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A lot of it is simply you don't have a good sounding room.
If you can't hear it then how can you fix it?
Describe your studio space- dimensions, amount of bass trapping, if any, what monitors and headphones you use etc.
Do you know how to use a side chain compressor?
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
A lot of the time low-end problems are actually caused by instruments being too heavy in the mids - 200hz to 400hz - so that's a danger area to watch out for too.
Grab a copy of Izotope Neutron. It has a great EQ in it which shows you where frequencies are masking one another. Then you simply decide which has priority over each area.
And remember... tight cuts to control low-end usually works best. 80hz, 90hz, 100hz, 120hz, and 140hz, are all different frequencies. You may simply not be cutting enough.
This playlist might help:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMV2xt2LnjQ&list=PLiDFWaUh9xYQYzEDfZ_eq9vk7VNsgkE_Q
Have you watched Joel's low end fast track on URM yet?
I also find this difficult. What I've found as factors for my own stuff:
- Phase. Don't forget to check it, don't forget to recheck if something sounds off after heavy processing. If you're splitting your bass, make sure everything is actually aligned as sometimes they're not despite delay compensation.
- Tightness. Both actual playing, and timing. This really make a big difference, especially the playing (timing you can always edit to some extent).
- Referencing. Check your song against others you like - ideally in similar tuning and tempo. Make sure to level match so you're comparing like for like (something like Metric AB is great here). Don't just focus on the bass, the whole picture matters especially if you have any muddiness going on, or any imbalances between instruments etc
I've always struggled with the low end, one of my problems was I was mixing all the time on NS10's so couldn't really hear what was going on below 70Hz or so. I ended up setting up a third set of speakers with bigger box and drivers to get round this.
For kick it totally depends on the style of music, for a lot of metal there isn't time for a massive thud but carving out a gap for the bass normally did help me
My trick for bass is to track a DI and mic the cab, then low pass the shit out of the bass di track and highpass the shit out of the mic'ed track. When you put the 2 together it's generally pretty weighty but will the character of the cab. I got this trick from some guy on Youtube.
Yeah Im primarily writing metal and my monitoring is not ideal I have KRK 6s and no bass trapping. Space itself is reasonmable size, oversized single garage However due to young kids actually spend more time mixing on phones cant recall if they are DT880s or DT990s. Fabfilter pro-Q2 has a mode where you can listen to just the area being affected by an EQ point so I use that to kind of focus in on the low end.
I do know how to side chain but don't tend to do it much.
Im already splitting my bass with high distorted and lows compressed to all buggery to get them consistent but I still feel like im getting either shit loads of masking or no power and cant seem to find the middle ground.
Yes I have watched the low end fast track which is partly what lead me to trying the kick over/under bass thing. I feel like it might actually be the lower end of my guitars with the low mids of the bass as much as the really sub frequencies although obv my monitoring is not ideal so.....
Are subpacs any use or just a gimmick?
Headphones just give you a false impression of what you're doing. Proximity effect through the wazoo.
Check your mixes on headphones sure, but don't do them on them.
As noted by Drew earlier don't just focus on the lows as the low mids might also cause issues, plus it's always about the big picture. You can definitely solo stuff out but I wouldn't be super narrow about it.
If you want to do sidechain compression I'd recommend going the drum keyspikes route for metal, I find it more accurate and repeatable/predictable.
Follow on question have you watched the Forrester Savell bass one? It deals with split signals, a key point being aligning things and not just trusting that the delay compensation is giving the best tone.
I don't love it as much as some do, but I do think it is useful. For my own tastes it's not very useful at low volumes, so it always kind of needs to be at a reasonably powerful volume to feel both the length of the kick drum and where the kick and bass are sitting relative to each other. Sometimes this means readjusting levels, but again this might be me. They make comfy backrests, but having cables going from your interface to your chair gets a bit annoying. I often unplug mine for this reason. I don't run it all the time even when it is plugged in.
What I've found with headphones is I need to listen extremely quietly for any kind of balance to translate. If I listen loud my sides to centre balance is usually miles off. If you're using open back headphones this can sometimes be a problem if there's any noise coming from elsewhere.
Some plugs to try that may help:
https://www.sonarworks.com/reference - You might already have this. I find it super helpful with headphones especially.
https://goodhertz.co/canopener-studio/ - this is specifically to give crossfeed between your headphones to simulate what would happen if you were listening on speakers. Sometimes it's given me better translation of centre to sides when mixing on headphones.
https://neuraldsp.com/products/parallax/
Once the kids are a bit older I'll build some bass trapping but sadly headphones are going to ahve to suffice for 80% of my mixing in the immediate future.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com
You might find a big difference, like maybe the bass guitar is a lot higher in that area on your mix so when you adjust it to match the reference then remove the filter, you could find that it sounds better.
The room is a huge problem for low end like mentioned but if the records you listen to in there have the low end you like then it's not the room preventing it.