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Great! A newbie mastering forum where I won't look so dumb!

I'm having trouble getting tight bass in my recordings. Many of you have heard my recordings...is the bass floppy on your playback system or is it just my room/speakers? What can I do to manage the bass in my recordings?

Thanks so much!
-Johntodd

Comments

JohnTodd Mon, 05/16/2011 - 15:32

Savoy Truffle by John Todd | OurStage

OK, shameless plug for my new single...but that is what I call floppy. The bass drum and bass guitar are floppy. They are musically accurate (timing and pitch), but floppy, wooly bassy sounding.

I've tuned the bass drum as best I could. Well, I thought I got it right...

Thanks!

JohnTodd Fri, 05/20/2011 - 04:12

Yes. I just don't understand what you are saying. Me silly sometimes. :)
I pushed the drums on that track farther than I ever have and got great results. But mixing/mastering seems to be happening just like when I was learning to cook - I was so afraid of over salting/spicing the food it all came out bland at first. Perhaps a little more aggressive EQ might suit me better?

Davedog Fri, 05/20/2011 - 09:43

I think that it all sounds just fine. If you want tighter bass and more thump on the kick then you'll probably have to get that either with a multi-freq compressor in mastering which I dont recommend, or go back to the mix and dial them up a bit. Sometimes taking a single drum track out of a global or a 2-bus sub of its mix helps by giving you more control and the ability to mix in effects that help it stand out later when you're doing the final mix before mastering.

So, you would go back to your mix, and I'm hoping you have your drums on a 2-bus, and take a dupe of the kick and send it to its own fader/track. Leave what you have in the stereo mix of your drums just make a parallel track of the kick. Now add whatever sounds good to it and use it as a feature in the mixdown.

The bass could use some nice thickening. The thump comes from the player but you can enhance it witheq and compression. Compress before the eq.

Is that clearer???

Again, it all sounds great. But if you think it lacks then it probably does