📑 Sections (7)

Quick guide: mix bass

The concrete settings so the bass holds up the lows, lives with the kick and can be heard even on a phone.

The bass has to hold up the lows at an even volume and live with the kick. The instrument gives you the lows and distortion gives you the audibility, which is why it’s worked in two layers.

1. Two layers from a single take

Duplicate the DI track and send both to a bass bus:

  • Low layer: clean, with a low-pass at 200–250 Hz. It gives weight and stability.
  • Saturated layer: with Ampirestock, RedlightDiststock or your amp sim, and a high-pass at 150–300 Hz. It gives definition among the guitars.

Balance between the two and keep the bass centered and mono. In metal, the saturated layer sits more forward than in rock.

2. EQ with the Pro EQ

  • High-pass at 30–40 Hz: what’s below can’t be heard and only uses up energy.
  • Cut at 200–400 Hz if it gets muddy with the guitars.
  • Boost at 700 Hz–1.5 kHz so the notes can be heard.

3. Sharing with the kick

Choose who dominates down low and cut that zone from the other with a wide bell of −2 to −4 dB:

  • Modern metal: kick below (50–80 Hz) and bass above (80–150 Hz).
  • More classic rock: bass below (50–90 Hz) and kick with click at 3–5 kHz.
🔴 Set this NOW· in mixing

The kick and bass split conditions the whole foundation. If they step on each other, no later adjustment makes up for it.

If they still clash: a Compressorstock on the bass with the kick as sidechain, so it drops 1 to 3 dB on each hit. It’s optional.

4. Compression

With the Compressorstock on the bus or the low layer:

  • Ratio: 4:1.
  • Attack: 10–30 ms, to keep the pick’s attack.
  • Release: about 150 ms.
  • Threshold: until you get 3 to 6 dB of reduction on the loud notes.

If one note explodes and another disappears, the Multiband Dynamicsstock evens out just the lows.

5. A place among the guitars

It’s part of mixing the bass: high-pass on the guitars at 80–120 Hz. If the bass doesn’t come through, a gentle cut on the guitars around 800 Hz–1 kHz.

Checklist

In order

  1. DI duplicated: low layer and saturated layer, to the same bus.
  2. Centered and mono. Phase checked.
  3. High-pass at 30–40 Hz.
  4. Sharing with the kick: a wide bell of −2 to −4 dB.
  5. Compressor: 4:1, attack 10–30 ms, 3 to 6 dB of reduction.
  6. Saturated layer up until you can hear the bass on a phone.
  7. High-pass on the guitars and a mono check.

Expected result

Expected result

A bass at nearly constant volume, adding weight without booming and distinct from the guitars. The test is the worst speaker you have: if you can follow the notes on a phone, it’s solved. The detail is in chain and sub-lows and sharing with the kick.