Here’s a trick I sometimes use on bass. It is essentially splitting your original track up into two or more tracks and having each one deal with different frequency ranges and stereo imaging. I’ll give an example below, not for you to copy exactly – because every source sound is different – but to show you the concept to play with.

Often I will be given a single mono bass track by a client and by the time the track is mixed I have three or four copies of that track bass track all playing back and doing different things in the mix. Trying to crowbar a single mono bass into a mix can be a tough task. So why not have the different frequencies of the bass on different channels and use different tricks on each channel?

Here’s an example of what I might do with a rock bass track to make it solid on the bottom end, focused in the mid and have a 3D aspect to make it pop out of the speakers and perceptible if listening on a laptop.

 Example

Copy the bass track so that there are three identical versions of it. Name them ‘Bass’, ‘Sub Bass’, and ‘Mid Bass Focus’.

Bass

I will treat this as a regular bass sound, roll off everything below 100hz, use some gentle EQ to make it sweet and use compression to control the dynamics. This is your bread and butter bass.

Now to make it better…

 Sub Bass

The aim of this track is to add some very subtle heavy bottom end to the original bass track without only enhancing some of the notes (as standard bass enhancer plug-ins will) and without competing with the bass drum. If the source file is stereo, I will make this mono. I will roll off everything above 80hz and below 40hz and then heavily limit so that it has a very undynamic and smooth sub sound. I will then side chain this to the kick drum. A good trick is to boost this track in the chorus for more impact.

Mid Focus

The aim of this track is both to introduce a focused mid-range element to your bass to give the bass some definition without it interfering with your vocals and so that you can hear the bass on laptop speakers. The scope here is huge but one trick I use is to use a stereo guitar amp simulator with some subtle distortion and then roll off everything below 300hz and above 6khz. I might then try and introduce a stereo element to this. Either by adding some “room” with the amp simulator or by using something like a doubler or stereo enhancer. I will then switch to my small monitors (see other blog) and slowly bring the volume up until I can perceive the bass.

So now I have a bass sound with some heavy low end for big speakers and some mid range which both helps make it focused and three dimensional and audible on laptop speakers.

Additional note – For dance music I will use a similar technique but may go a little more crazy on the mid range channel. Maybe adding a chorus effect, widening, delays, bitcrusher etc.

This concept can work on almost any sound source you have, not just bass. Why not split up your vocal into low, mid and high and process them differently? The world is your oyster.

Enjoy!

Bobby x