New here and looking for some help with low-end in mixes!

SeanHurley

Hi guys, this is my first post here, having been directed here by Mr. Brewer.

To give you a little bit about myself, I've done the C&G thing, and have had an interest in recording for years. I play in a band and have sort of fallen into engineering (part-time) thru that. So I would probably describe myself as an "enthusiastic amateur" .

I have always had trouble getting the low-end right in mixes. It's either to light or too tubby and never travelled well. I have just invested in some decent monitors now and the beer-goggles are off so to speak. I was just wondering how you guys treat low-end stuff (bass, kick, general mix eq).

Thanks in advance guys

S

Neurojazz

It's a large topic - i'll hint at some of the techniques as each track can be a unique situation.

Usually the way it goes is this... if your bass line frequencies and bass drum frequencies (that they share) overlap then you'll get some muddiness. The way people get around this is too 'shelve' some of the sounds to get rid of the unwanted parts of the sound...

Some Eqs have a shelve button, or VST/Plugins will have a Low Cut option that mean you can tidy the bottom up on some sounds - this would depend on the sounds of course.

Also, each track in the mix may have some sub/rumble at the bottom end - if you put a shelve on each of these tracks then your whole mix may sound cleaner. I think shelves that go upto 45-60htz might help.

Your VST/Plugin may have a steep low cut filter/shelve - the steeper the better generally.... something like the SONNOX Eq has a nice steep low end cut for cleaning that unwanted sub out.

BUT, as many other people will be quick to point out - all this will come with experimentation with the frequencies at the low end.... you may find the cutting helps and then makes the sound you are cutting crappy - stealing from peter to pay paul.

It does take a long time to get mixes clean - but worth the work put in.

At the end of the day - isolate the 2 offending sounds and put EQ on both and play around with that low end cut.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

if you havent treated your mix room for low end , then even the best monitors in the world wont help .

room first
then monitors , then test with sig gens and spl meters to get it as flat as possible from 30 or so to 400 or so


if youve done this , and still having issues , then its a mix method issue , as neuro has said ,

i tend to filter off low end in anything that doesnt need it , or wont be noticed missed .
( like snare , overheads , some guitars, some vocals , usually a steep high pass around 50 , or even 100 in some cases ( overheads ) ( hi hats = 300 )
i leave the low end to the kick , bass or low keys in the mix .

have al listen to the mix on sealed phones then monitors - is the low end radically different ? - if so the room is a factor,



buts thats just me - if your room is not well treated you are peeing against the wind on the low end.

SeanHurley

Cool, thanks for that. I realise there is no silver bullet in these situations and it is really something that comes to an engineer over time.

i think my issue to date has been monitoring on tiny speakers, since upgrading to my PMCs I can hear everything a lot better. So maybe I might have a bit more luck;)

teamdresch

Reference, reference, reference.

SeanHurley

DaDumTish wrote: »

if you havent treated your mix room for low end , then even the best monitors in the world wont help .

Agreed, i can't do anything permanent in the space that I am using at the minute I have made some portable baffles which sort of helps with the symmetry.

Although the jump frmo KRKV4s to PMCs has helped a lot.

I probably need to invest/build some portable bass traps.

Thanks for reply.

i57dwun4yb1pt8

you wont believe how well the low end come in to focus once you properly trap / treat the room - i reckon is the first thing anyone serious about mixing music should do striaght away , before buying a monitor.

SeanHurley

DaDumTish wrote: »

you wont believe how well the low end come in to focus once you properly trap / treat the room - i reckon is the first thing anyone serious about mixing music should do striaght away , before buying a monitor.

Hmm I can feel a trip to B&Q on the cards. Can't afford any commercial stuff:(

i57dwun4yb1pt8

send an email to me at gmail and i will detail what i did

i57dwun4yb1pt8

also, a quick dirty test is to sit at the mix spot , and play all the notes on a good bass guitar from low e to high g

or on a bass synth , or a sine sweep

and see if anything drops out alot or gets louder alot than the rest

if this is occuring , you need bass treatment .


a sign that the bass end is pretty ok , is if you can hear nice full clear bass notes
at the same volume up and down the bass / keyboard.

PaulBrewer

teamdresch wrote: »

Reference, reference, reference.

As TD says.
Of importance too is the key of the track you're comparing i.e. ideally it should be the same as the one you're mixing.

If the both sound similarly 'wrong', you're probably right !

Realistically you probably won't be able to get things to sound 100% right coming out of the monitors - however you should be able to get a 'right' result especially using the quality signal chain you are.