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just curious to know what everyones technique is or if they have any particular way they do it.

i know alot has to with personal preference so it'll be good to hear what everyone does and what their routine is.

also i'm finding it hard to clear my distorted bass lines, i've experimented with compression and eqing my bass but it's still not powerful enough like loefah's basslines

If your basslines are distorted it's because they have been recorded badly (clipping) or you have purposely distorted them - in which case why would you want to clean them up? If you're talking about getting them to sit well in the mix thats a slightly different matter. For what it's worth, here's my 2cents:

Bass (esp subs) take up a fuckovalot of headroom. If you want a low and powerful bass in your track you need to start off with a basic sound that has that property - then just GET OUT OF IT'S WAY! If you take a listen to Loefah's tracks (as well as many other dubstep tracks) you'll find that there's not a lot going on - the arrangements are very sparse. Why? Because they need to be to handle that much low end. Introducing other elements (in the low-mid/mid range that are not part of your layered bass sound) means that there are other things competing for attention on the master track - to get everything to sit right your bass sound will have to be compromised.

Golden rule: Sort out your basic sounds first. There's only so much a mix can fix. If you get all your individual tracks peaking at about -15dBFS (which is 0dBVU) then your tracks will be easier to manage come mixdown. Try panning things around rather than bringing down a fader if you want to make room for something. Don't worry so much about overall volume at the mixdown stage, just get the balance right - getting it loud is delt with in the mastering stage or with a bit of compression/limiting on the master bus.

Mixdown as you go along! seriously. I know its tempting to just get your ideas down first and keep the technical stuff out the way whilst your on a creative high, but i always make sure that the sounds i am using are clean and sound right whilst i do them. If you leave it til the end your gonna have a headache trying to sort it all out.

Also make sure you cut off your tune if your bass is going too low, as it might muddy the mix.

would you recommend, say putting your whole tune thro a filter that jus cuts it completely at arouund 50/60hz (in addition to your other filters on each track) and having your sub on say a separte mixer that doesnt go thro the filter?

@ thump rat: i TOTALLY agree man, this is how i do all my tracks!

@ Foamo: interesting idea for sure man, if i wasnt so set in my ways (which seem to work for me) then id give this a try.

in drum n bass we tend to highpass the drums (esp the kick) at about 75hz, then let the sub sit under that and low pass it at about 70-75hz. if you want your sub to sound distorted with some extra harmonics, you may want to think about either splitting it up into two tracks (a mid or high track, and a sub track) or notching it at the bass kick frequencies. an alternative method is sidechain compressing the sub to the kick so that their dynamics never compete. I dont have much experience in sidechaining and i tend to think it unnecescary... though if you want it UBER loud with zero dynamics, go for it!

another thing, you can do if your going to release your track as an mp3 and not have it mastered to vinyl...

EQ a nice low cut at 30hz and a high cut at about 15khz, as these frequencies arent really audible to about 99% of people in a club and they take up space in the mix. you'll be able to get it louder too. i also put a moderate scoop in the final track at around 200 - 500 hz.. just like 1 dB or so... its barely audible but it makes a huge difference to me.. the track sounds a bit less muddy (if thats a problem your having).

hope all this helps... i kinda went off here but just remember, EQ is your friend!

my ear can pick up frequencies as low as 7hz and i can hear supersonic frequencies like a bat.

FullyRecordingz wrote:my ear can pick up frequencies as low as 7hz and i can hear supersonic frequencies like a bat.

cool dude.

lots of onpoint ideas. i just mixed down a DnB track at my buddy's he-does-this-for-a-living-and-owed-me-a-favor studio because it'd reached a point where i was no longer getting closer to the sound i wanted. time to call in some other ears.

yeah, mix quietly, pick out your sounds and leave sonic space for the things that you know you want forward in the mix (sub, snare, synth line)...

otherwise it was interesting to me that my man used more EQ than i felt comfortable with and very, very little compression or other dynamic control. some limiting on the midbass to make it thick and even, and i'd tracked the drums from my mpc w/ some compression, but otherwise, it was all about attention to detail regarding eq's and what sits where. In the final mix, everything sounded bigger, more present, clearer, and more part of a whole than it did before. and it had PUNCH!

so, eq yes, compression less so, oh we used a bunch of really subtle DELAYS instead of reverbs (less muddy), and yeah-- cut out some space in the 2-500hz range in general.

otherwise.... just go for it! if your tracks have a vibe as you're putting 'em together, remember that and don't lose it by overcompressing/eq'ing/clipping it once it's time to mix it. leave some headroom for a mastering engineer to really bring the fire, aswell.

voxengo span
learn it, use it, love it

disagree about voxengo span

used it for quite a while

but at the end of the day, it's how it sounds, not how it loooks

ramadanman wrote:disagree about voxengo span

used it for quite a while

but at the end of the day, it's how it sounds, not how it loooks

totally how it sounds at the end thats common sense but everyone doesn't have golden ears or expensive monitors in a properly treated room
also it's alot easier to see where you have sounds clashing or clipping with a spectral analyzer.
also you can see the rms which is something mastering studios use to check for perceived loudness.

i could go on for awhile why every setup should use a spectral analyzer.
one of the best tools in a arsenal to save headaches while eqing and doing mixdowns