Andy Wallace Bass EQ Trick | Get Huge, Tight Bass In Your Mix

Here is a simple tip courtesy of Andy Wallace that uses only two tools to get a huge, controlled bass sound.

0:00 - Intro
0:37 - The Tools
0:56 - The Processing
2:22 - Audio
3:52 - Conclusion

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[christopherdicola]

Watching this on a phone was hilarious hahah

[martinlaferte]

YESSS, this is one of the reasons why Nevermind sounds so huge. Please if you could make more Andy Wallace related that’d be awesome!

[MarkRidesCoasters]

btw, for those that don't know and want to know: the boost in the bass is a very broad band with 18dB of gain.

[Fatherjohn]

Nevermind remains one of the best mixed rock records of all time IMO so when Andy Wallace drops a kernel of knowledge it's probably worth paying attention

[Anders]

Nice! Cranking the 40 Hz EQ to the max and then cutting around 200 Hz. I will try that.

[mrnelsonius]

Cranking the lowest fundamental of the bass and then cutting some low mids around 250-350 is a pretty common trick to get a big low-end without it going muddy. The exact frequencies to boost and cut vary by song but that’s the principal, if your boosting low bass/sub frequencies create a cut in the low mids for separation and definition. If you have electronic sub-bass frequencies and electric bass doubling it gets trickier. Sometimes I’ll cut all the lows from the electric bass, and let the electronic sub fundamental carry the section

[BeGoodNow]

WOOH...that sounded gorgeous when you cranked that 1073 plugin!

[stupidusername]

Cheers Joe, one of the things I've been doing recently is splitting the bass and processing it separately, one that focuses on the bass neck sounds and one that focuses on the body. It's a Michael Brauer concept

[jayantasarkar]

Andy Wallace is the sigma of the mixing engineers. Working quietly, wisely, and precisely with success.

[catsven]

Thanks a lot ! Many people underestimate how it’s fundamental to treat right the bass and how it’s easy to mess up with it.

[AlexReidStudios]

Tried this with Slate VMR and works really well. Thanks!

[chrischoir]

I can't imagine Wallace uses these cheezy sounding plugins

[cellulose]

If u look at the albums that andy has mixed it's pretty undeniable he's the best mixer in the business

[philschroeder]

This is really good. Just used this on a fairly simple ballad that I thought already sounded good and wow! Everything just tightened right up. Thanks!

[michellew.]

Thx for the video.
Little hint: Could you do a before/after comparison without Interruption, that means without stoping & talking. That would make it more helpful 👍

[Automagi]

I did a test using three different EQ's. I tried using 1) the FabFilter Pro-Q 3 with a 18 dB low shelf boost at around 50 Hz, 2) the Sie-Q from Soundtoys with the low end knob cranked all the way up, and 3) the Waves Scheps 73 with the settings in this video: 35 Hz, cranked all the way.

My take aways are that 1) the Pro-Q 3 was very gentle and didn't really boost the low end much. It sounded okay but didn't have the musical effect I wanted. 2) The Sie-Q did a proper job of boosting the low end but also added a lot of boominess around 200 Hz. The low end felt lifted but also muddy. 3) The Scheps 73 did an amazing job and sounds great. It's pure magic when you crank the 35 dB. I would get this plugin for the low end boost alone. It adds so much low end (at the max setting), but somehow it doesn't sound bad. It doesn't add that much boominess - it's just musical and thick in the most pleasant way.

I bought the plugin straight away after this little test of mine. Thanks for showing me the world of musical EQ's, @Green Light Sound!

[Zarabozo]

An important part of this technique is that a real Neve 1073 will produce very musical saturation harmonics with that boost on the low frequencies, and later when you apply a high pass filter and re-EQ the lowest frequencies, you get rid of the extremely low ones while retaining the produced harmonics, which is what will ultimately retain the feeling of a big bass sound even when it's no longer intrusive. Now, using plugins for this, may or may not work the same, all depending on how well the 1073 algorithm is implemented on the emulation you use.

[timbushong]

That is awesome - sometimes I'll try something similar, but maybe with a Waves "MaxxBass" upfront, and then filtering/eq-ing in the bass buss. Great tip here!

[brianjones]

Definitely had that Wallace sound ! I wish there as more with him as well! Thanks for sharing

[PeterJaquesMusic]

that's amazing & super simple, thanks!