Turning bass into a kick

Electronic Music Production // Dark Arts
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stroskov
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Turning bass into a kick

Post by stroskov »

Hey
I recently sent a (poorly) mixed track to be mastered as i didn't have proper room set up to hear the sub frequencies etc.
The bass was a steady rumble and the kick was quite weak with no bass.

The master came back and he has made the bass pump with the kick, sort of sounds like a reverse side chain.
How would have he done this?

I have tried a couple a techniques as i want to replicate it on another track i started (without completely changing it), but i can't seem to get the same effect.
I am now in a proper studio environment with a treated room with a sub so i can now hear whats going on down there.

I was thinking at first it would just be multi band compressed with a high-ish attack and and then tweaking the attack and release to make it pump with the kick (as apposed to usual ducking side chain) but this doesn't seem to sound good.
Also tried some expanders, and now I'm thinking automating the volume would be the simplest solution.
But how would he have done it?

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Lost to the Void
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Re: Turning bass into a kick

Post by Lost to the Void »

See the sticky on this forum called mix bus compression guide.

Read it.

You are welcome.
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stroskov
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Re: Turning bass into a kick

Post by stroskov »

Thanks!

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tsaro
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Re: Turning bass into a kick

Post by tsaro »

If you wanted to replicate this in another track (still inside your sequencer), can't you just shift your midi/samples etc to where you want it to be, and tweak the envelope? Or alternatively something like a band splitter and Volumeshaper/Midishaper (or assign a synced LFO if your DAw has one) or even a tremolo could work. Or sidechain an eq, etc... Lots of options, though an audio example of what it is you want to achieve would help.
how far do you want to go

stroskov
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Re: Turning bass into a kick

Post by stroskov »

Yeah your right I knew there would be simpler ways to achieve the effect but the bass was recorded from my minibrute and I didn't save the patch (can't save presets). I know I could just use the sample too but I did try it but the bass didn't sound as good with me changing things (I think I'm attached to that now).

I wanted to experiment with an idea of making the bass the bass and the kick rather than layering another lower kick etc.
Tremolo did give me the pump effect but it took too much of it away. I think the multi band approach may work il give it a shot. Didn't think to side chain the eq tho thanks


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