Mixing Sub bass?

T

Terra

Scholarly Gentleman
Hey what's up y'all, long time no talk. How have yall been?

I'm mixing a new song and it involves a sub bass analog kickdrum that produces solid bass note tones that I am using as the bassline in my song.

My problem is that I don't know where to start, I love the dynamic of the kick, so I don't want to use any compression (I could use a low ratio), and when I EQ, I generally roll off the lows, but it takes away from the actual bass tone.

I'm using ableton live on mac (please hold your comments).

any suggestions to get a rich, warm, and clear sub-bass-kick-bassline?

Thanks, Tyler.
 
Does the sub bass you are dealing with actually have dynamics? Things like that are often pretty steady (even if it sounds like they are getting louder and softer).
 
well, tricky one to answer without hearing it.

my best guess is that this is probably primarily an eq problem rather than compression, and it's often not helpful to have a one-size-fits-all approach and automatically eq a kick how you always do.
If rolling off the low end compromises the bass tone, then it's simple: don't roll off the low end.

As regards the rest of the tone very generally;
more high mid (click of the kick beater) = "punchy" and 'clear' sounding
more low mid = "warm"

from there, it's pretty much personal taste

very briefly and basically with compression, you could use to bring out the transient by compressing the rest of the sound (so you'll need to put a slower attack time)
or you can get more of the sustain by squashing the whole thing and in effect make the tail louder.

as for "sub-bass" which you keep saying, that would imply a lot of low frequency energy in there, so if as you do as you say and 'roll off the lows' surely you're getting rid of the "sub-bass" sound?!

If you mean that you're using the kick as kind of a 'tone' generator for a bassline, then why not go the whole hog and actually use a gated tone generator? You just need to put a gate across a tone generator with the kick drum as the side-chain input, then adjust the side-chain input level until the gate opens and closes as you want it to.
 
Have you tried side-chain compression? that is usually what I do when mixing dubstep or other loud bass-type music, although you can lose your kick attack a bit, you can always pump the eq somewhere else, but substracting EQ is usually the way I do thing .
 
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