Meshing Kick and Bass

Hi guys,

My apologies if this has been discussed before but is there any tutorial explainng kick and bass mixing techniques? I think the best way to explain what I mean would be to show the article headings from another tutorial site I stumbled upon while looking for information regarding this:

Kick Drum and Bass Mixing Techniques

  1. The Numbers Game
    1. Which frequencies are targeted for Trance Music, House, and Breaks
    2. Which frequencies are targeted for Hiphop and Drum n Bass
  2. Two Schools of Thought
    1. How to construct bass and kick sounds that target these frequencies
  3. Frequency Carving
  4. Compression
  5. Multi-band Compression
  6. Distortion
  7. Bass Stereo Smoothing / Filtered Disco Effect
  8. Submixing
  9. Side Chain Compression Ideas

I am interested in learning how to create the beats in songs such as:

Carlos Lio - This Sound Is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=10nhDUE-Ylw

Mark Knight & Wolfgang Gertner - Consciendo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa2YkFUQgqk

Its the wavy bass and kick combinations that seem to be so prevalent in many tracks.

Thanks in advance.

There is some info on this in the mixing tutorial.

Hi Phil,



Thanks for the reply. I have done the tutorial you mentioned in the past and just went through it again. There are some great tips for working with bass and kick. At the 2:15 mark oif the tutorialyou mention that at the end of the tutorial you will be discussingexternal pluginsto help bring out the bass and kick. I am unable to find that part of the tutorial. Could you please point me to where that is?



I seem to have many elements of production figured out including using side compression but the part that still elludes me is how to get that kick to almost morph into a wavy bass similar to that mentioned in the song links I posted and similar to that that I can find in many many songs out today. I can post more links if you still can’t understand what I’m talking about. Its alsomst as if you have no idea where the kick ends and the wavy bass begins. I would really like to know how this is achieved.



I have seem some past posts talking about using a kick and a sine wave at different octive to match the bass and kick but they were difficult for me to understand. I would really appreciates some pointers or a tutorial to get that sound. Again perhaps using some of the titles I mentioned from the tutorial from the other site I mentioned above.



Thanks in advance.


Bump…Phil?

I had a go at copying the tracks you listed… The first one is really just about finding the right sounds… Using sidechain And having a nice mastering set up… Getting the right kick sample and bass sound… For the bass I used the tail of the kick looped up. The kicks on the xfer sample cd had a similar thump.

Thanks for replying.



I also asked you to direct me to the part of the creating space tutorial that talks about external plugins and specific mix plugins to bring out the bass. At the 2:45 mark on tutorial 4 it mentions that a section at the end of the tutorial will be dedicated to that. I am unable to find it. Can you please point me to where it is?



If anyone else might have some useful information about how to create a wavy bass that seems to morph from the kick it would really be appreciated. Or on how to match the kick and bass, what to look for when finding sounds that go together.



Thanks.