How to EQ Kick and Bass for Better Low End | LANDR Mix Tips #9

Kick and bass can be the most difficult things to get right in a mix.

In this video, I’ll show you some of the best ways to EQ kick and bass to get the low end you’re looking for.

Before we start, the specific EQ frequencies we’re using in this video are just starting points. As always you have to use your ears to determine the best ranges to apply EQ.

Beginner and intermediate producers almost always underestimate the effects of their listening environment.

You could perfect your mix in a bad sounding room—only to realize that it’s completely wrong when you hear it in a different environment.

Your low end is particularly affected by your mixing room. But there are a few things you can do to make sure you’re judging your bass frequencies as accurately as possible:

Mix reference as often as you can: Referencing different tracks in different environments will help you get an idea of where the biggest flaws are in your room.

Use good open headphones to check lows: If you know your room is flawed, a good pair of headphones can go a long way to help you make mix decisions.

If you have a good idea of what frequencies are problematic, you’ll know to be careful when EQing them.

When you first start mixing with EQ, it seems like you could just boost the low end to get that powerful bass you’re looking for.

Too much low end energy in the mix can actually make your tracks sound weaker.

All speaker systems have a limit of how low they can go. If there’s a lot of sonic information at a lower frequency than a speaker can play, it will struggle—and fail—to reproduce it.

If your kick or bass instruments have too much sub bass, you’ll need to use a hi-pass filter to reduce it.

By bringing up an EQ on this bass track I can see right away that there’s a lot happening at very lowest frequencies.

I’ll start with a 48 db/octave low cut at 30 Hz. The timbre of the bass hasn’t changed at all, but I can already hear a bit of a tightening effect when I add the kick back in.

I’ll gradually move the frequency of the hi-pass filter up until I start to hear a negative change in the sound of the bass.

It’s actually best to do this with your eyes closed since the visual feedback from an EQ can affect how you judge low end.

I’ll backtrack a bit right as I start hear the body of the bass get weaker . That should be a pretty good spot for the high-pass filter.

Sculpting

EQing a track is like putting together a puzzle. You have to shift things around to make space.

For your kick and bass to punch you need make space for them in the mix.

The inverse is also true. If your mix doesn’t have the right space for your bass, you’ll never get the beefy sound you’re looking for.

Example: This kick drum sounds great solo’d, but I can tell that it’s fighting the other elements when I listen in the mix. The low-mids is especially congested.

To deal with this, I’ll carve out some of this area in the kick to let the rest of the mix sit. I’ll start by sweeping a fairly tight Q, -10 db cut in the 200-500 Hz range.

As I sweep my EQ band I can hear the other mix elements becoming more clear right around 300 Hz, so I’ll park the filter here.

Lows are the foundation of great kick and bass tracks, but that’s not all there is to the story.

“Big” and “punchy” kicks and basses often have a lot going on in other frequency ranges.

Experiment with EQ in ranges other than the low end to find which frequencies bring your kick and bass into focus.

As I’ve been EQing I’ve noticed that the kick lacks the presence it needs compete with the rest of my mix. I’ll take another EQ band, but this time a more bell shaped 6dB boost.

Sweeping from 1kHz-5kHz, I can hear the point of the kick pop out at about 2kHz. In the mix, this gives my kick a ton of authority and provides nice separation from the bass.

In some cases, adding a bit top end detail can bring out the articulation in the bass. I’ll check it out by sweeping an even gentler broad Q boost around the high end—listening from about 5k-10k.

With this bass sound, there’s not a lot going on in the top end, so I won’t bother boosting any frequencies here.

That’s why you always have to rely on your ears first to find out where to add EQ.

General guidelines can be helpful, but they may not always be perfect. Make sure to decide for yourself in the context of your own tracks.

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[LANDRmusic]

What's more important, kick or bass?

[mirr]

I think it's much better to use a shallow slope when lowpassing the bass, like a 6dB slope. This way you lower 30hz and above but you also retain them so it doesn't kill your low end. I believe this technique is more common amongst mixing rock and other band orientated live recordings, but I find it's just as effective when EQing synth bass.

[sagcap]

Nice vid! 👍🏾 when comes to kick and bass. The instrument I don’t want subs in. I use a low shelf to take it out. Around 80hz and at -6db is where I start. And fish around in there. This way. Sub bass from my synth gets to shine through untouched and the kick still has a heaviness to it when I pull the synth out from arranging. I was taught by old school engineers to never really use a high or low pass filter unless it’s needed and you’re fixing a problem with an instruments sound. Theirs a such thing as cutting the soul from an instrument. If you over use a hpf the wrong way, that can happen. If you want your tracks to sound full but clean. Try Eqing without a high pass filter and use a shelf instead. This way you won’t be cutting just to cut. You’ll be lowering the frequencies you don’t want to be heard.

[SapphireUnique]

yeee gonna give you a like for that one mate, never knew you could/should do a low-end cutoff EQ for bass. It was the only thing i wasn't really doing in my mix lol, could never figure out the problem. So counter intuitive and is see why reading/learning is always important. Thanks again.

[alexweej]

Hi LANDR. The low end of the Ableton EQ Eight is almost entirely FFT artifacting. Worth doing this stuff with something better like Pro-Q3, or at least another analyzer.

[elianmusic]

mate did you just hipass the bass up to 85 hz.

[popuri]

love these videos, great fundamentals for a short attention span like mine

[bluetoothinc]

I have a kick attack but if I increase the sound saturates it?

[Martin-vjzx]

My problem is I don't know how much low end I should let in my kick!
It sounds extremely good to me but at the same time I am not sure if it is too much

[PolymerJones]

I think the slopes and the cut offs are fucking up my mixes. At this point I’m going to try just shelves and side chaining.

[ToniLeys]

I'm sorry but I think you're trying to convey something that is good with a terrible example. The sub bass of a trap style track is not the place to put a hpf, in fact in this case I would do the exact oposite, leave the sub in the bass as is, atenuate that peak around 130hz and leave that zone to the kick, maybe reenforce the kick in that area. This example would be awesome to teach sidechaining. To teach hipassing I'd use something like a piano in a pop track idk.

[karoliinasalminen]

"Until you hear difference". Haha the body of the bass is completely gone with this high pass. With my monitors that are straight to 40 Hz.

[MusicJBoficial]

can you explain kick and bass multing mixing way

[riotvan]

at 2:31 you can see the first drafts of Ill Factor

[jaycekeffer]

wish you did it with a real kick and that crap is already sounding good to begin with for the most part.

[twobitsnick]

Is the graphic at 2:36 from god-lovin' TempleOS? It looks heavily inspired by it.

[PIZZA_KITTY]

Gosh I can't recognize difference in sound when this guy tweaks something

[piotrbukowski]

Wut? 48db/oct 85Hz highpass on bass? 😂 Just use more sidechain lol

[мазенгурел]

Which other elements bro? There are no other elements. Just a kick and a bass.