How to handle all the little peaks in highly effected basses

[Fixxa_Dubstep]

When processing basslines, often with all the phasers, flangers, distortion and so on I find myself with a bassline with loads of annoying noticable peaks taking up precious db and overpowering the main body of the bass, the most annoying part being they often move by small amounts over time.. what is the best way to eliminate or at least reduce them? Obviously, I could go round finding every single little one and surgically EQing it but that would take a lifetime, and makes it hard to get rid of the ones that are always on the move without taking big chunks out of my bassline that I want. Obviously I realise that I don't want to take all of them out, harmonics are important in basslines I feel so when I can I actually introduce peaks that fit in.. its the ones that are random and stick out and sound like ass.

[dmz007]

Have you tried compressing it? This will reduce the dynamic range(ie bringing those little peaks down inline with the lower level stuff). Then add gain to bring the volume back up. Google compression if you're not sure.

[bl0rg]

eq + compress then possibly resample and do it again?

[eldoogle]

Compress for sure. Use a highish ratio of maybe 6.

Ratio is how much sounds can go by the cutoff point, sort of like a filter. When you have a high ratio, less is let through and more is compressed.

If you have a ratio of say, 2, then a lot more sound will come past the cutoff point.

The cutoff point is determined by the threshold. Bring down the threshold to the point where the compression starts to work.

[MilkyPirate]

limiter and compressor combo POW

[macc]

^ The 'cutoff point' IS the threshold. It's what the word means

And why on earth would you eq it? Given that it is short-duration/time-variant behaviour, how is eq (which is time-invariant) going to help?

Compression and/or limiting will do the job of getting some room back. It's what they are for. The specific settings, and how much compression you use vs. limiting, or vice versa, depends on the duration of the peaks you're worried about. The shorter they are, the more appropriate limiting will probably be.