Hello,

I've posted a track of mine several months ago on Reddit and was looking for feedback. I legit guy which had his own music classes pointed out to me that my bass was good mixing and mastering wise. Or that it needed attention. Well, he was right? Because I made the song on 20 dollar headphones, small ones.

Now, I bought myself a set of studio monitors but to me, I havent really adjusted it yet but I dont really see what he saw so wrong about it so that's why im here asking the question How to properly mix and master the bass a.k.a. the kick and bassline of this song.

This is the track:


Any tips or advice?

 

bass is in mono, low cut it at 40hz and saturate it hard, there is no sub in the kick or the bass, so you need to saturate to get them beefed up, then limited. Multiband compression on master then limiter again to about -9 lufs,

You are gainstaging badly for the low end, but the effects and all other elements are cool,

You need to cut sub to get sub, in this track pick a better kick and the kick should hit -0db bass should hit -12 to -6db when mixing

There is alot you can do, this track is unmastered aswell so if i mastered it i could get some lows out of it.

When mixng kick and bass think of level kick nr hit hardest then a bass that complement the kick, also important to choose right samples and key of kick and bass, if key of song is G use a Gsharp kick leaving the bass in G free, also get a good vibe going down there.

There is alot you can do, in this track it sounds unmastered and there is a mono kick that had reverb on it, or something, atleast get a better kick and try to mix like i said 0db kick into limiter -6 to 12 db bass then build ur track around those levels, there is no right or wrong.

But if you want bass you need to do my last suggestion more or less, i am not pro but ive been mixing bass for 4 years so i can help you,

https://soundcloud.com/user-802724435'

My soundcloud


I like your track

 

why lowcut at 40? lol i go way up to 100.
But never looked up the science on this..
anyway, all the rules are there just to help... learn all, deconstruct all, do what you please cos if it sounds good, it is good.

critique:
track is quite dull... boring.
mix volumes are not that bad but its still not in place... get the mix better.
there's simply not enough happening. Elements can be better intertwined, make them more glued together... not just like they are paralel to each other... but all together.. for lack of better wording.

And jonny boy is right, you have abs no bottom.


slap a comrepssor and camel crush on the master on 11 - annihilation - quick master.

 

Track is hollow. Super low tonal content. I wouldn't say it doesnt have midrange but it doesnt have enough "right" (for lack of better word) midrange. Think of getting a piece of wood and install all the guitar hardware on it with 6 strings and all. Does it sound good or bad ? well, that's subjective, but now compare it with a random real acoustic or electric guitar. One has good tonal content, one doesn't. Something like that.

 

Your mix is well-balanced.

Run it through Waves MaxxBass or something similar, set your crossover point to approximately 100 Hz (give or take), then boost the low-end by a few decibels.

Keep an ear out for your low-mids. You may need to make some mild adjustments.

Don't go crazy. You're almost there.

 

There's a bunch of resonance occurring at approximately 155Hz that may need a bit of attention.

 

Here are a couple of very good tutorials from my playlist, with them you will achieve very good results.

You can apply all tutorials to any style of music. If you don't have some plugins, get them or swap them for equivalent ones that you already have. These are not typical YouTube tutorials where it's all about clicks and likes, they are really useful tutorials. If you look at the video list of the tutorial creators, you will find even more useful things.

1) Mixing Low End

2) Top 5 Mastering TRICKS for Amazing SUB BASS

3) Mastering Without Limiters - Alternatives for Achieving Loudness

4) Mix Polishing: Advanced Techniques to Finalize Your Mix

5) FIX IT IN THE MIX - Boxy Bass Drum!

6) The Ultimate Drum Bus | P11 Abyss & P44 Magnum

BONUS:
How to Mix a Song with Adam Moseley: Start to Finish
Part 1

Part 2

Bonus 2: 6 Bus Compressors that will make your song SOUND LIKE A RECORD

Bonus 3: Analog Mastering #02 | EQing Into Compression

 

How come this is your first message?

 

And to the other replies I will make use of them, thanks for the answers. Honestly I didnt know it could use more bottom end and I agree on the fact it needs more mids, so I'mma work on that and finnish my track that way. I have another version which is less weeird but honestly why it sounds so weird is because I make all my sounds myself except for vocals. Vocals I dont make myself but i use heavy manipulation through distortion or other effects.

 

Just be careful of the mid-thing. It's all well and good to say “you need more mids”, but your song doesn't really have much mid-range content to play with.

 

well .. it might be shady ofcourse you never know but i was just mainly curious and thanks im gonna check them all out :P but yeah somewhere down the line i said thanks for the info !!

 

ok thanks! Im wondering what itll do to the sound

 

I use a translator for websites and texts, my English is very bad and basically useless.
It is possible that I misunderstood something. Sorry.

 

I like it the way it is, it gave me an absolute proper 90ies flashback. Being in some empty warehouse dancing until everything hurts and then some more. Yeah, it does not sound "modern". But it doesn't have to, does it?
And imho it does not lack low fs. It just does not have that one octave lower subbass modern productions have. But there are a lot of bangers that heavily rely on "we give the kids 40 to 60 hz, its plenty to have fun with"
// edit // referring to "boring" and stuff, that's the genre. It's old school Techno. And OP nailed it 100%. And there is nothing wrong with the bassdrum either. Finally a bassdrum that doesn't sound like most. It does the job too, cuts through. Would be a blast on any PA.
I really dig the track, you nailed a genre and still have 'your' sound. Don't let people discourage you.

 

Last edited: Jan 18, 2025

It's a banger. I love how it sounds, don't refine or polish it; keep it raw and true to techno.
I've played it ten times, and it's got an excellent groove and energy. Kickdrum is spot-on, and I appreciate the simplicity and sounds you've chosen. It's reminiscent of the good old days, this will definitely get people dancing. The midrange feels solid and present, and the mono bassline kinda totally works. No need for more low-end emphasis.
I'd suggest moving onto your next track, leave your mixing as is; let mastering take care of it.

 

It shouldn't do too much. As some of the other users have touched on, your work is good. You've done a great job. If you decide to do anything at all, only do a little bit - small moves. And if you're unsure, then probably just leave it as is. It sounds great. Honestly, if you weren't asking for help, scrutiny, then I probably wouldn't suggest anything at all.

 

That's what I'm saying.. but I agree with others it sounds a bit boring.. but I guess that's the difficult thing about music.. finding a hook or anything that makes your track and I guess that's missing, thats what i tried to do with the sample. but i got more versions of this track and i just started out learning mastering and the funny thing is ive beeen experimenting with stock sounds and stock synths for years and years and just now im looking for external professional samples, synths, synths packs etc and also mastering but this track apart from some samples was own made but imma try and finnish this track and make it better.

so what i wanted to say its like im looking into mastering now and it helps me because ive only been experimeting with effects etc. but theyve mastered those processes, with me u find an effect on every corner of where a cortner can be XD and now i see how they work and stuff so imma implement those processes because they know how they need to use plugins.. funny im also putting in the same effort in trying to make actual good sounds because i dont play instruments or piano so that really sucks.. just as the track im good at making sounds and thats about it

mastering theyre more like glueing or making a sound pretty in a sense that's doesnt make it initial character different. so its helping me alot. im gonna use the tutorials and stuff they posted and imma finnish this trakc for real

 

and i like your music alot too.. listening to it right now. but if you ask me for some advice I listened to some boris brejha tracks 2. Ur melodies if ask me are even better. XD

but boris really has that 4 to the floor thing going on and thats what dance is about.. so if ur about melodies u gotta make them better but if u wanna be more like boris u got his melodies if u ask me.. just gotta make it sounds better i guess in the mix and ofcourse like i said boris his main quaility if his 4/4. or better said just his loop. but i guess u just gotta keep on in work so to say but i like your tracks alrdy. im still new indeed to fine tuning a kick and making it sounds good.

 

YEah i Copy Boris ISH i dont take same melody i try to create similar stuff, i am more with kick and synths much high frequency and alot of slap,
Boris is just a genius, you cant copy anything from him, still i try to be in his range, thank you for your kind comments!