Basslines

My method is to do the beat first and then think about the chord progression or key I want to be in. Then I set up a simple bass hitting on the start of each bar in the appropriate note. Then I listen to the beat and simple bass and close my eyes and start thinking about how it could be filled in.

If you're making hip-hop it is very common to sync the kick with a bass note. This has an effect of making the beat really stand out.

In you case where the track is done except for the bassline you might try one or more of the following..

- try my method of placing a single not at the start of each bar or chord change. This will at least help you to try different bass instruments for one that sounds noce with the existing instruments.

- replace/mute/soften lower frequency instruments that make the bass sound muddy.

- if you song is somewhat busy melodically or rythmically do a sparse bassline.

- mute the kick and try to come up with the bass melody

- use something like Waves MAxxBass to give your bass sound a great punch and harmonics.

- finally try to use EQ to fit your bass in. I'm not a fan of EQ myself. I think it should only be used as a last resort because instruments are supposed to fill a certain freq range.
 
NFX said:

- use something like Waves MAxxBass to give your bass sound a great punch and harmonics.

- finally try to use EQ to fit your bass in. I'm not a fan of EQ myself. I think it should only be used as a last resort because instruments are supposed to fill a certain freq range.
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See, and I'm completely the opposite. I think bass maximizers muddy your sound, and leave it sounding undefined. EQ is a must. Whenever possible, use subtractive EQ, and not additive. To increase the bass sound, you can either raise boost the low frequencies, or cut the high frequencies. They both have the same effect. However, boosting frequencies can introduce phase, and that's not good. That's why you should cut frequencies. Most mixing and mastering engineers would agree that EQ is a must. I usually run about 60-70 tracks in song, and most of them have EQ applyed to them.
 
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