Mixing Low End - Ken 'hiwatt' Marshall

[@bjornlakenstrazen2186]

Ken "cowabunga metal hand gesture" Marshall

[@strobelightstrobelight]

Ken this message is really simple: YOU BOSS. Thanks man.

[@BinExis]

or YOU BASS?

[@benmorrow1701]

The differences in these mixes are absolutely insane! What a master!

[@nikht0]

I really like the stereo effect on one of your bass synths, it really fills things out. This is inspiring me to try a hybrid approach, using a real electric bass to represent the mids, while replacing the low end with a synth or two.

[@zzzyzzzyzzzyxxx]

I am flabbergasted at the definition brought out by that simple, well placed, notch! It was day and night on my system: Dynaudio BM6As and KRK S8 (both of which I have been using for over 20 years) in a very well treated room. I listened to the A/B a few times with my eyes shut. Fantastic.

[@Mind_Idiot]

the A/B is just such a world of difference. Huge.

[@ezassegai4793]

really liking that old school 2000s mentality and pragmatism

[@OKFCPrez]

Thank you so much for taking the time to share your knowledge, and especially this session. Your engineering work inspired me to write and mix my own material, so your influence is profound. Very interesting choice on the Pultec EQ on the guitar, and especially the 8k boost. I'm eager to try that in my projects.

[@IZNT-0]

Thank you for the great advice and interesting content

[@Pete_Logic]

Man I needed this today Sonic Sensei! An uplifting, HIGHY relevant window into a VERY challenging tone! THANK YOU!!

[@nichttuntun3364]

Hi. Great session. Thanks for sharing. Cheers

[@SamanInTheMachine]

Like the young Rollins :) Very good explanations, thank you!

[@wentzr]

even on my dinky mbp laptop speakers, my jaw dropped when you a/b'd the reference to final mix of that in_zekt track. Takes a lot to impress me but that was incredibly inspiring. I wish I could afford your talents, Ken!

[@Sy_nerd]

Aaahhh. One word! Beautiful 💯

[@roo288]

This helps to train my ear for mixing, thank you as always!

[@time4anew1]

good tips, and thanks for lowering that snare.

[@1800Nausea]

These 15 Minutes went by really really quick! Thank you, Ken, for the insight! I guess the the "competing-problem" of bass guitar and guitars also applies to the layering of synths that I´m working on at the moment. I think I´ll go ahead and eq some stuff out right now like you did with those guitars in there.

[@manisbeast1245]

i play bass as my main and use synth as my "guitars" so this video is awesome!!!

[@skriptico]

Man u're a blessing.

[@fakzility]

Thanks again Ken, killer advice as usual!!!

[@allje]

Another great vid! Thanks Ken! Perfect timing as well. I'm working this weekend in finalizing the mix for a couple tracks and I ALLWAYS STRUGGLE with the low end! Amazing how much that low end cut 'opened up' the mix.

[@wentzr]

not only am i encouraged to incorporate some of these ideas, i'm also encouraged to incorporate some of your 🤟🤘gesticulations. Awesome video once again.

[@mechanicalbreaks8319]

Man I love your videos. They are so relevant to what I want to focus on

[@seantrottier2466]

This is a subject I've been hoping you'd touch on. Most of us are working in spaces less than ideal for bass management. Any tips we can get are gold. Thank you yet again, Ken! Your channel always brightens up my week!

[@rodneyanonymous666]

Musicians need more videos like this one. Extremely helpful.

[@mclovinhobsbawn]

Very valuable tips, thank you!!

[@ransbarger]

Thank you for sharing your knowledge. Great job!

[@albertocabezas282]

I'm learning a lot from you, sir.

[@cloud9savagehenry]

Definitely will do my best to put this into practice.

[@cellzeromusic]

Thanks for this one. These are some great tips and luckily for me, directly applicable since this a style I'm working in quite often. I would love to hear more before and after breakdowns of what you did for this track. Great stuff.

[@JohnR-wf2hh]

thanks for the tip ken! I've been working on an industrial beat for a while now and had to walk away because it sounded gross no matter what I did. I applied a notch filter and an air bump to the synth that most clashed with the sub and WOW!

[@crissabater7698]

Great video Ken! Great mix as always too. I always use the mantra "whatever it takes to make t work". The room you work in is the big thing with Bass I work from home and have a small room so I invested in Sonarworks Reference 4 and it just works for me. With the flat room I can judge bass much better. You got a killer Bass sound going on there Ken! Cheers.

[@nsjx]

this SW is a lifesaver

[@gregripes9757]

Great session Ken!! Man, you should go over LPF's & HPF's on how to clean up instrumentation in mixes as well. :)

[@ugurkaracay1]

thank you

[@joehazeofficial2]

ChannelStrip!! Yes yes.

[@boodleboy]

Man. That low end sweep on the guitars just made me realize how little response my monitors have in the lower range.

[@artao5]

Great video. Thanks. I was having this problem a couple days ago with a synth bass track with a nice flange on it, then run thru a crazy effect. 4x4 noisy kick. Well, when soloed that bass synth sounded great. Cool. That "flangy width." But with the other two tracks on, that bass synth went flat. WELL! Watching this video today, I remembered a past video where you talked about inverting the phase of tracks. Tried inverting all three. It was inverting the effect track that made it pop again. ... So yeah. Thanks for that. Phase cancellation can be a bitch eh.

[@nsjx]

appreciate your inputvon this topic, Ken. as you know, and as i have grappled with... a lot of the success of mixing low and sub-low depends on monitoring methods otherwse one is forced to fly blind by instruments only ;) which can tell little sweet lies w big bad results. :/ i use a Subpac to help me guage those lows because my little room builds up those sub-low waves in an odd way. i have managedcto place my mixing position between the buildup. it's still not ideal but sinceci monitor on different systems afterwards i can getza roundabout idea if it's working or not... plus, yes.. ref tracks. Hey,...this topic can be very much expanded upon and I would personally appreciate a couple more chapters with varying industrial/techno (beats and rhythm technique) flavor source material with your expertise concerning mids lows and subs 🤜

[@AlldayAudio]

you da man

[@chasedestroy]

Those Pultec EQ emu's from UAD are CLUTCH in my setup at this point. I do surgical cuts with more precise tools and then make wide Q boosts w the Pultec, the few of them in that collection do something special. There are times that I put them on a channel w no cuts or boosts and it just does.... something. I don't know, there is some sort of voodoo in them.

[@Mind_Idiot]

Honk Factor, great band name

[@tonyduncan4416]

Fantastic video! How bout the same subject but with synths? Like bass vs kick or bass vs a screaming lead sound? I struggle with frequency separation sometimes. How does one get a fuller cleaner mix based on where every instrument is in the frequency spectrum?

[@tomroehl5126]

Hi Ken, amazing stuff as always! I think I may have asked this before but how do bands translate all of the work you do in a mix to a live performance? Do you work with them to help create live performances?

[@nickunnerved]

I wonder how it would have sounded if you could have sent the original sound through a high pass filter and recorded that signal down to a new track, the put a low pass on the original track, then blended the two to together. You would have more control of the high and low frequencies individually and maybe gotten something nice out of that dirty bass sound that was originally there. Though I think the sound you achieved is awesome, I did like that distorted dirty bass they originally had as well

[@insertanynameyouwant5311]

what`s that console you use to control computer?

[@drewburke6371]

Ken, I know you had a hand in the mixing and engineering on Skinny Puppy's "Last Rights", I am mesmerized by the closing track on that album "Download", and I want to analyze it, but the track is so crazy and chaotic that I'm not even sure where to start with picking it apart. Is there any insight you could give me as to the mix of that track?

[@riktascale4]

Hi. Do you use a subwoofer to mix your low end?? Thanks.

[@andredufault6921]

by turning down my low end and partially my mid end on my studio monitors sounded awesome but when i resetup my speakers correctly and turned the eqs to regular like you suggested my “amazing” mix sounded so muddy and bad so that does mean listening to individual tracks together while messing with the low end on my analog which is kinda interesting you have the same problem with your analog

[@mechanicalbreaks8319]

How “midi” times have you had to replace an instruments sound?....annnnd I’m out.

[@randallhunt9170]

Ken, I'm curious how the Melodyne would have worked with that bass track. I think most people just won't have the midi files available to them.

[@mptraven]

Nothing has helped my mixes more than your lessons. Thanks. I have a question about sound production. Is there anything you use as a go-to for producing a guitar-like feel to computer based songs? I find that guitar emulators are lacking in feel and sound too sterile.

[@gintonicsson]

Can I have your email Ken?