Sidechain bass still not standing out

M

manchesterraver

Member
i use fabfilter pro mb as my sidechain , i prefeer this becuase it allows you to chose a specific frequency fir the duck rather than duck all the frequencys and whilst using it i set it up ao i have a duck thats enough for my kick to stand out , but it always takes something awy from my bass or the kick doesent stand out enough , its one or the other i cant seem to get a happy medium , and im hearing a lot of tracks with extremly powerfull kicks and bass that really stand into there own ,

Ive tried eqing the parts apart from each other using fabfilter pro q , but that ultimatly takes away from the sound?

I thought i had my go to technique for kicks and bass but im still at a loss for gettig things to really stand together well ,

I am using ableton live 9
With a pretty new self built pc , strong cpu and lots of ram so u doubt its latency :/

Thanks guys!!!

MR
 
I never really understood the side chain hype on kicks and bass. All the really does is lower your bass when the kick hits. IMO your bass and drum should be sounding off together. My only advice would be to keep your kick out of the range of your bassline and vice versa. This is all personal preference from a mixing stand point. Rick
 
rickpolo said:
I never really understood the side chain hype on kicks and bass. All the really does is lower your bass when the kick hits. IMO your bass and drum should be sounding off together. My only advice would be to keep your kick out of the range of your bassline and vice versa. This is all personal preference from a mixing stand point. Rick
Click to expand...

It depends a lot on the music you make. Lots of tracks (particularly edm) have sustained basslines that would sound brutal without at least some sidechain. In those cases, it's absolutely necessary.

OP, this is just a guess, but maybe your bass would sound better if you sidechained the whole thing instead of just specific frequencies. Most kicks pretty much fill up the entire spectrum, (not as strong as the lows), so ducking just around 50-100hz might not have the full effect you're looking for. I'd say it might be worth a try.
 
Last edited:
The sidechain "hype" on the bass and kick is probably not from a mixing standpoint, but a creative one.

To the OP I'd say that it's still more to do with the relationship between 2 different sounds (the kick and the bass). With or without sidechain it should sound decent enough already. Try sidechaining 2 sine wave sounds to each other, you'll see it doesn't make much difference.
 
I can definitely understand the use in EDM , there is a ton of misleading advice on side chaining. A lot of threads that reference harder hitting drums with a bassline somehow side chaining is thrown in. Side Chaining essentially Lowers one sound under the presence of another "ducking". To the OP, I'm pretty sure that is what Is happening to your bass. It would be more helpful if you could post a preview. Rick
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top