In my opinion the kick drum and bass should be the only elements in your mix covering the low-end areas. Make sure to cut the low end from all other elements in your track to avoid them interfering with your kick drum and bass. A golden thumb-rule is to leave the areas below lets say 100-120hz clear. Slowly bring in the incoming track using EQs. Never touch the high-equalizer, unless if you feel the need to. Bring in the mid-equalizer slowly but surely. Take out the bass of the outgoing track in any way you prefer. The incoming song's bass should be at full blast at its drop. Place a compressor on the bass channel. Note the compressor must have side chain both available and activated. Set the side chain input to the kick channel or channel of your choice. When the kick plays the compressor will be triggered giving space to the kick. Adjust the threshold, ratio and attack / release settings to taste. Short bass kicks should have a similar audio aesthetic to acoustic kicks, but I find that a lot of kicks in hip hop and trap have a grittier, more low-end sound. When mixing these kicks I tend to pull my low pass filter down to around 12 – 10 kHz to give it a slightly warmer sound and to remove any redundant brightness. Even the most well-recorded kick drums can sound muddy, often hogging valuable low-end space. Addressing kick drum mud is simple ,often requiring a single medium to wide bell cut around 400Hz to 450Hz. The amount of cut you will need to dial in will depend on your mix but don't be afraid to pull out over 6dB if the sound warrants it. Apr 17, 2011. #5. Well as far as mixing goes it comes down to choice of sounds and a keen ear for balance. The bass sound is key you could have a bass sound with many harmonics easily moving into the mid range or you could have a more pure type of bass such as a sine wave or 808 type "sine" type bass. SSyC. Even for the double kicks, do it! short release, but MULTIBAND SIDECHAIN. In addition to the sidechain, do cut the very low 50hz and below on the bass, and shelf it under 100hz a couple db. Maybe multiband sidechain cut 3 db or so. Make the bass shine above 100 hz, maybe 120-170hz ish. If you do that it should be decent. Boost mids on both tracks – Raise the 1-2 kHz range on both tracks to bring out the snare and percussion elements you need to match beats and set cue points. Kill lows on outgoing track – When mixing out, cut the bass on the outgoing track while keeping the bass on the new track to avoid a muddy clash. In 4/4-centric genres such as house and techno, you may wish to keep your bass drum out of that drums group, to limit and sidechain all your percussion together, and keep the kick outside of that processing. This improves separation and gives you more flexibility. Further reading. How to sidechain your bass and kick drum That is, if you boost the kick at 100 Hz, you may want to cut the bass guitar at 100 Hz. If you add punch to the bass guitar at 500 Hz, cutting the kick at 500 Hz ensures the two aren’t competing for mix space, etc. 4. Roll off lows on other instruments. Low end occupies huge amounts of space in a mix. To enhance the impact of your drum and bass tracks, follow these best practices and tips for mixing and mastering. Use critical listening to identify areas for improvement, reference tracks to guide your mixing decisions, and choose the right tools and plugins for your specific needs.

drum and bass mixing tips