Do You Always Need BOTH a Kick and Bass?

I

InMyShoes

New member
Hi Guys —

I'm relatively new to producing (I'm interested primarily in hip-hip/rap/pop) and I'm trying to really learn bass and kick as well as I possibly can.


I was just wondering — How important is it to have both a kick and a bass line in your mix? Can a kick ever substitute for a bass part over the course of an entire song?

To me, my mixes sound very thin without a real bass line in there, but i was just wondering what you guys thought. Thanks!
 
You can substitute a kick for a b-line, yes (808s and shit) but a good b-line can never be substituted entirely, because of it's flowing style of melody rather than "hits"
 
You don't 'need' a kick or a bass.
Steve Reich made a piece of music by hanging some microphones from the celing and swinging them between speakers. (look up 'pendulum music' )

On the slightly more normal note there are hundred of singer songwriters who perform with just voice and acoustic guitar. Some of them are hugely successful (Ed Sheeran maybe) None of them have kick or bass.

Think about the role of the bass and the kick in normal music, then think about what happens when you remove it.

Would a bassless track sound a bit thinner than a track with bass? Yes?
Does this mean that the whole track is crap musically? No

A tuned 808 can combine the sound of a kick and bass into one as has been said

Some kicks are really long/ there are lots of them and they fill all the space so there's not much room for a bassline as well (see techno/hardcore music)
 
scrapheaper said:
You don't 'need' a kick or a bass.
Steve Reich made a piece of music by hanging some microphones from the celing and swinging them between speakers. (look up 'pendulum music' )

On the slightly more normal note there are hundred of singer songwriters who perform with just voice and acoustic guitar. Some of them are hugely successful (Ed Sheeran maybe) None of them have kick or bass.

Think about the role of the bass and the kick in normal music, then think about what happens when you remove it.

Would a bassless track sound a bit thinner than a track with bass? Yes?
Does this mean that the whole track is crap musically? No

A tuned 808 can combine the sound of a kick and bass into one as has been said

Some kicks are really long/ there are lots of them and they fill all the space so there's not much room for a bassline as well (see techno/hardcore music)
Click to expand...

haha and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTEFKFiXSx4
 
hey man, there's a lot of dope songs that feature both. especially in hiphop.
some of them have a break to feature either the hard sub bass drum or the bassline.

I can think of one example off the top of my head which is Eazy E - Real Muthafuckin G's

this is a good one cause you can hear them apart from one another, then together in the mix.

listen to the mix, you can hear the bassline and sub drum hits occupying different frequency ranges.
i really wish i could reference more examples for you but i'm not so quick at the current time.

im gonna edit the post a few times as i listen to stuff...

Cypress Hill - Stoned Raiders uses a sub bass drum instead of bass line
 
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My 2 cents lol:
You dont always have to have both. Sometimes less is more. If it sounds good, it sounds good. Feel free to experiment but dont get to the point to where you/re forcing something on the track.
 
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