I was well dissapointed with the last book I bought blind - Rick Snomans Dance Music Manual. It was sh1te, in fact worst than that!

I need something that really gets deeps into EQ as for me personaly this is the area I find the most challenging.

I use my ears and have the best monitoring room I can achieve and depsite somthing like 20 hours per week in producing and an obsessive nature, I find the bass end in particular a challenge.

I know the basics - shaving off under 50hz (some say 30, some even 20)and how do set the kik and bass at differing peack freqs, side chaining and all the other tricks, but still I struggle.

I also get the point about chosing the right sounds to begin with.

My mixes sound fine on my monitors or headphones but not so in my ca whereas pro mixes do.

There must be something the pros are doing that is fundamentaly different to me when it come to bass. For example scooping out certain freqs.

Forum folk usualy say this;

High pass everything 50
Chose a kick that peaks about 90 / 100 / 80
Choose a bass that peaks around 65-70
Some reverse these (kik 60 / bass at 100)
Remove some boxy freqs - which I think I do - around 120 - 200 but have tried many other variants around this freq band
side chain
velocity automate
compress

So I'm lost really and wonder if a book on EQ might be a help

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basslins a hard for me to manly cos my speakers are crap but ive found that layering is the way to go. chexk out airbase on youtube he does some good tutorials on this


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=siKk...D58B08F&index=5

sorry no books

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owien-us

Last edited by owien on Dec-15-2009 at 16:45

you won't get around posting a track of yours so we might analyze it

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Butler I was well dissapointed with the last book I bought blind - Rick Snomans Dance Music Manual. It was sh1te, in fact worst than that! I need something that really gets deeps into EQ as for me personaly this is the area I find the most challenging. I use my ears and have the best monitoring room I can achieve and depsite somthing like 20 hours per week in producing and an obsessive nature, I find the bass end in particular a challenge. I know the basics - shaving off under 50hz (some say 30, some even 20)and how do set the kik and bass at differing peack freqs, side chaining and all the other tricks, but still I struggle. I also get the point about chosing the right sounds to begin with. My mixes sound fine on my monitors or headphones but not so in my ca whereas pro mixes do. There must be something the pros are doing that is fundamentaly different to me when it come to bass. For example scooping out certain freqs. Forum folk usualy say this; High pass everything 50 Chose a kick that peaks about 90 / 100 / 80 Choose a bass that peaks around 65-70 Some reverse these (kik 60 / bass at 100) Remove some boxy freqs - which I think I do - around 120 - 200 but have tried many other variants around this freq band side chain velocity automate compress So I'm lost really and wonder if a book on EQ might be a help

Judging from your post im not sure a book on EQ will help you that much
If you choose the right kick to go with the right bassline, you wont really need much eq apart from the obvious high-passing
Some will say that HP filters are too extreme and instead will notch out freqs in the bass (or the kick) - experiment and see what works for you

One thing ive learnt, particularly from listening to my tracks in my car, versus pro tracks, is that sub-bass can be your enemy
Add to that, long ringing kicks i.e. too much of a sub-tail on your kick - volume envelope is key here

If your using a big subby kick, no point in using a subby bass, the 2 will just end up in a big subby mess

Any samples of your tracks we can listen to?

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Ok here's a sample as requested. Note I really like the bass sound I'm using hear and I don't want to layer it more as I like the way it sits unconflicting with the leads etc, but just the EQ of the bass / kick is whats driving me to drink!

Just hit play near the centre of screen.

01 Track 1.mp3 - 6.82MB

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quote:

Originally posted by Richard Butler Ok here's a sample as requested. Note I really like the bass sound I'm using hear and I don't want to layer it more as I like the way it sits unconflicting with the leads etc, but just the EQ of the bass / kick is whats driving me to drink! Just hit play near the centre of screen. 01 Track 1.mp3 - 6.82MB

I'd say the problem there is the kick (and the fact that the hats are WAY too loud).

You'll want a low end and a transient (click) to the kick so try layering two together.

The kick in the clip has neither I don't think.

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quote:

Originally posted by tehlord I'd say the problem there is the kick (and the fact that the hats are WAY too loud). You'll want a low end and a transient (click) to the kick so try layering two together. The kick in the clip has neither I don't think.

I've got 3 layered there believe it or not!
I had more low end and it conflicted with the bass line a high volume in my car (again this does not happen with decent pro tracks in my car).

Anyway keep the comments comming.

___________________
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loose the animal sounds.

quote:

Originally posted by Richard Butler I've got 3 layered there believe it or not! I had more low end and it conflicted with the bass line a high volume in my car (again this does not happen with decent pro tracks in my car). Anyway keep the comments comming.

Really?!

Sounds like a single kick, although I did listen on some media speakers.

If you've got plenty of sub bass going on you might not even need much low end in a kick but a sneaky, narrow boost around 50hz can help too.

If you read that you should never boost ignore it imo

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Richard, I think the "rules" which can be useful as a guideline, are in this case are leading you astray.

I high pass anything that isn't a low component, in a lot of cases to 250hz and higher if that sound does not do anything for the low end. Many sounds just have unnecessary harmonics that create a muddy mix so it's better to remove them.

Also, I think that 80hz for a peak of a kick is low by my experience - I do the sharpest rollof (48db) I can to bass frequency sounds (except for sounds that are purposely subs) around 50-70hz - you still get some of the lower frequencies but it tightens it up a lot.

The easiest way to learn to cut is just to sweep the hipass until something disappears from the sound, then playing with that boundary eventually teaches you where you should cut iff.

The do this with sounds that overlap in in terms of frequencies and decide where some are to finish and some are to start.

You also need to realise that in modern EDM a lot of the "bass" sounds are (in the traditional engineering sense) more like low mids - a lot of EDM has basslines that are often above 120 and going far higher than that, and are not true "bass" frequencies.

Finally, what speakers are you using?

I can hear a lot of DC Offset especially in the breakdown.

not exactly eq related but if you haven't read this i say its mandatory your mixes will improve quite a bit after reading this book

http://www.amazon.com/Art-Mixing-Mi...o/dp/0918371171

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