Today I asked my Facebook fans what they wanted me to write about. Luca asked about how to get a big bass sound in the mix, using parallel compression, etc. Great question, Luca.

If you were to keep track of how much time you spend dealing with the low end in a mix, particularly bass and kick drum, verses everything else, I bet you’d be surprised. A huge, punchy, tight bass sound can make or break a mix. Once you’ve got the low frequencies playing nicely together, the rest becomes much easier to put in its place.

But how do you get that big sound, especially out of the bass track?

First, let’s start at the beginning.

Get it Right at the Source

I think I might just have this tattooed on my forehead or something. I’ve said it hundreds of times because it’s so crucial to everything you do in your studio — Get it right at the source.

If you have dreams of a huge bass sound that makes your mom cry with pride, then you’ve to to realize that it doesn’t start with EQ and compression. It starts with the bass, the player, and the signal chain.

If you can record the bass track, play it back, and it sounds really awesome without plug-ins, you’re on the right track. If you listen back and it sounds weird, muffled, thin, boomy, etc., then don’t just hit record again. Change something. Change the mic, the bass, the amp, the cables…possibly the player?

Here are a few things that can sabotage a great bass track:

• Old strings – bleh…
• Crappy bass
• Crappy amp
• Crappy cable (This is HUGE. A great cable can make an enormous difference.)
• Crappy direct box
• Crappy D.I. input on your interface
• Bad mic placement

The common theme here? Crappy. You can’t honestly expect to use a tiny little $50 bass amp and hope for amazing results…but you can certainly try.

EQ

Once you’ve recorded a great-sounding track, reach for the EQ. Before you boost around 80 Hz and revel in the low-end glory, try cutting somewhere else first.

Track sound a little muddy? Cut something in the 150 Hz range and see if that fixes it. I always cut before I boost. It’s just a good practice, and it keeps you from over-emphasizing frequencies.

Click here to learn all about EQ.

Compression

Here are some rapid-fire tips for getting a great tone with a compressor.

• Don’t be afraid to compress. Bass can handle a LOT more compression than most instruments. Try squashing it to death…just to see what it sounds like.
• Slow down that attack time. There’s a difference between squashing the bass and killing it. If you’re using a fairly fast attack time, you’re working against yourself. All the “punch” in a bass comes from the transients. If your attack time is fast, you’ll kill the punch before it has time to punch. I set mine between 50 and 100 ms usually. That way you can compress a bunch without killing the track.
• Parallel compression – Try duplicating the bass track and heavily compressing ONE of them, then blending the two together. This can be a beautiful way to get the best of both worlds.

Click here to learn all about compression.

Play around with the order

I usually EQ before I compress, but sometimes it works better the other way around. Don’t be afraid to switch it up and see which one works better. It’s all about experimenting.

Your turn. How do you get a big bass sound in your mixes?

If you enjoyed this, you may also like...

1. 3 Tips for Getting a Good Bass Sound
2. 6 Tips for Reigning in the Bass in Your Mix
3. Compression: Why You Should Use Slow Attack Times

Yesterday, I posted a little ear training exercise. Most folks guessed the compression was the main difference between the two clips, but JP nailed it by guessing parallel compression.

You may remember a few articles and videos I posted last summer on parallel processing — Parallel Processing: Bass, Parallel Processing: Drums.

To review, parallel processing is simply processing two copies of the same signal in different ways in order to produce tonal results that would be otherwise impossible with only one copy of the signal.

In other words, parallel processing allows you to utilize the benefits of a certain effect without overdoing it. Let me explain.

Here’s a screenshot of how I have the drums set up (click to enlarge):

I have the regular processing on the individual pieces of the kit: EQ, compression, gating. then I run them all through a Submix Aux track.

If you’re wanting to compress the drums, you can certainly do it on one aux track. However, sometimes compression can kill the attack and transients of your drum track. That’s where parallel compression can really help.

With parallel compression, you create two aux tracks. In this session I have one aux with no processing at all. On the second one, I put the SSL bus compressor plug-in, and set it to do some EXTREME compression (See pic at the beginning of this post). Then I blended the two together.

The first clip from yesterday was the kit by itself (the first aux track):

[See post to listen to audio]

For the second clip, I blended in the over-the-top compression of the second aux track.

[See post to listen to audio]

Wanna hear just the compressed drums? Here it is:

[See post to listen to audio]

With Clip #1, the drum kit sounds fine. With Clip #3, it’s pumping and breathing like crazy. The transients of the kit are muffled, but the body and ring of the drums and the sound of the room are all brought out.

By blending them together (Clip #2), you get the nice body and beefiness of Clip #2 without losing the transients of Clip #1.

Pretty cool, huh?

Straight from the HSC Production Club

This is an example of the kinds of things we cover in depth in the HSC Production Club. These are actually clips from the song I use for the Production Club material called “Treading Water.”

I’ve still got a few spots available if you want to join us. Over the next 12 weeks I will be unloading all sorts of info on my Club members.

Go ahead and sign up. You will love it. If you don’t, I’ll give you a refund faster than you can say “parallel compression.”

Click here to find out more. The doors close Saturday night, February 6th, at midnight. You won’t be able to join after that, and I probably won’t be accepting new members for several months.

Got an opinion? Questions? Leave a comment.

If you enjoyed this, you may also like...

1. Parallel Processing – Bass [Video]
2. Mixing Drums Part 3 – Compression
3. Ear Training: Acoustic Guitar [Texas Hold 'Em Edition]