Hey guys im trying to get a tight and warm low end for a hip hop song im mixing. Hard hitting kick with warm sustained 808s and a sub bass line. They are getting muddy real easily and i cant seem to get the 808s to sound round and warm. Any tips?

 

Cut sub freqs on your kick.... or... notch out some of the prominent freqs of the kick out of the sub bass... or...phase invert the kick from the sub bass ...or... sidechain the bass to the kick. Many diff ways.

 

I'd say put some slight distortion on the bass and roll-off some of the sub frequencies to let the kick punch through (maybe start around 60hz). Notching some of the frequencies can help sounds cut through as well. I like to chorus out the bass a bit to make it feel wide and have the kick more in the middle, you need to tend to the bass on the stereo sides if you do this though (checking mix in mono would help this).

 

Question. How well do you know your monitors & room? Do you have any sound reinforcement where you are mixing?

 

I just went from rokit 8s to hs 7s so currently still learning the new monitors, i have about half myroom treated i have two 6x5 iso panels on my back wall

 

If you already have 808's (which have long subby tails), first - your kick must be short and without any subby character and second - your bass should play all the notes above (one octave) the notes that your tuned 808 tails are hitting. When played together, because of the 808 tails the bass will seem like playing low but in reality it won't. Especially in C1-A1 range, if you have more than one frequency playing (and you don't at least ducking all but one of them) will lead to issues. And referencing with few tracks from the exact genre and style you're producing will help a lot.

 

So the sub bass plays above the 808s i was putting them lower! So my 808s should be low passed basiclly in the eq?

 

No, you leave the 808's unfiltered (OK, maybe some slight eq shuld you want to change the overall sound): the 808 has both high frequencies and low frequencies - you can't cut out too much or you'll lose the 808 character. You have the short kick which should hit the stomach & chest and then the 808 sub tail which shakes the pants - when listening. Your bassline should only complement the main melody but not to add rumble in subsonics - the 808 should have a long enough sustain. Keep it simple.

 

Gotcha ok. The kick i got perfect, it was more of the sub bass and 808s clashing and not being warm enough. I think i can get it to work now. Thanks guys :]