My Trick on How To Perfectly Balance Sub Frequencies

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In today's tutorial we cover how to use Ableton's EQ to perfectly balance the sub frequencies in our track. We'll use a combination to Voxango Span & a Frequency Chart to monitor the frequencies and then carve specific frequencies directly to our desired level.
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[@patdry]

one important thing to mention: when listening on a big system or when playing your music out in general, the room itself and the house PA is going to resonate at certain frequencies. some subs just DRILL certain notes even though the system tech might have it “pretty flat.” without going into tremendous detail, *here’s my point* in the middle of a set, everyone in the room/festival becomes used to the sound of the PA. SOOOO if you follow this tutorial and get your lows balanced well, the ROOM will be where the notes poke out, but just like every other track has already done. so another reason to keep your mix tight and balanced before you go out to play it. you’ll fit in with everyone else’s mixdowns the way you hope you do 😂 but lastly, playing my tunes out has been a huge help for teaching me to mix better. i focus on what each speaker is getting and that REALLY helps me to be selective. one thing pushes the subs at a time, midrange drivers need focused and punchy info, horns need smooth and clear sound. a good room/PA can be very useful in revealing mix tweaks. rant over, wow didn’t mean for this to become an essay. peace.

[@urigeheadmot1196]

agree with this 100%

[@OfficialAHEE]

Great addition to the topic! This is totally a thing 👽🙌

[@LokiBeckonswow]

awesome comment my dude, thanks for sharing

[@tyeblee23]

Thank you for this information!

[@FrAuSkY125901]

I love how you eq things and I find myself doing it all the time to. Almost gives a super compressed feel without any compression at all. Helps square things off and make them sound bigger without any real processing. 👌🏻

[@MrPartch]

without any real processing? i would call EQing a much more destructive process than compressing. especially in the low end, it is much easier to fuck things up with an EQ. every eq band you add, adds extra distortion, phase issues etc.

[@piotrpoch7901]

Why I’m here so late? Your videos are the answer to all my mixing problems I’ve been dealing with as a bedroom producer. Thank you!

[@joshh205]

There are a lot of tutorials out there but I must say yours are the most informative. Great content as always.

[@noeysun8780]

THANK YOU for talking about actual, specific frequency numbers.

[@TheDjKnightmare]

First of all Thank you! I own all of your stuff and i feel like you articulate what i have always been wanting to do in my head but cannot get out! So thank you for your Magic Racks! Also your tutorials are amazing seriously so helpful! Thank you a ton!

[@manonamission4965]

Pro q 3 has this piano gui where it gives you what note a frequency is in, makes things easier.

[@thedude412]

eq8 has that too if you make the analyzer go up into the big window. When you hover over a frequency it will tell you the note associated.

[@tralfmusic]

It's a shame I only just found your channel - you're straight to the point and super useful. Please keep the content coming!

[@MacroSSun]

that's brilliant, thanks a lot for sharing all these precious pieces of knowledge!

[@thewizardtk]

I was surprised to see how specific you made your Qs. I’ll have to try this, I usually use a wider Q and I think that’s what caused a lot of muddiness in my mixes. Thanks!

[@meya3521]

try the same exact Q approach with and lead synths or vocals. anything that really spread frequencies. your mix will get so clean bc itll make room for the small nuances youve added musically that are no longer competing to take those small slivers of frequency..

[@pistolpaul1989]

Duuuude. I used this technique with the eq and it worked so well all I could say was thank you ahee. Haha. I told you at the Reno show when I got to meet you how much I love your tutorials and I gotta tell you again. Thank you!

[@christophernones7178]

You are a madman. Keep it up man.

[@cmndzmusic1647]

That EQ Mentality legit no music school will tell! 😢 Thnx Ahee 💗💗 A request would like to see some Compression tricks! I really suck and compression! 🤧❤

[@Jamesdavenelson]

This is honestly so helpful, very entertaining as well! Thanks so much

[@JRyMeRr]

i really like that track ur working on fire stuff

[@CLOUDLANGUAGE]

thanks for the chart link!

[@jasongu625]

Awesome video! I just got exactly what I need!

[@LokiBeckonswow]

bro, AHEE, awesome video man, this was such a simple way to balance subs, it's already given me a lot more confidence with understanding what's happening even if I can't hear it on my current monitors! legend, cheers

[@squidcatbass]

Oh Jeez your droppin some science on us! I like this. I didn't realize how important this could be

[@3ware706]

ReaEQ has log scale based frequencies that lets you EQ based on note instead of hz so it might be a helpful workflow tip since it will auto snap to those frequencies when you EQ in that mode instead of using a frequency chart but otherwise great content love your music and the beats from the bass ship stuff!

[@ANIMISPROJECT]

Thanks so much for your videos! See you at the mountain!! 🏔️

[@justletmesigninokthx]

nice. I could hear it well with a subpac !

[@GODLYNXofficial]

Another great tut. Gunna try this tonight.

[@MikeFlex]

Absolutely crushing these tutorials. Thanks, man!

[@squidcatbass]

leaving a second comment because this was a helpful tip. I really heard a difference in that last example with the low shelf boost. Music is such a touchy subject, thanks for touching it

[@DennisKaneSound]

Great stuff man. I really need to utilize span more, thanks for these tips.

[@zohaibnadeem9385]

boosting a very narrow band like that kinda changes the envelope of the sound so make sure yall freeze and flatten and fade the long tails so theres no overlapping sub

[@OfficialAHEE]

Yes it can do that when it’s boosted a ton. Good addition.

[@indianarobbins408]

cool video thanks bro! u r the one who got me on SPAN and now my mixes are phenomenally better - I only have on KRK6 but now using SPAN my mixes sound good everywhere I take them, mixing on one speaker and headphones . thank you!! also this video is great bc ive been battling this sub level deal but Ive had my Q's too low - the 18 is the secret!; thank you again!

[@gerardlange4156]

Thank you soooo much amazing tutorial!

[@Gamubi]

Would like to see a video on you starting from scratch just mixing bass and a kick using eq compression and whatever else.

[@jimcasso407]

Nice! Would have never thought to hone in on the very specific frequencies like that...brilliant! I know exactly what you mean about muddy bass on larger sound systems. This is great info. Thanks brotha!

[@Sp0reganic]

Always love your videos! Thanks for always sharing the goodies

[@maverickstout25]

Brilliant in an understandable way, thank you my G.

[@540jbg]

Good job!

[@deadnicetv7720]

Boss tutorial man.. Very precise an clinical work flow.. I have learnt something which will improve my current technique 👍😋🤟🎶🎶🎶

[@TheDjKnightmare]

I am not sure if this is a topic you have covered but what about showing your resampling process for different sounds to get your overall achieved basses/synths? I would be interested in your process there i feel you find unique ways to do these things so i would love to see that!

[@Gamubi]

Ive been having such a hard time messing with sub...being new it is frustrating this is be a great help thanks! I had a problem where one higher note was just super buzzy and loud and the rest sounded good but couldn't get it to sound right. I tried multiband compression and that seemed to help but I think looking up the notes and raising those parts should help.

[@BeatsByTor]

Hell yeah, Ahee always spreading the good knowledge. Thank you!

[@dkinetik]

Very interesting.. Wouldn't have thought to do it that way..

[@kaythxsound]

you are a genius my dude.. You should have been huuuuuuge a long time ago. Everyone should probably know who you are if they have any interest in this stuff

[@kaythxsound]

I've been hyper focus, binging your content for like 24 hours straight haha

[@schqrr]

big thanks

[@christiantaylor1495]

4:32 it's because the spectogram is set to show in average over too long a period of time to be useful for measuring the peaks of a sound with an LFO on the amplitude.

[@unclerickybass]

Best on youtube my friend!

[@AlanFullmerMusic]

I've actually learned a few things from ya. Keep em coming.

[@murph8605]

god i love this song

[@TeRongo]

This is great - has made an immediate difference to sub mixing. But how are you not clipping your master channel with the sub at -30?

[@flyoverfredusa]

very helpful, thanks Ahee

[@zalatodoui]

Thx dudeeeee !

[@kylewen57]

Just got a heavy shot of nostalgia somehow to the last year of pemby with that bass where can I learn how to make that

[@freelounge6001]

Really great trick, good to know.

[@BLOODLVL]

Hi AHEE, big fan, and here's a tricky question - how about when you're balancing a sub that's heavily sidechained (4 on the floor kick), the sidechain will drag my sub down to around -35, and then rise to -30 when kick is off. Should I make sure it's hitting -30 regardless of if kick is on or off? Or is -35 acceptable if the kick is there?

[@callinicdevder2248]

i think it should sound -30 with the sidechain, when the kick is off

[@BLOODLVL]

@@callinicdevder2248 Yeah I was thinking if the sub bass of the kick hits a different note, then making sure the sub is always -30 regardless of sidechain would be better.

[@ThatBigCactus]

​@@BLOODLVL Yeah man you can automate that EQ point too!

[@TheEpitom3]

Really appreciate this dude!

[@DanChuck17]

you're a legend

[@stiffyBlicky]

awesome video, was seeing the same problem in my subs. question, why not just pull down the velocity per note?

[@cagedhippo]

Velocity would affect the harmonic frequencies as well. Here he is just targeting the fundamental frequency. Also, velocity is most commonly used to control volume, but that is not always the case. Sometimes it is controlling other parameters in a synth like filter cutoff.

[@joeygproducedit7863]

Pay this man big money to teach 💚

[@karimayoubi74]

That's a lovely rich bass sound (the first one) if you are feeling generous sometime, would you like to do a tutorial on that? :-)

[@vaizman770]

Just wooow... Thank you so much!!!

[@DeepFilip]

This is great man! Thanks a lot

[@Adamveckz]

Great video 👍

[@streetlevelaudio4388]

You should try out surfer eq, it does all that eq work automatically for you.

[@mautrindade]

Excellent video! Isn't it better to just adjust velocity tho? Also you can use ableton spectrum analyser to instantly check the frequency/note, coupled with span. edit: ok I see you're using audio and you're doing this from a mixing engineer perspective. Edit: Just realised it's audio file

[@Vegan_Kebab_In_My_Hand]

That's pretty cool I've never though about this approach, can work on simpler movements of the sub which should be more common than not. Though I was wondering how about a dynamic EQ approach, would that suffice? I suppose one could either use a wide band on the sub frequencies and dial in the settings to even out the dynamic range (I guess one could even consider using a limiter at that point). Or when dealing with louder notes, maybe just use narrow bands at specific spots and leave the gain neutral while lowering the threshold and setting up the ratio for the appropriate compression.

[@GreatestSportsHighLights]

Great Video!! Thank you so much!

[@garrettblack1472]

I have seen other producers simply use a limiter, and just push every note against the ceiling to make it balanced.

[@slayerficated]

Lol

[@SonicDephect]

Deadmau5 actually does this with a proL2 in his masterclass. Says its the key to a full sub-bass.

[@BrokenElegance]

I think that is way easier and since it's sub little bit distortion doesn't really hurt

[@Vegan_Kebab_In_My_Hand]

I think it's a good solution as long as the person knows how to use the limiter and doesn't over do the settings.

[@GuruxMusic4eva]

Thanks a lot, the kick also around that level?

[@OfficialAHEE]

Naw my kicks are surprisingly lower in overall volume in the sub. I don’t pay too much attention to them, more test if it feels right.

[@martinezdecap]

This is such a great tip!! Gave you a like and a subscribe!

[@matrixate]

Some frequencies resonate material differently. I can point them out when I hear them but around 40Hz. A point I would make since you can't really rely on on a graph, is to walk around the room and listen to the song from different hot spots and attenuate. Honestly, it helps to have a sub that can reproduce 25Hz and a pair of headphones that reproduce anything lower than 32Hz just because most songs don't mix in subs below about 42Hz. Eminem does mix subs at frequencies lower than 35Hz but now we're talking THX certified, well, not really...it's just those frequencies are really meant for cinema.

[@nastika888]

hi ahee, very usefull data! but i have a question... Why should I use the frequency table if I can base it on your theory that, at -30, I can level the subs, since the note is told to me by the span itself? Thanks in advance ! I watch your videos often (:

[@chipbuttyrecords]

what lufs/rms are you going for on the master when aiming for the -30 line? is it -6?

[@nelsoncolereis4058]

I was wondering the same thing.

[@gruvar9088]

Woi oii chip dutttyyy

[@INFINITYREALM]

looking for the same

[@apolloblacc8244]

Ahee please reply to this

[@chipbuttyrecords]

@@gruvar9088 hahaha yes g :)

[@dreaddy_bear]

dope video ty

[@djkrptdnb]

Great video - been looking for this kind of info for a minute (actually was led here by a bunch of videos on the Gulfoss “intelligent” EQ!) - my question though, I produce drum’n’bass with a fair amount of dynamic bass notes (gliding down usually) - how would I go about the same process as here? I know the amount of sub energy changes as it moves along the spectrum but would automation on an EQ maybe solve this problem? 🤙🏻

[@henrico6973]

what song is this? it sounds so cool!

[@almostinteresting392]

Is this during your mixdown? Or do you produce into a mastering chain?

[@rinoiazzetta]

best advice at 7:30! word

[@jordanrattanavong2655]

I tried this and it worked horribly. Idk what I am doing wrong but I turned up the gain on the EQ to the max and the sub note barely moves on SPAN. It also starts to sound horrible with so many crazy spikes on the EQ. I also found that EQ8 is not very accurate in terms of it's analyzer.

[@wahbbeats3293]

you're the man 💪

[@aslanbc]

I'm having trouble when I go from a bass being constant to when add a LFO and "wub" it out... When it's constant it his -30 perfectly, when it's "wubbed" it dips down significantly. But when I try your trick it gets really muddy and distorted, even though it shows it up at -30 on the SPAN plugin. I've been struggling with this for days... HELP!! 😭

[@RubixProduction]

Is there an advantage to this that waves bassrider doesn't have?

[@bildjan]

what about using autovolume? or leveler?

[@tuffshark12]

Genius

[@SonicDephect]

Deadmau5 actually does this with limiter (proL2) in his masterclass. Says its the key to a full sub-bass... Curious, what is the benefit to EQ over that method?

[@OfficialAHEE]

Not sure, I don’t ever really compress my subs. I’ll try it tho.

[@SonicDephect]

Seems to work good for me so far, pulls the high notes down to meet those lower ones without so much work of the EQ method, but I’d assume risks some distortion? Don’t really notice it in the sub frequencies tho 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@christiantaylor1495]

How can you tell what db a frequency is at in SPAN? it says -30 at roughly -6db. Can we get it to show db? Why is this not default?

[@LaphobaOfficial]

(Question) I see your looking at the Freq chart a good portion of the mix down...I was thinking do you necessarily need to adjust every sub note/key to the Freq given on the chart?? For a better smooth sub. Also I notice people have been using layers on there sub (not sandwich) and I've always used just a single note/key to avoid phasing or anything. Idk if I should layer the bass or just plain pump it out with saturation.

[@sugarfree_shane8374]

Pro Move!

[@xWUND3RWAFFL3x]

Amazing content. I've truly wondered this myself, whether to use compression or what. Hey AHEE, do you always prefer a clean sin wave for your sub, or do you saturate it and do things like how you would on the non-sub-bass?

[@skinz2820]

You can saturate/distort the sub for interesting shape and color, just check the context of it with the mids :)

[@OfficialAHEE]

I mostly have clean sinewaves for my subs but sometimes not. If I do distort it, I use my Hi-Lo splitter in my racks so the low end can stay clean and the top end is distorted. I go over the technique on my video “How to make banging 808s”

[@skinz2820]

Official AHEE for sure you can A/B different parts of a multiband dynamics through an audio effect rack for each band and get similar results.

[@laxyamusic8162]

imo this should be done with a dynamic EQ and not ableton's EQ simply because you don't want to boost a note's frequency when that particular note is not playing. don't u think?

[@OfficialAHEE]

Yeah totally could be even better, not sure tho, I’ll try that and see if there is a noticeable difference.

[@Nick_007ia]

Cool 🙌🏻

[@jordanrattanavong2655]

Can’t you just put a limiter on your sub to balance out the notes?

[@BVSISofficial]

-30 db is the magic spot. its interesting seeing modern songs reach high sub volumes and it still sounds good. but -30db is golden.

[@Randuski]

i wish he went into more detail on that tho. like, for instance, i put span on my tracks, and nothing is close to -30. it’s all lower than that. i mix at a lower volume. -30 doesn’t seem to be an actual target, where as the correct balance of all the frequencies is the target. so it’s more the relationship between those -30 subs, and the -whatever orher freqs. unless i’m misunderstanding something. if i just boosted my subs to -30 my track would be all sub

[@BVSISofficial]

What it boils down to is the sub MUST be at -30db after everything anything on your master channel. You can mix low, then slam a limiter on the master channel then put Span after that. Big tip is the sub (around 50hz) should be at the same height and volume as the highest highs in your song (might be drumss or synths (growls)) so make sure the sub is atleast balanced with the highs in the song. And yes you should target the correct balance of a mix. but there's also an incline volume the higher the frequecnies go Also use meters to check the Lufs of each stem group to have more control @@Randuski

[@Randuski]

@@BVSISofficial yea so i’ve done more digging into all this and i get it now. i didn’t realize he was mixing at a high volume. i made edm like 10 years ago, and only recently got back into it, so i thought id see what’s been going on in that world haha but yea im gonna mess around with this stuff and see what i can do 👍🏻

[@vin3421]

@@BVSISofficialpretty sure from everything Im seeing that you want to get each channel and bus loud before going to master? Like hes saying in other videos each bus has a limiter, otherwise if you just push everything into a master limiter, it fucks up your sound because everything is competing and hitting threshold differently

[@STATXMUSIC]

Nice tips! Do you use any special settings on Span or do you just keep it on the default settings?

[@OfficialAHEE]

I go over my settings in my “Best mixing advice” video on Span ;)

[@STATXMUSIC]

Official AHEE ahh, right on! Thanks!

[@gavinhislop]

Hey Ahee, how do you get Span to show you the RMS value numerically, as yours does on the left hand side?

[@akashik_sound]

Hey Ahee I cant ever seem to get my sub any higher than -36 on SPAN without running the master into the red, any tips? Also is there any chance you could upload a video of you doing a song from start to finish, including how you mix and master?

[@urasoul]

why not just adjust the velocity?

[@jacobfilderman]

Adjusting the velocity is less precise, less transparent, and less controllable than EQ or filtering. How many db in reduction is each velocity tick? It varies widely depending on the synth you use, the velocity mapping of that synth, etc. So EQ let's you see exactly what you're doing, and make moves in much more controllable ways.

[@urasoul]

@@jacobfilderman I think there's a case to be made for the opposite though. If you EQ an entire channel while trying to target only one note, you will be effecting the other notes too unnecessarily. Maybe that isn't an issue in many cases, but it might be in some cases. I understand your point though.

[@JChow-sw1yb]

@@urasoul i agree mate, adjust velocity or bounce the synth to audio and manually adjust the low notes with a utility and automate it

[@slingwave8893]

couldnt you just instantly find fundamentals without chart if you use Pro Q3?

[@emroenator]

upvote for ahee tutes

[@DeDr369]

What level of song is on master when mixing is finished and its ready to export for mastering ? thnx for videos ...

[@fortknightpredilluvian2008]

Span Man!

[@Robangledorf]

Yo this is fucking genius

[@dmitryclaim9904]

Гарний урок!

[@benfoxmusicofficial]

Alien Good!