% agreed, honestly.

[@Byronic19134]

I would have clicked off this video so fast if he started talking about gain staging instead of what the actual title says.

[@amado7760]

Love the video Oscar. Just a quick note that Tonal Balance Control is not from waves, it is from Izotope.

[@naoredri4444]

Thank You (Slapping the table)

[@Italliving]

indeed it's IzoTope

[@hamiltonservices]

My number 1 on KZbin. Every time I watch one your videos it makes me a better producer! Thanks man!!!

[@RhombicChthulhuSONIC]

Haven't subbed for a few months but with all the help with music you have given just on youtube, I'd be damned if I didn't subscribe to your channel. Appreciate the vids I have learned a ton from them.

[@xrabbz2010]

LP filter at 0:21 had me thinking my finger was over my phone speaker 😅

[@markogalevski6088]

Hey Oscar, long time fan! I've got a suggestion you might like regarding multiband dynamics/compressors: Downward Expansion. I only know how to do it in Ableton's Multiband Dynamics, but the logic is as follows: You set a "below" threshold in band and set the compressor for that band to a negative ratio. As a result, all audio in that band from that track that is quieter than this threshold will get "expanded" downwards towards -inf dB. So lots of muddy tails (like your pads) will get pushed down even further, but the inital hit won't be affected.

[@WolfGamingWoH]

just what i needed, keep up the good work

[@naed9music]

Another awesome video, thanks for the help!

[@lostinfinchley]

Dude that was brilliant advice, big love!

[@b00ts4ndc4ts]

More of this content if you have the time please, this is so helpful and so important to understand. I love the theory, song structure and music development but the mixing and mastering is where I need to put more work in. Thanks so much ❤

[@williambrandon9660]

your videos recently have been worded in an excellent manner. words matter and youre using them effectively kudos

[@jonsnow4372]

Another way to fix this issue is to keep your bass notes and kicks short with fast decays. Would probably help with this track as well. The high crest factor on tonal balance control seems to indicate that.

[@eroero830]

One of the problems of this is if you don't like that sound. Like. At all.

[@brianbergmusic5288]

Thanks for this healthier vegetable tray of EQ usage. I've relied too much on saturation to fake mixing in the past. It's sort of like using broad brushes (both saturation and layering) to smear the mountain range instead of removing what you need (in which buckets) to "tilt" the EQ in a needed direction. This more dub-house (correct me if wrong) track is a useful demonstration of this minimalistic approach. I also appreciate that this is not a top-down mixing approach -- I think it's an immature technique to do a master tilt EQ, especially if the mix isn't finished. There's something about how a clean mix breathes between the instruments that makes me happier than, say, a squashed master. The only person who has proven me wrong is Alan Parsons, but in his analog world, his use of compression/limiting was probably very subtle and controlled. I find myself pursuing a no-touch-master mix with a sensible -3db headroom and never being happy with mastering beyond gentle limiting to 0 (always feels like a set of compromises afterwards). I see some comments going into "Just use a highpass" mode. I'd rather have the organs and bells breath a bit instead of being completely sucked dry of their natural warmth. You could also sidechain stuff as well, but I'm getting tired of that sound these days. Maybe I'm getting old.

[@vertigomusiccc]

Lovely way you have explained mixing process! Definitely reinforced things I've learnt since starting couple months ago in a much simpler way. Also more importantly you make mixing sound fun and link the musical octave side to frequency scientific side of prod which I think is super important! Have a good one mate earned urself a sub :)

[@tonescapes9673]

As per usual,straight forward & easy metaphor to understand.cheers squire

[@Starbrou]

This one pure gold Cheers buddy

[@AgentOrangeTheDJ]

Another banger video man, tnx

[@RogerWarszawa]

Simply excellent 👌👍 Even by less than halfway through this video I had already sent myself the link to it, because I know for sure that I'll be referring back to all these tips a lot in the future. Thanks, Oscar, much love from Warsaw 😘

[@theproductionpark8265]

Great video 🙌🏻

[@Sanny.V]

One of your best videos, great job Oscar!

[@onebrum]

Oscar your tutorials are simply the best :). Happy new year 2024 !

[@alexanderfavell]

Great content Oscar. Utilising frequency band compression and EQ is an evolving topic, yet with more experience becomes more fun compared to newbie days.

[@LookingInwardly]

Very helpful video, many thanks! 🙂

[@bombeijo]

Super nice video, wasnt aware that the tonal balance could solo the specific frequency/bands. Thanks for sharing the knowledge as always! 🙏

[@rmatson]

Another great lesson! Thanks!

[@stuartboldt8441]

always great. thanks. please keep up the excellent work X

[@evanericson7070]

I could listen to that loop for hours! Great job, Oscar :)

[@quantummonastery]

very helpful Great video!

[@djbigpump]

Awesome videos. Another gold mine of information

[@DielectricFailure]

Oscar… these tutorials are awesome! Thanks again cuz my low end quickly gets sludgy.

[@cavedwellersound]

Learned so much from this one, thanks!

[@PeterKiMusic]

Eye opening. Very much appreciated!!!

[@tonye9045]

Nicely explained, Thanks very much.

[@Italliving]

Looks Like a Small Mastering Video here , Niceness, thanks for the extra extra effort Oscar, sounding good, chill vibe

[@peterelfman]

Another great tip and great video.

[@barrieabbott7946]

thank you so much for this tutorial ...👍👍👍

[@PhilDanielsStorr]

What a nice video!! Thanks!!

[@ShamimJahandideh]

very good mixing tips ♥

[@robertgarvansnyder4665]

Really loving that track idea, Oskar

[@ottonelli_music]

Love your videos man

[@buenoaires]

Really really nice Tutorial

[@alangreen142]

Isotope Tonal Balance is a god send, it has has helped my mixes so much especially in the low end👍

[@Silent_Gaze]

so nice man. that's sweet.

[@kasperemil4351]

Good video! Sick track - hope it gets released

[@wavedrive4451]

Thank you for the quallity content! Keep it up! :-)

[@BeatMax2023]

Very helpful video! :)

[@wm2922]

Great tutorial ❤

[@papagu_band]

Tonal Balance Control is by Izotope and not by Waves. I also use it a lot.

[@OscarUnderdog]

Yeah, realised that just before uploading that I misspoke hehe. My bad.

[@user-bn9qp9xk1t]

super helpful 🙏

[@grizzybass8082]

Thank you very much.

[@a10aleks]

Another awesome video! Oscar! I have also learned a ton from your videos! =)

[@GuayusaPure]

Im not in that music style you do, but I always enjoy the approach and explanation. I'm glad you are on 270k. Anyways you deserve more

[@colinlaney3400]

Best explaination ever ❤

[@Drunk-on-Bleach]

dude your track preview at 1:20 gave me super "shlohmo bad vibes" vibes rly nice

[@andyholton7959]

Good education thank you 🙏

[@MarMoro777]

Great topics

[@emjay9733]

Good stuff!

[@anticontraband]

very good vid 👌

[@hettovennik2887]

Great vid, definitely (one of) the biggest problems when producing in 'bedrooms' and esp for beginners, but i kept mixing too much bass for ages haha. All these tools we have right now in 2024.... 🙌

[@Symbiosis-Earth]

Great video as always! I agree your way of presenting the information and the content you share is amazing. I noticed you said Tonal Balance Control is by waves when its Izotope. Looks like a great plug-in tho.

[@arjanpetersen]

I usually use voxengo span for this. You can side chain the vst with your reference track or material. And have both your and ref track are compared and shown.

[@zodiacman587]

this is very good , thank you for the tutorial , did you release the project or no ? cause I think it s really good

[@JamesWilliams-em2is]

"Quantum Physics" is my new safety word...❤

[@AcidCortex1]

Bucket analogy FTW. Thanks Oscar :)

[@DJAmpero]

Thank you for this insight into taming things. I mix and produce a lot with headphones, as I don't have the space allowance for a studio and i always find myself in a lowend bog

[@mma4696]

well done. Keep Going 🐼

[@kalmarnagyandras]

This idea of thinking in octaves is really cool. This was real "lightbulb" stuff, and you explain it really well! You can use the dynamic feature of Fabfilter Q3 to replace the multi band compression if you want to decrease the number of plugins the signal goes through.

[@Gino_567]

Oscar im really vibing with that track. Can we get a track breakdown? There are some sounds in there i wish i knew how to make

[@jonnjones]

really cool! So far I've just been low cutting the bass on the intruments that clash with the bass/kick so it's good learn other techniques. Btw for those that don't have fabfilter Pro-MB you can use multiband dynamics in ableton

[@Shon304]

Love the sound of thia track! A bit of acid pauli style

[@larsegholmfischmann6594]

This is really helpful for me since I often end up in that muddy bass situation. Now all I have to do is go back and do this on all the tracks I've made recently.... there's 27 of them.... yikes :D

[@Alex-dg1uo]

very nice but my approach is usually i lower volume and sidechain and i always thought that nothing should sit in the lows sharing this thought might help and correct me if im wrong thx

[@ralfmoss]

It sounded really good before that last tweek 😅 Nicky explained, tnx.

[@nirvanvithilingem]

hey where can i find the music you were making in the video? sounds good

[@philfiebz]

The bucket-metaphor is brilliant. I noticed that this track has a pop arrangement. Maybe you could make a video about it, would definitely be interesting. Let’s go with “CamelPhat ft. Ali Love - Spektrum” and “Rodriguez Jr. - Pegasus” for today. Until next time!

[@OscarUnderdog]

Definitely spending a lot of time thinking about pop music recently! I'd say expect to see more on the channel!

[@acidkick2057]

Where can I buy this track? It’s amazing

[@marcus268]

what helped me is Eventides Equviate, it can learn a reference track EQ, and apply it to your mix. Problem with headphones for everyone is: too loud high frequencys, so your tonal balance is screwd, because you compensate with more bass. Better mix wirh low volume small speakers, imstead of head phones.Use these to even out the room.

[@ElemuntDesign]

something ive noticed with low end is the more i take out the more powerful my track can feel, its a weird phenomenom, i think its something to do with the headroom being made which lets you push the master more, which in turn flattens the spectrum more when a compressor or limiter gets more room to work with.

[@OscarUnderdog]

Definitely think you're right about that.

[@FrankyDigital2000]

Multiband compression and dynamic EQ is the key.

[@JimJohnMarks]

This is a great insight! Curious on this particular track you were demonstrating the fixes on... you did a video almost a year ago about decay tails. This track you're working on seems to have a decay tail problem more than an EQ'ing problem. While recognizing you wanted to take what you had near to hand to demonstrate the method you wanted to teach, in terms of actually turning this track into a finished piece you're going to publish, would you actually address the decay tails rather than just doing some elaborate version of tilt EQ'ing? Do those chords really need to ring out that long? Honestly just curious. Is there a time to ignore the decay tail rule & this is an example?

[@davidpurple3698]

Thanks a lot. Or another approach is to realized that you have the wrong sound in your chords and move them away from the 100 Hz area. Sound selection is an important factor as well

[@TheParadigmShiftTV]

Is there any cheaper plugin that does the same thing as tonal balance control? $200 USD is like 5 million Canadian dollars...

[@NahTrust]

thanks so much for these vids man, so helpful. Do you remember the name of that 90s techno track you did a video on recently where its just 31 8th notes of a guitar sounding note, then the 32nd note slightly off beat and has a slightly different pitch? Just super repetitive but the hook of the change makes you anticipate the whole way through. Sorry cant seem to find the video anymore!

[@OscarUnderdog]

Renato cohen pontape i think! Its on youtube!

[@NahTrust]

@@OscarUnderdog that’s the one thanks!!

[@skiro5823]

Grande 😮

[@JimJuno]

Quick question... If on an EQ8 the low-end frequencies go above 0 db does that mean it's going to automatically translate to the bass distorting when exporting the track and playing it in let's say car speakers or studio monitors?

[@zitronekoma30]

2:16 "This is a plugin from waves" has iZotope logo on the top right haha. Good video tho, keep it up!

[@OscarUnderdog]

Hahaha just noticed that before publishing and I facepalmed pretty hard.

[@1stapproach]

That would have been my smartass contribution, too, had you not been earlier!! 😀👍

[@XnazxulX]

So not sure if fhis is the right place to post this underdog but I’m struggling with for bass whether to keep it wide (which seems like now in 2024 peeps are saying monoing the bass isn’t always needed now) or mid side eqing the bass TO make it mono. Anyways as always your vids are always helpful 😊

[@daudamusic]

Very nice video! I was wondering, why don't you cut the low frequencies of for example those chords completely? I try to cut out all frequencies that the individual tracks don't 'need', why leaves room for the elements that should be emphasized in that frequency range. You seem to be a bit more moderate in your approach (bringing down the low frequencies of the chords rather than low cutting completely)

[@marcus268]

with complete filtering the low end you kill the depth of your sound, try it, Oscar knows quiete a bit, its legit advise.

[@n1c3s43]

really great video! Too bad tonal balance control ain't sold alone anymore:/

[@aphel909]

I quite like the track (loop).

[@skwurl5376]

Also how much are u gain staging to have ur limiter at +13 on your master?

[@fcfc]

I've seen somewhere the tonal balance boundaries are closed to the PinkNoise spectrum

[@richtrelo]

Always great content from you. Very well explained and nice bucket analogy.

[@PeanutButterAM]

Maybe I missed it if you had a specific reason, but it’s pretty much a hard rule that you don’t start with adding processing in the master of you have access to the individual channels when you’re “fixing” and issue (obviously buss compressors and such are different). This causes more issues. Thanks for the videos but this may be confusing some of the newer mixing buffs.

[@Macacos]

Small detail, tonal balance control is an iZotope plug-in, not Waves.

[@professorscrim5303]

Fu*king love you Oscar!! ❤

[@silly8395]

this ozone tonal balance tool always shows too much bass; i don't know which tracks were they analyzing when they made that tool; also some pretty decent professional tracks that have really great mix are somehow to bassi (trentmoller, hunteman).

[@HenningUhle]

Amazing stuff, Oscar. Some of my work sounds a bit wobbling in my car stereo. I think, exactly here is where I can change something. But, holy moly, producing music can be expensive. I'm always asking myself if those premium plugins are really required. If you follow some people on KZbin who show you how to make this or that, they always tell you, buy this and buy that. Is there really no possibility with the stock plugins? I like the way you explain those topics. It's great how easy you can clean up your mix. Now, let's see if the stock plugins or the free plugins do the trick as well.

[@OscarUnderdog]

Hiya Henning! Yeah you're right, I'm a bit annoyed I only showed a paid plugin workflow here. Alternative workflow could be: Solo the lowest band on the Ableton Multiband plugin! Then it's up to you to do that on a few reference tracks and maybe use a free loudness analyser plugin (I think Melda have one?) to see how loud that low end really is then. Then apply that to your own mix!

[@HenningUhle]

@@OscarUnderdog Well, YouLean would do, too. But you are right, the Multiband thing in Ableton would be worth a try. Thank you.