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Hey guys,

I recently noticed (and someone pointed it out to me, too) that my snare is clashing with the mid-range part of my bass.
You can hear this really well in the track in my signature. When the snare hits without the bassline playing it seems much louder.
Have you got any tips on how to avoid this (e.g. what frequencies to cut in the bassline etc.)?

I'd really appreciate some help. :/

Keep the bass,
bRRRz

roll the low, bassy stuff of the snare and then turn its volume up to compensate before you start trying to eq a hole in your bass. I know it sounds backwords but sometimes less snare = louder snare.

Also, look into sidechaining before you go notchin the bass up as well.

Best thing is to sidechain an EQ band of the bass to the snare, so only for the duration of the snare, room in the spectrum is created for it.

Is this the new "My bass is clashing with my kick" thread

What Basic A said, but i would not use any sidechaining. I would be straight in with the EQ. Maybe boost the snare a few db round 200hz, and cut the bass by a few db around the same place.

Maybe try layering the snares up - if you try and get a snare that's hitting around the hole spectrum then it tends to fill the mix out better and will seem louder in the mix.
Also don't forget the importance of gain structuring; ie. when you do the mixdown just roll back everything so that your snares are hitting around 9db or something and have your basses hitting around 11 or 12 maybe. Only rough numbers but I can't stress how important gain structure is.

Thx for the tips, guys.

I usually have 3 snares layered:
The first is boosted at 300hz
The second at roughly 1,5k
The third at 3-4 k

So when you say I have to do it with the EQ, do you mean that a slight cut in the bassline's EQ at those values could already be sufficient?

Brisance wrote:Best thing is to sidechain an EQ band of the bass to the snare, so only for the duration of the snare, room in the spectrum is created for it.

How do you apply a sidechain to just affect a particular frequency range? I'm lookin through logic's multipressor but can't find a sidechain feature. can anyone shed some light?

Alby D wrote:

Brisance wrote:Best thing is to sidechain an EQ band of the bass to the snare, so only for the duration of the snare, room in the spectrum is created for it.

How do you apply a sidechain to just affect a particular frequency range? I'm lookin through logic's multipressor but can't find a sidechain feature. can anyone shed some light?

You can split your bassline into multiple bands of frequency.
And then you apply the sidechain compression to the bands affecting your snare(s) and not the other ones.
Or you can make bands that solely have the frequency of your snare(s).

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Unless it's integral to the track, just don't have the midrange and snare play at the same time. Unitz - The Drop is a good example.

bRRRz wrote: So when you say I have to do it with the EQ, do you mean that a slight cut in the bassline's EQ at those values could already be sufficient?

Well, start by rolling off anything you DONT need from your snare (cmon, its a snare, it doesnt need anything going on under like 150hz does it?) and youll be really surprised what thatll do. Focus on getting the bulk of your snares transient's being performed by frequencies that actually count... youll be surprised what taking away can do too add to a sound.

Then worry about eq'ing your bass man.

And REALLY... REALLY... I dont think either of these is gonna be your problem. I bet you just need to learn more about mixdowns+gain structure.

more snare, less mid synth, and if a snare doesn't have anything going on below 150 it's gonna sound like the tassels on the handlebars of a little girl's tricycle. snares need meat.

Sharmaji wrote:more snare, less mid synth, and if a snare doesn't have anything going on below 150 it's gonna sound like the tassels on the handlebars of a little girl's tricycle. snares need meat.

Fair. was a gross overestimation wasnt it?

not too far off, but snares definitely need body unless you want them wafting about--even rim clicks need some 80-100hz to feel like they sit in the mix, and not just on top of 'em. if you're doing electro house, you need some 40hz in your snare.



keep this in mind, and work away from it:





i always think sidechaining to "fix" an imbalance in a mix is a lazy and obvious way around frequency issues; even de-essing,if done poorly, just seems like someone didn't want to spend the time to get a proper vocal sound.

sidechaining's great for obvious dynamic and rhythmic stuff tho.

80-110 hz for the snare depending on the style I'm going for. With aired drum loops (lots of space), i usually EQ the snare at a higher frequency. In drum loops with plenty of drum hits, i usually EQ the snare slightly lower. Sit your Mid range synth above that, and sit a sub under that around 60-80 hz. Usually works well in the mix for me.

op:
you see how it looks like the waveform is trying to bust out of the top and bottom of your soundcloud player? that is not a good thing. turn things down, ease up on the limiting, or some such. dicks and vaginas again. (not that i listened to it, who knows, maybe it's a perfectly mixed track)

i like my snares almost as fat as bass drums. when i played actual drum kit, i had a 15", 6" deep maple marching snare that i tuned somewhat loose and that fucker kicked almost as hard as my bass drum in the lower regions.

whiffy namby pamby snares are all good for 4 to the floor music, but us in the breakbeats world have to have hard, heavy, deep down low snares, or it just gets lost. of course, it needs counterpoint in higher frequencies as well, but you gotta have that oomph.

^^^
indeed perhaps the most relevent point to the OP
if sounds are ducking when theyre playing simultaneously, there's a strong chance you've squashed the fuck out the track.

as an aside to the OP's question, I've been meaning to ask how harmful limiting EVERYTHING in your mix is. It's nice to see no peaks/clips in the recording of the master track, but I'm severely cutting down my dynamic range correct? It took a while for me to notice, but it sure sounds like the mix is very one-dimensional.

Hope I didn't go too far off track.

xx773xx wrote:I've been meaning to ask how harmful limiting EVERYTHING in your mix is

Little more harmful then bitcrushing your master.

sully.harmitage wrote:^^^
indeed perhaps the most relevent point to the OP
if sounds are ducking when theyre playing simultaneously, there's a strong chance you've squashed the fuck out the track.

Do you mean by squashed that I compressed or limited too much/hard?

Sharmaji wrote: snares need meat.