I know its standard to eq different lows into the kIck and bass so they don't interfere. But I have a concept, wanted to run it by yall.

Let's say I want the two to work as one unit, they play very close in time. The bass sustains, the kick does not. I'd like to put the same lows on both (if it sounds best) but obviously the combined transient would make mixing impossible.

Has anyone ever tried ducking lows? Like in this example I'd split the bass into two bands at 100 hz (ish) (no daw to test this out). Everything Below 100 would go through a limiter side chained from the kick. So everytime the kick plays, the low end of the bass ducks momentarily, a few db.

Then the bands are mixed together, compressed.

If I wanted to, and if it sounded appropriate, I could boost similar lows to the kick and bass, and they won't step on each other. The kick becomes a front end for the bass, a la using an 808 as a combo kick/bass.

Comments?
MMD

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Waves C6 is capable of sidechain compression on a frequency band. It's something I've been interested in trying out myself actually - though I don't have access to the plugin. Powercore Dynamic EQ is also capable, though I can never get it to work properly! A more experienced colleague thought ducking a particular frequency band might sound a little disorientating, but I guess it's just about context. Definately worth a try!

Quote andymcbain:

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Waves C6 is capable of sidechain compression on a frequency band. It's something I've been interested in trying out myself actually - though I don't have access to the plugin. Powercore Dynamic EQ is also capable, though I can never get it to work properly! A more experienced colleague thought ducking a particular frequency band might sound a little disorientating, but I guess it's just about context. Definately worth a try!

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exactly, its all about context. I think since the bass will be heard at the same time as kick it'll be ok. Just a quick little duck to not have both low wollups on top of one another.

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Gear list: If you can't find it, grind it

I think it's quite common to compress a bass guitar track with the bass drum side-chained. I do it, on occasion, but it's never been frequency-specific, just full range.

I'll have to give it a go on just the low end!

Having said that, the bass drum is usually much louder than the bass guitar, usually - just wondering if there's much point in ducking the low end on it's own.

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www.thediplomatz.com

Quote The_Big_Piano_Player:

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...Having said that, the bass drum is usually much louder than the bass guitar, usually - just wondering if there's much point in ducking the low end on it's own.

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I like my bass lines loud. Up there with the kick. My thinking was to make this duck as natural-sounding as possible. I figured leaving all the mids to top intact will mask the ducking.

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Gear list: If you can't find it, grind it

Sometimes that ducking is what you want though — you can make the two sound more 'as one' by essentially letting the kick drum do the attack and the bass do the sustain. You might be able to get a beefier kick without it getting muddled with the bass by doing it multi-band though. Try both and see what happens!

Cheers!

Chris