Newbie question about bass mixing...

[LazerPhEa]

Hi everyone, I'm new and a newbie in home recording.
I'm trying to record by myself the promo for my group, and I'm going crazy!
We play heavy metal, so I have to mix together 2 distorted guitars, the bass, voice and drums.
I use Sonar and an amp modeler for the guitars and the bass sounds (the Line6 GuitarPort), and Kontakt sampler for the drums.

The problem is: when I mix the two guitars with the bass, the main output volume clips, cause of the huge amount of low frequencies, I think.
The question is: Do I have to cut the guitars below 200Hz, to make room for the bass, or can I do something different?
I heard about compressors with a sidechain, but honestly I don't know how to use them.
Could someone help me to solve this dilemma?
Thaks!

Lazer.

 

[tmix]

You are on the right track!

It does sound like the best thing would be to make room for the different instruments by CUTTING frequencies first. If you compress you may just end up with mud. You may consider trying to cut some of the under 50hz range off the bass guitar as well. If the Bass and Kick don't work well frequency wise you can cut around the 400hz range on one while boosting (gently) on the other instrument to give a little distinction.
Lastly, if the frequencies are not an issue I would insert some compression on each of the offending tracks and possibly on the final stereo master.

 

[LazerPhEa]

Re: You are on the right track!

It does sound like the best thing would be to make room for the different instruments by CUTTING frequencies first. If you compress you may just end up with mud. You may consider trying to cut some of the under 50hz range off the bass guitar as well. If the Bass and Kick don't work well frequency wise you can cut around the 400hz range on one while boosting (gently) on the other instrument to give a little distinction.

So:
1) Cut the guitars around 200Hz
2) cut the bass around 50Hz
3) optionally cut kick and boost bass around 400Hz (or vice versa)

Lastly, if the frequencies are not an issue I would insert some compression on each of the offending tracks and possibly on the final stereo master.

Ehm... which tracks do I have to compress?
Pardon me, but the fact I'm italian doesn't help me to understand all this nu stuff!
However, many many thanks for your advices!!!

 

[tmix]

Sorry!

I was a little vague.
Which ever track has the most variance volume wise (usually Drums or Bass) would be the first to compress. Since the drums are Kontact and probably pretty evenly recorded, concentrate on the live recorded guitars and bass.

 

[LazerPhEa]

I got it!

I was a little vague.
Which ever track has the most variance volume wise (usually Drums or Bass) would be the first to compress. Since the drums are Kontact and probably pretty evenly recorded, concentrate on the live recorded guitars and bass.

Alright! Now it's all clear! I think I'll try all this stuff in the week-end, then I'll attach a sample of the mixdown here,so if you like you can hear the result!
Thanks a lot!

 

[Hardcore]

I use PODs for my guitar and bass. I'm always bass heavy and that stems directly from the tones coming from the POD. I cut around the frequencies that were posted here plus I have to add (that's generally a bad thing) some at about 6khz. I would work on the initiall tone. I've noticed that if I'm recording a track that sounds a bit on the thin side, once I mix it down with everything else it sounds pretty good.