Getting a tight yet full-sounding low end is something we all strive to do when mixing music and it’s certainly something I get asked about a lot, mostly in relation to mixing kick and bass.
It’s something that can be studied for years until we become comfortable and confident in our mixing decisions but even the most inexperienced mixers know that the secret is in the relationship between the drums and bass but many forget about the low end that’s present in most of the other instrument groups as well.
There is only so much you can add to the low end before it “overflows” and becomes loose and muddy, so how do you keep it sounding tight and how do you know when you’ve gone too far?
Kick and bass mixing can be tricky to get right because they both occupy the same frequency range and can easily mask each other so it can be challenging sometimes to get the two to sit together to create a full, yet clean, tight low end.
One big mistake in an amateur mix is having too much low end that sounds muddy and dull and being able to mix kick and bass guitar together well is a skill you need to produce professional sounding mixes.
In this video, I open up one of my recent sessions to show you exactly what I did to get a clean, tight low end when mixing kick and bass and I’ll tell you how to know when you’ve gone too far (or not far enough!).
Interested in learning more about what professional mix engineers do to get their mixes to sound the way they do? Download my FREE guide: “Pro Mixing Habits That Will Set You Up For Success”
