Hey guys,

I am still relatively new to music production, and am quite frustrated because I am not able to get the bass of my productions to be "clear" or "rough" enough.

For instance, below is a quick extract of something I am working on.



I am not sure why I can't hear it enough, compared to this track for instance when it starts at 1:04 ?



Is it a matter of volume? or mastering? or some effect I don't know?

Thanks for the tips guys

 

It's a matter of skill... I suppose.

 

It's all about sounds choice, compression, dynamics, side chaining, experience, final mixing stage and luck A decades of learning...
I would suggest to you instead:
- Finish your track, don't bother yourself with overall sound
- In final stage, put reference track together with yours and play with overall sound, compression, dynamics etc...
- Also, learn more about mixing, dynamics

 

yes.

 

Agree.
I'm still try to figure out how to set every single sound source on stage and glue them all avoiding the jam-effect.

 

Last edited: Oct 16, 2017

@lost_soul hi my friend,in my humble opinion it seems that in your track the kick is fighting with the bass,in the same space.
Try to low cut the bass so it sits above the kick,as in most 4 to the floor gernes the kick is the main driving force.
Sidechaining the bass to the kick also will help.
In some projects saturating a bit the bass especially on the upper spectrum of it will help it cut it thru.
Try to do some m/s processing on your master bus making things mono below 200hz as a starting point.
Hope this helps you .

 

IMHO, you need to work on its higher frequencies to make it cut better through the mix, either with EQ or saturation...Do an EQ sweep to find the frequencies which stand out and work from there...And maybe increase the volume a bit.

Make sure your bass is not occupying the same dominant frequencies as your kickdrum as well...You may want to use a frequency analyzer to identify these clashing frequencies, like Voxengo's SPAN.

Oh, and in most cases it helps to use mid-side EQ to make everything bellow a certain frequency (let's say 100 to 200Hz) mono. It helps anchoring the lower frequencies in the center...There are some plugins dedicated to this task, like Boz Digital's Mongoose.

 

even if your bass is not the same kind of as the reference, frequency wise they are not that far from each-other

but, they are played differently
you are playing several notes overlapping and your bass is a badly defined sound to start with
the reference track on the other hand is pulsating before and after the kick with only a couple of clean well defined notes.


always choose sounds that make what you want to start with, dont waste time forcing sounds that are not proper with eq and effects, change them instead, find other sounds and then fine-touch.

.

 

Last edited: Oct 17, 2017

Spend some times to learn and discover about iZotope Neutron. Quite intuitive tools for mixing.

 

When producing, choosing the right sounds is as importante as chosing chord progression and the motif...

 

Waw guys I didn't expect so many responses so quickly. Thanks a lot for all the answers. I am a complete noob with no education on sound engineering or classical music whatsoever. All I have ever done is open a new midi track on Ableton, play some notes on my keyboard and see where it leads me. There is a looot more to do obviously but again all these words you are "compression, saturation" etc are new to me, I just need some direction. It's all still very raw. Thanks for your help, I will spend some time studying this

 

take your time,enjoy every stage you happen to be in,as you said read and learn stuff,and go make some great music
Remember above all that music is all about emotions and have FUN creating it.

 

"I`ve learned a lot on this forum."

Alan Parsons

 

Choosing the right sound from start is the key to me
Mixing is after this choice

I've spend too much time fighting with BAD samples

 

Alan who?

Did it catch your eye that he managed to mix/master even his old records at an incredible loudness without loosing life (in the mix)?

 

Guy is a genius

 

Because it is too "low" : in the key/frequency, and level/volume.
It's too "subby", try an octave up and you will start to hear it, then adjust the volume...
I personally would try another bass sound, less subby (= with little bit more information in the highs)
+ it's out of key, so maybe not an octave up but just a few notes...

 

Thanks a lot for the tips guys. I am starting to watch a mixing tutotrial on youtube. Seems like that's where I should start.

Again, I am completely new to the sound engineering part of electronic music, and to be honest I am a bit surprised by how tedious the process is. Is it normal that one can spend 2 hours making the "core" of a track (melody, beat, body), but 40 hours on mixing and EQing? Aren't we probably losing great records because of people's inability to create a nice sound?

It's very naive of me, but I thought electronic music in general was more about making music on machines rather than physical instruments, not about EQing, filtering etc.

 

2 hours making the core, 40 hours mixing....this shouldnt be relevant for beginners, you could easily multiply it x10 and it still wouldnt mean anything.

Small steps....

 

change the bass ?