Drum and bass management

J

Joel Hamilton

New member
I have been mixing a few songs for Full Cycle, created by Yuval Gabay (soul coughing/reprazent/full cycle).

Such an amazing style of music. Drum and bass is all about low end management when mixing. Get the bass HUGE and make it all work together. I really love mixing songs when the client just wants everthing HUGE. If it is on: it should be heard. No "i want the flute number 34 to be just barely audible, but flute 12 to be more of the main line, and the rest are just to support the 48 gtr tracks...." type of stuff. Just BIG, relatively spare arrangements. We are using such non traditional methods for getting things to sit right, and the stories of how these guys work are amazing... Like distorting a mackie by bussing the bass to EVERY group, urning it all WAY up, printing that back into the computer, then do it again for the bass, then the drums twice... amazing. using the console as a compressor/limiter that squarewaves everything... Amazing. the records sound really good! I have been hitting the conssole, but not crazily, and going for a HUGE low end with headroom. Like that "impossible" low end sound when you mix all the other elements around the bass.....

Anyone else mix this kind of stuff?

So fun.
 
I only do a little bit of D&B stuff, but wish I did more. I love Roni Size's stuff. The trick to making that stuff work is EQ. IF you listen the those albums close you realize that the low and low mids is cut off of everything except the bass instruments. Even the kick drums usually have no low end.
 
Ronan said:
I only do a little bit of D&B stuff, but wish I did more. I love Roni Size's stuff. The trick to making that stuff work is EQ. IF you listen the those albums close you realize that the low and low mids is cut off of everything except the bass instruments. Even the kick drums usually have no low end.
Click to expand...

I disagree. It is the mastering that does that. I have heard mixes pre-master from Krust, and others, and they are boomin.

The key to getting HUGE low end is NOT to EQ it at all. Some compression, multing to a few different compressors that bring out different things in the bass.... When you have th eunencumbered giganto sub sound, you can get the whole mix to vibrate WITHOUT EQ, awesome intermodulation distortion that makes the whole mix shake when the drop comes, but stays clean (in relative terms).

I really like mixing D&B, and I am lucky to get to mix some serious stuff....
 
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