The Most Important Frequency Ranges for EQing Kick and Bass

[@alpha8944]

holy sh*t ! It was 25 minutes, but it took me an hour to watch the whole video because of the very good and useful information you put in. it was like an online class! you got a sub, great work

[@SonicScoop]

Awesome to hear! Glad to have you tuning in. -Justin

[@hummarstraful]

8:00 You described exactly what I'm working with in a mix: busy bass line and a simple kick hitting on the 1 and 3 of the measure. Thanks for giving me clarity on this! It's been confusing.

[@edmazur2084]

Justin, been mixing for 20 years, view much of the tutorials on line and yours is by far, the best. It concentrates on strategies, rather than giving exact numbers, etc... most new mixers don't want to take the time to develop a solid game plan they' use over and over, but rather want to piece together small pieces of a puzzle they don't know what the entire picture is supposed to look like . Its like trying to learn Jimmy Hendrix guitar lics without learning how to play the guitar, the scales , etc. I bought your mixing breakthrough course years ago, and although have been mixing for 2 decades, it was the best thing i did, as it brought me back to getting my basic plan in order and sticking with it. fundamentals... It always amazing me that people criticize guys like you, who have made it in one of the worlds's most competitive markets, in every line of work, you compete with the worlds best, hold your own for years,, thats an accomplishment in itself. I grew up in New Jersey and in that culture, your either produce at a high level, or your are overlooked.. I have to wonder what kind of competitive environment the ones who criticize you , work in,, would they last in your market ? Its often the big fish in little ponds that have the most to say about areas they know so little about.. I went back and am redoing a few mixes I did years ago, using your mixing course, and it have re-ignited the fire in me to take mixing to another level, one that i though was already decent. thanks, bro.. you rock.... ed

[@GenX_US_Marine]

I’m not a professional mixer but I know what I’m doing. When famous producers sell their drum kits or sound kits, I buy them and piece together my own record, or recreate the track with the stems that are included. I keep my kick, bass and snare down the center on every track I mix. The hi hat I widen a little bit. I don’t like widening my snare or bass or kick, I don’t like the way it sounds. I’ll widen everything else, but I won’t touch those 3 at all.

[@theeouapolal7262]

It took me a long time to figure some of these things out for myself... A lot of what he's saying serves as affirmation for me, but it's really refreshing to hear someone that knows what he's talking about basically confirm that your approach is viable. I started to realize that the cuts he talks about in the 250 to 500 hz range were eliminating SO MUCH of the frustration I was having with their effect on other instruments! So many people out there give bad to terrible advice... It's great to find someone that actually knows what he's talking about!

[@DavidAndrewsPEC]

So much yes on this! It has taken me ages to get even anywhere close to such a clear understanding of frequency density in a mix. Even then, it took all of this to make it all make sense. And I noticed that he talks a fair bit more about cutting frequency domain content rather than boosting other stuff. We are lucky to get to see these videos he makes.

[@watchman316ly]

Priceless information, brother! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!! I wished I came across this info 10 years ago...😮

[@SonicScoop]

Thanks for tuning in! Glad to have you here.

[@mathewlydon4011]

This helped me with mixing lows straight away. Great advice, thank you

[@SonicScoop]

Awesome to hear Mathew! Glad to be helpful and hope to see more of you around the channel.

[@DjorMil.CineMusic]

one of the best kick/bass videos ever…

[@StratsRUs]

Superb.This is very valuable to me.Thank you for your expertise and talent for teaching.

[@SonicScoop]

Thanks for tuning in! -Justin

[@casscass-andra]

Justin is about to drop major knowledge as I start the video. Gonna sit down with a cup of tea

[@DavidAndrewsPEC]

And he never disappoints on that score!

[@davidmaraisthecampfireguit2596]

Excellent, cogent advice. Thank you, Justin.

[@itikutok6568]

Your video cleared up so much for me, thanks a ton! I usually go to sidechaining bass and kick and that works, but I could never figure out how to choose which should be lower, but your logic is brilliant I will definitely use your suggestions on my next mix!

[@jefjaeger]

This episode is great as usual. Mastering low end when a remix isn't possible would be interesting...getting the bass tight, and the bass drum popping out nicely...

[@dcsoundsystem4707]

This is always a major challenge in any genre of dance/house music.

[@mr.k-lon5224]

You did good on explaining how bass frequency words thank you

[@moerahman6749]

This is highly informative and clearly explained. Thank you!

[@EVILJAMARR]

One of my favorite Air songs!

[@vanpeethovenstudio]

'Moon Safari' is my go to reference album.

[@heavymetalmixer91]

I never thought how simple was to choose which one goes where in the low-end, I've been scratching my head and now I know I just don't need to.

[@zoaltamam]

Amazing video, Justin! I enjoyed every minute of this, as I am more of a WHY person as opposed to a HOW person. I always prefer to get the “philosophical” side of something before I get to how to do it, and what you have done here speaks to me very loudly. When thinking about tight bass and kick, so many songs come to mind, and I really want to ask you a favor. A BIG FAVOR man! So please try to do this for all of us out here. There’s a cover of Uptown Funk by the famous jazz/brass band Tim Akers And The Smoking Section. You can find the video on KZbin. The video is shot during the recording session in the studio. You can’t miss it. That production has one of the best bass sounds I’ve ever heard in my life! Drums are tight too. Besides loving the arrangement of the song and the skill level of the musicians, I have always wondered what is going on with the mix, particularly on bass and kick. So, if you could please, please listen to it and share with us your views as ti what you think is going on there, it will be awesome! Of course instrument and gear quality plays a big role in superb recordings like that, but I think the mixing part also had a great impact. You will do me a big one if you could do this man. Thanks Ashraf

[@m.o.n.d.e.g.r.e.e.n]

sidechain can be useful but also dont forget arrangement is important too before you even get near a mix

[@thegroo2291]

Great great great video! This was very helpful

[@tomcarden4753]

Thank you

[@chrisw5742]

Hey I am wondering if there is a special mic locker combo for the full band sound without needing to mess with eq in post??? My Aston Stealth mic has different modes with preset eq curves for example...

[@Yurkinz]

Great video, thank you!

[@CurtisAmoy]

Great video though, thanks for sharing your knowledge & looking forward to watching more of your stuff. Subscribed.

[@SonicScoop]

Awesome to hear, thanks for watching! -Justin

[@PabloVelazquez-hz8sq]

I have a question related with sidechain. If we apply this technique we have to also apply sidechain to the bass when the kick hit. For example in my tracks when my kick hit I cut all the bass frequencies above the sub bass, so with this I leave space to the kick. I'm not sure if both concepts are related but if someone has any idea about it....

[@brianmartin7710]

Oh man, this AIR Song is so good !

[@chaddonal4331]

Justin -- I LOVE your tutorials. Eager to start on your courses that I've bought. Question: What assumptions are in play here, in your frequency guidance for typical places to cut and boost? For example, I'm thinking that the END GOAL is the target. So, if we were to frequency analyze (or simply listen for) the end result, we would hear (for example) Kick owning 60-80 Hz, Bass owning 120-200Hz, kick being reduced from 250-500Hz, bass cutting through in mids, and both having beater and string clarity up high. But this all depends on mic'ing, right? Considering the source material, right? If the kick had a mic fully inside the drumshell, we might be cutting at 60Hz, even if it's dominant. Or reducing the beater at 5k if it was already too prominent. Or we might be using a sample that was already pre-EQ'd with cuts at 200-500 and would sound hollow if we cut more. So, rather than assuming typical boost and cut ranges, is it better to target and end goal from the beginning? Are there typical final curves that have been generally established to work well, toward which we can target? And even confirm visually as we train our ears?

[@edmazur2084]

Oh, I forgot,,, I have one suggestion on the mixing course, a suggestion not a criticism...why not add gain staging techniques in module one or two, like the K system...or any other strategy for gain staging. this was an area i over looked for years and made the rest of mixing harder than needed....if all the tracks from the edit window are hitting the mixer window at about the same level, you don't end up with faders all over the place in the mixer window...When I talk to new mixers, hardly any off them consider gain staging, or even are aware of it.... when t they do it, they always comment how come very few tutorials mention this, as its soooo helpful. thanks again, bro,,, as usual, you rock ed

[@NelsonMontana1234]

I play both bass and drums and this is what I've found the biggest mistakes people make with bass is to use too much low end. It needs middle to cut. As for kick, it actually responds well to 4K, which gives it a nice snap , whereas too much middle will make it sound honky. Some 60hz gives a nice low thump, whereas that should be completely cut on the bass guitar.

[@jaydekaytv]

Great vid - thanks for sharing!

[@ralfmoss]

good advice Thanks

[@peterhoglund6667]

Hi, I often use 3 kicks, live recording, low sample and a klick sample. The same for the bass, I have an sub, middle and plonk. How do I place those in the mix?

[@KenshoBeats]

In a sense by implementing what is explained in this video, only now you need to first fit the bass together, than the kick, use your ears, after that you decide which one will end up in the lowest part of the mix.

[@richardmcarthur40]

Great summary

[@MrDaveCastellano]

Lots of good info here!

[@thegroove2000]

Fantastic insights.

[@vonfolta]

Thank you for sharing. =) that is very helpfull!

[@DJURBANBG]

very very nice !

[@andrewmarciano2449]

You are an angel 😂👍👍👍

[@Skimatik_DnB]

You are worth your weight in gold Justin , actually .... double your weight in gold 😂🎯 I wish you continued success ✌️💚☯️

[@EdwinDekker71]

Great video man. At 19:49 you mean low pass 😋

[@CurtisAmoy]

He finishes banging on about unrelated crap around 4:00

[@Jugokazooie]

8:03

[@GenX_US_Marine]

I mix with the shittiest speakers. They sound the crap, but when I get it sounding good in those speakers and I move to my very expensive monitors, it sounds really good. I specifically mix kick and bass with those crappy speakers. I keep messing with it until it sounds good. I use my ears and that's it.

[@SonicScoop]

You are not alone! A lot of great mixers, rely on “crappy” speakers that they know, love and trust. Often, they will be speakers that encourage them to focus on what’s happening in the midrange. If the results are working for you, keep it up! -Justin

[@GenX_US_Marine]

Mixing kick and bass is hard, especially when mixing them together. I watched to many videos on this to try to get it right. My friend said try doing it on really crappy speakers, I said huh. He said you know how to do it and don’t need to watch videos. I said ok, I’ll try it. This is also where I discovered mixing in mono as well. To me, that’s a game changer. A lot of people who mix don’t understand that you have to have tight punchy kicks on certain records, so it will cut through your mix. Using those crappy speakers helps me achieve that. It’s not easy sometimes.

[@Bassic778]

Excellent tutorial!!!

[@HMzTheGreatest]

💪

[@darrylsanchez3131]

I have the solution that best fits your problem dealing with low frequencies fighting for the same range of frequencies considered as band 1 frequencies. Here is one area you do not want to use in resolving this problem, that is do not use equalization. Use Multi-band Dynamic (not compression, not expansion) attenuation. This methodology is not ever used as a common practice but should be used as a “best practice.”

[@chaddonal4331]

Do you have a recommended plugin from which you're getting great results through this MBD approach?

[@matthiashahn6789]

Nice Video , but some Germans maybe undstand some other Words here 21:35 xDDD

[@davidasher22]

19:48 Low pass filter.. but.. we know what you mean. 😃

[@SonicScoop]

Haha yes, I said it backwards that time. :-) Thanks! -Justin

[@davidasher22]

@@SonicScoop I still can’t say it correctly without thinking about it for a second myself. I’m still super impressed with your ability to verbalize the information the way you do. Thanks for al you so Justin!

[@anthonyman8008]

Been doing mine down to 34hz. Whatever, just tune to 432hz

[@TikiHorea]

How often are you told that you look like Clark Kent? :D

[@chaddonal4331]

Only when his glasses are on.

[@AlexLopez-ph8dd]

Balancing will do 90% and eq to reinforce.

[@huntergalloway3944]

So true. It was revolutionary for me to discover that I can get my mix 75% done with focus on volume levels. Follow that with panning, EQ, compression, and spacial effects as needed! It’s so easy for beginners to get overwhelmed nowadays with so many options right at your fingertips, right at the start. When I first started recording I had a Portastudio and I thought that was overwhelming.

[@cekirdekci32]

This is the same video i just watched ? But why? Puttingvthe same vid with two different title. Makes me think i should skip some vids on this channel?

[@SonicScoop]

This is the only video in this subject we have. Maybe you watched it twice by mistake? It only has one title.

[@louloup4246]

Speak less . Show more . Thanks. Strike to the bass

[@SonicScoop]

It’s a podcast! Podcasts are not really a “showing” format :-) For demonstration videos and tutorials from Justin try here to start: kzbin.info/aero/PL3yghKGBjggTkBYyc-1_larMT6K4rGwmr Or here for our MixCon series: kzbin.info/aero/PL3yghKGBjggRbn4ooQ-SFl-4vi_V_zT3g And that’s just the tip of the iceberg for “showing” videos on this channel. Hope that helps!

[@thomasjeffery]

I think the podcast format is better for learning concepts. Anybody can watch someone fart around on a computer. It's about understanding what's going on so you can do it for yourself without watching someone do it on a computer and just copying it like a parrot 🦜

[@UnseenEternalStudios]

I agree, this theory stuff is very helpful. Listening to a couple minutes of this guy per day before I go to mixing really is helping keep my mind set in a good place and getting projects finished.

[@DavidAndrewsPEC]

Can't help feeling that we are at this invisible college of engineering in the audio-visual faculty and getting to audit really cool lectures by lecturers (he is one, so we kinda are!). This is what works in education, really: this is how to get the most theory across to the student as efficiently as possible. Then we get others, like Rick B. or Michael from InTheMix or Glenn 'Spectre' Fricker giving their special input into our continued education here. Justin here knows very much what he is doing: the progression through his lecture is logical and pulls us behind the topic as we get deeper in. And then, when we have attained a just noticable difference in our understandings of the topic ... the trail stops and we get to put these ideas into practice. We are lucky to have Justin to watch and listen to, for exactly the reason you give.

[@svenrustempasic8332]

This reasoning is wrong. Bass guitar's low E string is 41 Hz. If you do not reproduce that frequency, you do not represent bass guitar. Therefore, one MUST reproduce and not cut down this 41 Hz and above. As for kick, it does not have definite musical note pitch (in general...)... As for bass frequences, first octave is 16 to 32 Hz and second octave is 32 to 64 Hz, those two octaves are SUB BASS. Third octave is 64 to 128 Hz which is BASS and the fourth octave is 128 to 256 Hz, which is UPPER BASS.

[@SonicScoop]

It sounds like you are assuming that the goal is to more perfectly reproduce every individual instrument, rather than the goal being to make records that sound AWESOME :-) Mixing is creatively distorting sounds (in the loose and non-technical sense of the term) and reshaping them to make them work better together. In the context of popular music genres, it is not necessarily about making things more realistic, but more engaging. This often requires making them LESS like their natural selves to make them better, more interesting, more convincing, and a better fit in context. Classical music is one of the very few genres where this isn’t the case. But there, capturing individual instruments with close mics isn’t as relevant, and when it is done, it is itself a distortion of how things actually are in reality. In any case, the vast majority of speaker systems are simply not going to reproduce 41Hz. Many consumer systems aren’t going to reproduce 82Hz. So. if you are over reliant on those frequencies in getting your bass heard, it is very very likely that many consumers won’t actually hear your bass. Hope that helps make sense of it, Justin

[@albertbatchelor5882]

Justin is absolutely correct. Example: If you hi-pass the bass up to 70hz. with a gentle slope. Your still going to have some 41hz just less volume than the kick. It's very important to have the bass frequencies represented in mids and low-mids and even the hi-mids or you will not be able to hear any bass on an iPhone or any small speaker system. It is actually alot more complex then you think to get everything represented correctly for the song. Alot of things are opposite of what you think. If you slowly hi-pass a kick drum as you cut some low-end from the kick it actually sounds bigger and tighter with more punch.. It takes many years of mixing to develop your ear. Mixing is like be a magician. Things are not what they seem. If you get every individual instrument sounding fantastic solo'd the mix will sound horrible and have to much lowend and lowmids etc. . Everything works together and alot is an illusion. The guitars may sound lacking in lowend solo'd. But when in the mix with the other instruments and the bass in, they sound perfect and that all that counts. I hope this helps. I would love to explain the whole thing, but it would a many books worth. Wish you the best in your mixing adventures. 🙂🙂🙂👍👍👍