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Ok...I know you've had this problem before

Hi everyone,

I use Reason 3.0, and the problem I have deals with combining tracks. Like...when I add bass to a beat, the beat sounds like some parts are hidden and aren't penetrating the frequencies of the bass line (hi hats, for example). Sometimes it happens when I add a bunch of tracks together. The beat just becomes softer and softer (hidden and more hidden).

Where am I going wrong here? Is this just an issue of proper mixing down? Or would compresion or any other effect help me out?

Advice is much appreciated.

EQing is your friend. You need to put an EQ on each track's mixer channel and advance and cut back on the proper frequencies to get them to mix together well. I don't want to give anything concrete, though because the details change from song to song. A lot of it is trial and error, but eventually you'll figure it out.

yeah i have the same problem
eq'ing is hard
i used the fruity spectroman and a free vst called analyzer but its hard, i mean, my beat and my bassline share mostly the same frequencies, so if i cut them out of one of the two, its like its muted!

I dont know how many bassline you are using but try to use at least two bassline, one wich is a sub part of your bass and one wich is mid-high frequences, let the beat feet in the hole of freq.

quote:

let the beat feet in the hole of freq.

What exactly do u mean by this? Do you mean that the bass frequencies should sit in between the high and low frequencies of the beat?

Currently, I have a single bass line that has high, low, and mid frequncies in it. So what else could I do to compensate for the muffled frequncies of the beat?

Also, would u guys recommend modifying the beat or the bass?

Proper EQing is probably the first thing to do. I found out for example that boosting your snares around the 3000-5000Hz area while cutting the lower frequencies will help you let it sound sharper and take away interferences with the kick.
Compression is not bad either, it makes your drums sound more upfront. I almost always use compression on most of my percs, because I was facing the same problem. It will help you, but be careful with it cause it will take away some of the dynamics.

Or maybe you have just got too heavy low frequencies in bass or kick (<100Hz)... this will make your levels volume completely go mad, but its usually easily fixed.

thanks guys this inspired me to make something new, i tried to eq all instruments and added ubercompression on some mixer tracks

are there frequencies clipping in this?

http://members.chello.nl/dthijssen/...urs(beta_7).mp3

In terms of clipping this is ok. But watch your levels. The bass distorts, that's probably because it is too heavily compressed (or the kick is), causing some of the levels to become too hard, this is what causes distortion. Change the ratio and weight of compression, and reduce the volumes of the frequencies that cause distortion.

Yea when i add more layers it sounds shitter than with less, i dont have a clue how to compress or EQ, well ive seen the EQ thing in cubase but i dont know anything about which freqs and stuff

use the parametric eq. cut the gain and move the freq knob with the the song playing.. when it sounds best fat but clean it leave it there

subractive eq is more important than additive......remove offensive freqs before you start adding frqes to pump up sounds.....carve eq holes so that instruments occupying the same freq spectrum will have their own indentity or "hole" as someone said earlier...

sub bass is a major issue......cutting with a hard knee at 40-80 Hz or lower can be great for a bassline still having it's umph but not making yr speakers fart.......soloing and unsoloing combinations of mixer tracks will also diagnose what insts are fucking each other and furthermore how they should be eqed....


ps is that really you in that picture...? you're one cute looking trance producer. ; )

quote:

Originally posted by dj jasonF use the parametric eq. cut the gain and move the freq knob with the the song playing.. when it sounds best fat but clean it leave it there

Are you talking about the bass or the kick?

quote:

ps is that really you in that picture...? you're one cute looking trance producer. ; )

Unfortunately, yes.

he was talking about either really (i think)......

see there's a fine line between proper eq and proper sound selection in the first place......the right kik shouldn't need much if any eq....but even the perfect bass sound can use some cleaning up....it's SUBTRACTIVE eq....eliminate those offensive clashing freqs in the BL to feature that bold kik drum....

what he's talking about is an age old eq technique and is also quite valuble for training your ears....cutting (with a tighter q (( do you know what the q is??)) then SWEEPING THE FREQ SPECTRUM helps you correlate your eye with a specific freq and also cut the offensive freqs....

quote:

Originally posted by StarRizer Are you talking about the bass or the kick?

about everything that needs to be eq-ed to fit in the mix


but i dont really think you should eq your bass i never do it. kick & bass have to be in the same freq range or the kick will be a click and the bass wont be bass any more. thats why most of the basslines are k - b - k - b or k-b-kb-bk (ie there are no bass notes where the kick hits). there are other methods like sidechaining if you are looking for something different.

quote:

Originally posted by StarRizer What exactly do u mean by this? Do you mean that the bass frequencies should sit in between the high and low frequencies of the beat?

I think you will understand me better with an example :
You made a perfect beat and a perfect bass but when you add them together, you can't even recognize them ! it's because their frequencies are overlapping. Here is a way to skirt the problem :

1- First when you make a beat, assign every sound to a separate channel and equalize it properly to get rid of all frequencies not needed.

2- The main frequencies of the beat which are suposed to overlap with the bass are often between 100-400Hz so you need to make a sub bass part of your bass below 100Hz and a mid frequencies part of your bass above 400Hz.

Like this, the main frequences of your beat are still audible.

Listen to the beat without 100-400Hz : http://perso.wanadoo.fr/TranceDevot...-pasdetitre.mp3
and his spectre :


Now the beat; the beat and the bass together; and the bass alone :
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/TranceDevot...pasdetitre2.mp3
and their frequencies :

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