a physics teacher told me that the reason a complex chord sounds harsh or muddy is that with lower frequencies the harmonics are closer together (since the freq numbers are lower) that makes them rub more. Love your videos! You are an excellent teacher!
It's like trying to play chords on a bass guitar, isn't it. Or really low on a piano. I've definitely made this mistake more than once. Excellent advice!
Iv'e been recording my own music in my home studio for the past five years. I studied hard at youtube university to learn as much as possible. Problem was, no one was really breaking things down to a level that someone like me could understand. Your explanations are so good , I can go to a mix I'm currently working on, and attempt what I just learned. It's always on a learning curve, but it always makes an improvement. I really appreciate these little talks of yours.
You are the RUclips college professor in music production sir. all your tips & advice I put into action. My skills & mixes continue to improve thankyou!💯
This episode is a revelation for me. Thinking back, I've slowly been working towards making my low end sound good by focusing on low-mids instinctively, but without thinking about why. Hearing you talk about it set off the proverbial "a-ha!" moment. Thank you and cheers from Las Vegas!
This really sounds and seems like a channel where I can get really useful information. And that is hard to find amongst all those other bedroom producers (like me) who have channels where they try to teach us mixing and acting like they are masters of it even though they never mixed a really good song or have any credentials at all. This is the total opposite. So thank you for sharing your knowledge! So glad I found this channel! Kindest regards from Oslo, Norway 🇳🇴
Theo Stene I haven't searched you up. But I've heard about a young guy from Asker with the same name as yours. And you should stop accusing people for ”hating on” others. I don't hate anyone. But I am not a big fan of people teaching information that's wrong. That only makes it harder for beginners to find useful information on YT. And for the record, I never hated Alex Rome. I just told him what I meant about his channel. Keep your facts straight!
A trick you can use if you don't have some NS-10's or Auralex speakers is to mix with a low pass and a high pass on an EQ. This will cause you to clarify the mids and get the power and clarity there. Then you can either completely disable the EQ or just extend the range. I used this as way to train my ears and mind to work hard to get mid-range power and clarity.
Thanks. In my current home project, having experimented with the over/under EQ technique with kick and bass, clearly allocating each their own fundamental frequency range, I tend to prefer side-chaining, with maybe a touch of EQ--for example, a slight notch in the 100hz (-3db) for the kick sound combined with subtle sidechaining with Trackspacer--rather than doing a steep highpass on either instrument to create separation. In the current song I am working on, I want both the kick and bass to be discernable but also experienced as a whole--both contributing to the subs. The trick to making this work is to start off on the right foot by choosing a kick and bass sound that sharply contrasts each other--for example, warm bass with sustain versus a sharp, punchy kick. Bass playing technique and additional effects, besides EQing and sidechaining, can help distinguish it from the kick. For example, we can apply warm tube-type saturation to the bass to make it rounder, fuller to contrast against a sharp kick. Lastly, some degree of masking may be desirable in some cases as it can create a sense of cohesion/glue--depends upon the song and genre.
Awesome advise - I watched Dan Korneff on 1 of your workshop video's and he touched on some of these key points. Low end management is crucial for good mixing. He had the Breaking Benjamin track. 1 of his tricks I have been using now is side chain the kick into the bass compression. OMG what a difference
I use Ik multimedia Arc and I'm very pleased with it to hear all the frequencies at the lowend Anyways the acoustic treatment of your room is so much important than anything and it can help you so much Specifically the correct position of bass traps and also their quality are important as well, The usual calibration of sound monitors without using any programs is your sitting position that you should see or you have to be able to see only your face on subwoofers of your monitors if there are 2 mirrors instead of subwoofers ofcourse you need a help for accurate adjustment. Good luck
+1 - ARC was an absolute game changer for me. I haven't needed to do a "car check" since! Well, I still do, but I haven't needed to go back and re-mix yet!
You’re fantastic. I am a musician, self-recordist who has slowly migrated towards fleshing out my songs to their finished end - mixing. It has been a process. I just learned the FINAL lesson you shared here from a professional engineer I respect (Sheryl Crowe, Johnny Lang, Sounds of Blackness). I sent him some mixes and he was upfront and told me the aspects of the mix that he thinks were holding the songs/mixes back. Your final lesson here was definitely a main bullet point. Ever since, things are sounding better and better!
Fab filter pro Q is so usefull in deciding which low frequency instrument should dominate in a particular frequency range. The analyzer can show the spectrum of any other track that has pro Q on it and then you get this reddish tone that shows exactly where the frequencies are overlapping the most
I discovered this many years ago by accident, and it dawned on me that low end is like a 5 pound bucket I'm trying to shove 10 pounds into, Great video
i love how diverse the praises are lmao there's so much to enjoy on this video. i loved that you know what you're talking about (said stuff i agree with) but other people are talking about how the video sounds and how he talks, and i agree, it's all good shit
Brilliant tuition, well articulated and great content. Thank you so much for your wisdom, it clarified some fundamental issues to handling low frequencies.
Just discovered your channel. What a fantastic vid. I know this sounds dumb...but when you said only one thing can be the lowest it seemed so obvious but yet I never thought of it. The song Im working ahs those elements you mentioned. A kick, bass and a synth bass. I'll need to look at these and put them in order of lowest , next lowest etc. Thanks again.
Thanks so much for this. Trying the parallel distortion idea on a bass guitar track and it’s really going in the right direction now. Just sounded like it was missing something before. Now it has more girth and punch. Subscribed.
You always lift my spirits with great knowledge that inspires. What would you say to someone that shares a two bedroom apartment with 2 kids. A bedroom with krk 5 in the middle of the longer wall 20 inch away and sitting next to a bed. love the sound but definitely different bass response everywhere. Listening to other music I know all the time helps but I think practicing music production on headphones is the best I can get my hands on. So maybe put mixing on the side only practice production and get a mixing engineer?
Thanks for these tips. I just want to emphasize that the most important part of getting a great mix is by getting great sounding tracks. A mixer should have to do very little eq and mixing after the fact... But, legit, decide which instrument is going to be at the bottom. Good stuff Justin
Thanks.... really great information. Been watching your tutorials off and on for a while. You have taught me a lot. My LP I released July 2019 turned out great.
I think it's really hard to take out some low end of the kick and still make it sound big enough and give it a good body. But this video is a really good help and makes it a lot easier to think about the low end challenge. Thanks very much for this infos!
What is your philosophy about ducking the subs out of a bass synth/guitar via the kick? Do you think they can both occupy the same sub frequencies in this case since they don't happen at the same time, or is it still better to choose one instrument to be "the bassiest"? Love your stuff BTW, I just realized you make these in audio podcast form and am super happy. You rock!
I was about to say... this is what I tend to do a lot with trackspacer using the high cut filter. I also check the low end in isolation with ISOL8 to make sure the bottom of the kick isn't getting masked by the bass, using the attack and release settings inside trackspacer. Its really helpful in bass heavy genres (EDM, Reggae, etc) when you want a thick and heavy melodic bass sound. Filtering out the bass frequencies tends to work better with Vintage or Rock based genres. I prefer trackspacer to standard sidechain compression as its frequency dependent. You could sidechain with a multiband compressor or dynamic eq for a similar effect.
I added a bunch of crap speakers to my set up to check mixes. Its definitely tough to work out for me because I’m writing very dubby/ Subby style of music with very little mid range in Kick and bass. My environment is pretty terrible.lol. In the end I’m also the end consumer. I do this as a hobby (For 40 years+ and don’t look to making music to make money) . Ive been trying to add more saturation and excitement to the mid range of the kick and bass to help with this. I check masking and do some side chaining.
GIK Acoustics ftw :D Great video, I agree with it all and allready do most of it, but having said that I still could use more confidence in my low end mixing. Great stuff, instant subscriber.
Referencing low end will help tremendously
Truth.
I like how you end some sentences with a sort of whisper, makes me feel so relaxed
Adel Noppert I thing thatJustin is born with DeEsser in his voice :)
@@bojkebojke hahahaha its a pro habit to fade out sample's noise ))
Easy, now.
No don’t encourage it 🤣 I need to stay alert 🥺
But thumbs up for another bunch of useful reminders 👍🤷♂️
J Colletti ASMR
That last tip is beautiful.
Yeap. Made it all the way to the end Justin. Thanks for the detail!
a physics teacher told me that the reason a complex chord sounds harsh or muddy is that with lower frequencies the harmonics are closer together (since the freq numbers are lower) that makes them rub more. Love your videos! You are an excellent teacher!
True!
One of the best video about low end. Thank you!
Love the tip on sidechaining the kick sample. Brilliant!
It's like trying to play chords on a bass guitar, isn't it. Or really low on a piano. I've definitely made this mistake more than once. Excellent advice!
Yup, very important to keep low end uncluttered!
-Justin
Iv'e been recording my own music in my home studio for the past five years. I studied hard at youtube university to learn as much as possible. Problem was, no one was really breaking things down to a level that someone like me could understand. Your explanations are so good , I can go to a mix I'm currently working on, and attempt what I just learned. It's always on a learning curve, but it always makes an improvement. I really appreciate these little talks of yours.
So glad to be helpful Chris!
RUclips university ! Really ?
sound toys is SUPER underrated. Buy it!
A clear explanation of an area that often confuses because the practical reality appears to go against the "science". Nice.
You are the RUclips college professor in music production sir. all your tips & advice I put into action. My skills & mixes continue to improve thankyou!💯
probably the most useful tips on low end. All of these Sonic Scoop vids are gold.
This episode is a revelation for me. Thinking back, I've slowly been working towards making my low end sound good by focusing on low-mids instinctively, but without thinking about why. Hearing you talk about it set off the proverbial "a-ha!" moment. Thank you and cheers from Las Vegas!
Your knowledge is indispensable and you sir have earned my subscription
This really sounds and seems like a channel where I can get really useful information. And that is hard to find amongst all those other bedroom producers (like me) who have channels where they try to teach us mixing and acting like they are masters of it even though they never mixed a really good song or have any credentials at all. This is the total opposite. So thank you for sharing your knowledge! So glad I found this channel! Kindest regards from Oslo, Norway 🇳🇴
Theo Stene are u Theo Stene from Asker?
Theo Stene I haven't searched you up. But I've heard about a young guy from Asker with the same name as yours. And you should stop accusing people for ”hating on” others. I don't hate anyone. But I am not a big fan of people teaching information that's wrong. That only makes it harder for beginners to find useful information on YT. And for the record, I never hated Alex Rome. I just told him what I meant about his channel. Keep your facts straight!
Theo Stene I live in Oslo. And I'm pretty deep into the electronic community. I think I heard something from him in a remix contest.
Theo Stene why are u asking about theo stene from asker and how I heard about him if your’re not him?
But you're not him so it doesn’t matter. What I heard about him wasn’t actually great anyway.
A trick you can use if you don't have some NS-10's or Auralex speakers is to mix with a low pass and a high pass on an EQ. This will cause you to clarify the mids and get the power and clarity there. Then you can either completely disable the EQ or just extend the range. I used this as way to train my ears and mind to work hard to get mid-range power and clarity.
Thanks so much, Justin! I appreciate your input. I'll be checking out the workshop as well.
Thanks. In my current home project, having experimented with the over/under EQ technique with kick and bass, clearly allocating each their own fundamental frequency range, I tend to prefer side-chaining, with maybe a touch of EQ--for example, a slight notch in the 100hz (-3db) for the kick sound combined with subtle sidechaining with Trackspacer--rather than doing a steep highpass on either instrument to create separation. In the current song I am working on, I want both the kick and bass to be discernable but also experienced as a whole--both contributing to the subs. The trick to making this work is to start off on the right foot by choosing a kick and bass sound that sharply contrasts each other--for example, warm bass with sustain versus a sharp, punchy kick. Bass playing technique and additional effects, besides EQing and sidechaining, can help distinguish it from the kick. For example, we can apply warm tube-type saturation to the bass to make it rounder, fuller to contrast against a sharp kick. Lastly, some degree of masking may be desirable in some cases as it can create a sense of cohesion/glue--depends upon the song and genre.
Awesome advise - I watched Dan Korneff on 1 of your workshop video's and he touched on some of these key points. Low end management is crucial for good mixing. He had the Breaking Benjamin track. 1 of his tricks I have been using now is side chain the kick into the bass compression. OMG what a difference
Thanks Justin - you're making music sound better with every instructional video - and tip #5 is revelatory!!!
Great episode. This gave me a lot of great ideas and should help me moving forward with the low end!
you're a gem, mate - thanks for putting this stuff out there
Man you just like a wizard. Going to help no end on the broadcasts. Hero.
I use Ik multimedia Arc and I'm very pleased with it to hear all the frequencies at the lowend
Anyways the acoustic treatment of your room is so much important than anything and it can help you so much
Specifically the correct position of bass traps and also their quality are important as well,
The usual calibration of sound monitors without using any programs is your sitting position that you should see or you have to be able to see only your face on subwoofers of your monitors if there are 2 mirrors instead of subwoofers ofcourse you need a help for accurate adjustment.
Good luck
+1 - ARC was an absolute game changer for me. I haven't needed to do a "car check" since! Well, I still do, but I haven't needed to go back and re-mix yet!
This was simplistically but powerful set of advice. Good Job.
EXCELLENT! I've tried to impart this to some of clients on more than one occasion. Thank you!
Thank you for your technical wisdom and humility, it goes a long way in learning the art of this craft.
yea the humility is huge here. free, low publicity, tons of content...
You’re fantastic. I am a musician, self-recordist who has slowly migrated towards fleshing out my songs to their finished end - mixing. It has been a process. I just learned the FINAL lesson you shared here from a professional engineer I respect (Sheryl Crowe, Johnny Lang, Sounds of Blackness). I sent him some mixes and he was upfront and told me the aspects of the mix that he thinks were holding the songs/mixes back. Your final lesson here was definitely a main bullet point. Ever since, things are sounding better and better!
That last tip was pure gold! Thank you 👍😎
Great info Justin.... thank you for your tips....
Hi from Argentina. Muy buenos videos!!
I just found Sonic Scoop! I'm glad I did! Great INFO!
Thanks!
Going back to my Mix to make some revisions now. I'm going to use this information & improve upon my mix. Thanks for sharing Justin! =)
Nice advice and tips, you lay it out in a way that makes it very easy to understand and implement. Thanks!
Awesome. Just like the speaker placement series
Thank you. Mo e great tips!!!! Useful!!!! I’ll be using these too
Great work. Very valuable content. Perfectly presented. Thank you for excellent work and for sharing your mastership.
Excellent material - thanks Justin!
Fab filter pro Q is so usefull in deciding which low frequency instrument should dominate in a particular frequency range. The analyzer can show the spectrum of any other track that has pro Q on it and then you get this reddish tone that shows exactly where the frequencies are overlapping the most
This is awesome. Thank you so much. Gonna check out that workshop
Great!! Thank you Justin for those very useful insights!!
Ok, the last tip blew my mind. Thank you.
Very helpful and clear explanation!
You're the man, Justin. Thanks for all the great info.
I discovered this many years ago by accident, and it dawned on me that low end is like a 5 pound bucket I'm trying to shove 10 pounds into, Great video
Brilliant. I do all of this anyway. But brilliant. I will check out your 5 tips video, just because I always have the kick the lowest.
Great lesson. I try to follow your process here but I was always focusing on the kick being the dominant lowest low. Always learning from you ..thanks
Such practical information. Amazing tips and such clear communication. Thank you for sharing! What a great channel
I just put a low shelf on a drum bus and liked the result.
Great tips, thanks so much!! 🤘🤘
i love how diverse the praises are lmao there's so much to enjoy on this video. i loved that you know what you're talking about (said stuff i agree with) but other people are talking about how the video sounds and how he talks, and i agree, it's all good shit
Got to the end. Loving the videos, they're super helpful!
Brilliant tuition, well articulated and great content. Thank you so much for your wisdom, it clarified some fundamental issues to handling low frequencies.
Just discovered your channel. What a fantastic vid. I know this sounds dumb...but when you said only one thing can be the lowest it seemed so obvious but yet I never thought of it. The song Im working ahs those elements you mentioned. A kick, bass and a synth bass. I'll need to look at these and put them in order of lowest , next lowest etc. Thanks again.
Excellent, just what I needed, thank you
Some really great information here!
Very helpful! Thanks!
Thanks so much for this. Trying the parallel distortion idea on a bass guitar track and it’s really going in the right direction now. Just sounded like it was missing something before. Now it has more girth and punch. Subscribed.
Got all the way through it brother! Great stuff always
Great video as always! Things just click for me when you explain them.
You always lift my spirits with great knowledge that inspires. What would you say to someone that shares a two bedroom apartment with 2 kids. A bedroom with krk 5 in the middle of the longer wall 20 inch away and sitting next to a bed. love the sound but definitely different bass response everywhere. Listening to other music I know all the time helps but I think practicing music production on headphones is the best I can get my hands on. So maybe put mixing on the side only practice production and get a mixing engineer?
Wes Gardner
I've only ever heard mixers recommend putting speakers on the shorter wall to aim them down the length of a room.
exceptional video!
Thanks for these tips. I just want to emphasize that the most important part of getting a great mix is by getting great sounding tracks.
A mixer should have to do very little eq and mixing after the fact...
But, legit, decide which instrument is going to be at the bottom. Good stuff Justin
great tips ,thanks
Excellent, thank you very much indeed. And made it that far.
You are an awesome educator homie, thanks for sharing
Awesome to hear, thanks for watching Frankie :-)
-Justin
This is great thank you!
nice one sir...
Excellent!
I’m screaming this is great.
Wise advice, thanks
Wish i had heard this years ago. Great information.
Thanks very much Justin, I have watched several of your videos and they have helped me alot with gaining insight into how to approach things.
Thanks.... really great information. Been watching your tutorials off and on for a while. You have taught me a lot. My LP I released July 2019 turned out great.
Wow , amazing tips ! Thanks for sharing.
This channel is gold mine 🎶🎵🎶
Thanks you! So much info thats not a drone speech!
glad I found this channel. excellent
Great vid mate, much appreciated!
Thank you for great explanations with all the details!
I think it's really hard to take out some low end of the kick and still make it sound big enough and give it a good body. But this video is a really good help and makes it a lot easier to think about the low end challenge. Thanks very much for this infos!
Great information!!!!!
Yep. Made it through to the end. The low end. Ha. Great video. Got some sound knowledge here.
great timing
Picking Bass or kick to be the lowest in the mix I think was my problem! Thanks great vid!!! Thx!
2:04 this! Midrange is key to translatability.
What is your philosophy about ducking the subs out of a bass synth/guitar via the kick? Do you think they can both occupy the same sub frequencies in this case since they don't happen at the same time, or is it still better to choose one instrument to be "the bassiest"?
Love your stuff BTW, I just realized you make these in audio podcast form and am super happy. You rock!
I was about to say... this is what I tend to do a lot with trackspacer using the high cut filter. I also check the low end in isolation with ISOL8 to make sure the bottom of the kick isn't getting masked by the bass, using the attack and release settings inside trackspacer. Its really helpful in bass heavy genres (EDM, Reggae, etc) when you want a thick and heavy melodic bass sound. Filtering out the bass frequencies tends to work better with Vintage or Rock based genres. I prefer trackspacer to standard sidechain compression as its frequency dependent. You could sidechain with a multiband compressor or dynamic eq for a similar effect.
I added a bunch of crap speakers to my set up to check mixes. Its definitely tough to work out for me because I’m writing very dubby/ Subby style of music with very little mid range in Kick and bass. My environment is pretty terrible.lol. In the end I’m also the end consumer. I do this as a hobby (For 40 years+ and don’t look to making music to make money) . Ive been trying to add more saturation and excitement to the mid range of the kick and bass to help with this. I check masking and do some side chaining.
Going to try this instantly 👏🎶
Major key! Thank you!
GIK Acoustics ftw :D Great video, I agree with it all and allready do most of it, but having said that I still could use more confidence in my low end mixing. Great stuff, instant subscriber.
Poor KALI's, didnt get a mention even, Great Episode. Thank you for this podcast.
Just subscribed to this channel and the podcast!
thanks ,,, just what I was looking for
Thanks for the amazing content!
This is the stuff it took me years to figure out. I was that guy saying "More Bass" Now I don't do that anymore.
Thanks a lot Man!! Cool!
Great info. Thank you so much!
Ayo this guy deserve raise more then any engineer. Agreed?
AGREED.