Who Gets the Low End?!!

Who Gets the Low End

  • Bass Guitar

    Votes: 20 25.0%

  • Kick Drum

    Votes: 24 30.0%

  • MY GUITAR!

    Votes: 1 1.3%

  • Varies from song to song

    Votes: 25 31.3%

  • Other (specify)

    Votes: 10 12.5%
  • Total voters
    80
For me "low end" pertains to the fundamental pitches without the harmonics.

So it's a combination of what's "down there" that "gets the low end".

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that... but the kick is generally lower than the bass. The whole band is built on the kick.

But sometimes synths and guitars go down there too... I try to make the song sound right, pretty basic, but that's it.
 
For me it's usually the bass. I only really record myself and the band so that's what seems to work for us. We play metal, the guitars and bass are tuned to drop C and the genera calls for more of a clicky kick so the bass gets the majority of the low end.
 
dintymoore said:
So it's a combination of what's "down there" that "gets the low end".
Click to expand...

Right.

I try to fit both the kick and bass in the "low end" rather than rolling one off in favor of the other.

Also...even though the location/direction of low frequencies tends to be less identifiable in the stereo field than higher frequency content, I still don't like to stick the bass and kick both dead center in the mix...rather I pan them each slightly off center (11:00 --- 1:00) to open up the middle for lead elements like vocals, but I also think that allows them to keep their individual low end character a little better without as much fighting.

But yeah...each mix will call for a little different treatment of the low end elements.
 
Yonce N Mild said:
Fothe guitars and bass are tuned to drop C
Click to expand...

So like...how high do you keep the action to prevent fret buzz with the strings that loose?

I've done some stuff going down to D...but when I tried once or twice going to C....the neck of course flattens right out, and the buzz kicks in...without a twist of the truss rod and slightly higher action...C just wasn't fun to play.
 
miroslav said:
So like...how high do you keep the action to prevent fret buzz with the strings that loose?

I've done some stuff going down to D...but when I tried once or twice going to C....the neck of course flattens right out, and the buzz kicks in...without a twist of the truss rod and slightly higher action...C just wasn't fun to play.
Click to expand...

I think you answered your own question - you don't "retune" your guitar to C and then hit record, you set it up for C tuning, changing the setup and string gauges as you need. FWIW, as a seven-stringer, I play in B standard, tuned 10-68.

While Glen's answer is of course the most technically correct, I generally just record my own music, and since I know what I'm after I can answer it based on what I write and record. For me, it's parsed out between the bass and kick. I try to stack everything as follows:

"slap" of the kick (5-6k)
"growl" of the bass (1k)
body of the bass (60hz-400hz)
depth of the kick (40-60hz)

...and just sort of tweak from there as needed. Really, the two sort of weave in and out between each other in that range and the guitar starts to come in a bit in the 60-80 range but if possible I keep it pretty low up to 120-180hz (if the bass is doubling the guitar, the bass can fill this out nicely), but that's sort of how I look at it, with the bass surrounded by the higher and lower energy from the kick.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
I think you answered your own question - you don't "retune" your guitar to C and then hit record, you set it up for C tuning, changing the setup and string gauges as you need. FWIW, as a seven-stringer, I play in B standard, tuned 10-68.
Click to expand...

Yes...that's what I do and mean when i say "without a twist of the truss rod and slightly higher action...C just wasn't fun to play" :)

I'm just not sure if all guitar players do that which is why I asked Yonce N Mild, as many players don't seem to be confident/interested in messing with truss rods and action on their own.

I was wondering if they used some other "trick" to make it work.... :D
....or do many play in that same tuning all the time, so it's a set-n-forget...
...or do people have one guitar set up just for that?

I'm just curious....
 
miroslav said:
So like...how high do you keep the action to prevent fret buzz with the strings that loose?

I've done some stuff going down to D...but when I tried once or twice going to C....the neck of course flattens right out, and the buzz kicks in...without a twist of the truss rod and slightly higher action...C just wasn't fun to play.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure I play synth and backing vox.:D

They have their guitars set up for drop C like Drew said action isn't too high at all. I'm personally not a fan though. The strings are just too loose. When I'm playing my bro's bass tuned to C I'll often push the low string right off the fretboard when I fret a note. The guitar isn't as bad but still feels sloppy to me.

I would really prefer it if they played 7 string guitars and a 5 string bass in standard tuning. It drives me crazy when we are jamming trying to figure out what notes they are playing by watching the fret board. I can just look and know in standard tuning or drop D. In drop C I have to transpose everything.:mad:
 
miroslav said:
Yes...that's what I do and mean when i say "without a twist of the truss rod and slightly higher action...C just wasn't fun to play" :)

I'm just not sure if all guitar players do that which is why I asked Yonce N Mild, as many players don't seem to be confident/interested in messing with truss rods and action on their own.

I was wondering if they used some other "trick" to make it work.... :D
....or do many play in that same tuning all the time, so it's a set-n-forget...
...or do people have one guitar set up just for that?

I'm just curious....
Click to expand...

Both my bro and the guitar player had theirs set up professionally. They tune to D sometimes, they rarely use standard tuning. They sacrifice a little playability in other tunings in order to have optimal performance in their preferred tuning.
 
That's cool. :)

I know what you mean about easily (or not) transposing by watching where they fret...!!! :D

I play both guitar and keys...I can get my head around that stuff most times.

The times I tune down is mostly when I don't like where the chords are falling on the fretboard, and I want that thicker sound.
Usually I'm only tuning down a 1/2 step...occasionally a whole step...rarely 2 steps.
 
OTHER. I am able to balance the kick drums with my bass by deliberately panning things and judicious use of EQ. Careful bass drum tuning and mic placement are crucial. I am also careful not to let the lows from gtr or keys interfere with bass and drums.
 
As far as arrangements go, I almost always have the bass drum sitting in the bottom (40-70) with bass guitar on top of that. I like the bass guitar to have a lot of power, so I make it strong in the upper bass frequencies (say, 200-800, depending on the mix and arrangement), and then having the bass drum sit underneath that as well as a bit of 4k to cut through.
 
Gonna repost from the other thread, with some additions.

Considering I am firmly in electronica, I don't use bass guitar or guitars, and my "drums" are either synthesized or sampled, sooo....

For me it depends on what style of stuff I'm doing.

If it's Drum and Bass, it's usually the Subbass at the bottom, then the kick, then mid-bass. Although sometimes I'll have the kick go down low when there is no sub action going on.

Industrial/EBM/Gabber or Goa, it's kick. If there is bass in the same area as the kick, then it gets sidechained to the kick to duck it out of the way when the kick hits.

If it's freeform "let's see what happens if I ringmodulate a trombone sample with a low tom", then anything goes, whatever fits, and if it's fighting it gets the axe.

Of all these, one of the hardest is Gabber as the distroted kicks take up both the low end and a lot of the midrage, so mixing gets really tricky. It take some doing to program just the right sounds to fit in, and then still you have to do some drastic stuff during mixing to give other sounds some room.
 
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