We’re back with another episode of FAQ Friday!
As always, we have a ton of marvellous questions!
Our featured question of the week is: “When does low end become too much low end?”
How do I answer that? Simply put, it’s one of those things where if it doesn’t translate from speaker to speaker and it’s blowing up everywhere, it’s too much. I think this is where I differ from a lot of YouTubers and other respected professionals.
I love the car test when you don’t know your room or your headphones, the car test rules! I have sat and done the car test with numerous amazing mixers because it’s really good for low end, obviously not in a 80’s or 90’s car with a little tiny stereo system, but most modern sound systems have an extended low end which is perfect for testing your mix.
That means if your low end is too big it will blow up in there, every car I have ever had the low end would just blow up, it would be insane.
So the car test is one way to check but go and try it in loads of different environments. If it’s too much then it’s too much and it will be obvious. Don’t get me wrong there are genres of music like reggae that have enormous amounts of low end and it works.
The key is you need to create space! If you have this huge low end and it has a really spacious guitar part and this really spacious drum part, maybe the drummer is just playing side stick, there is room for that bass to grow. However, that huge bass with a death metal guitar on it, is going to blow up your speakers.
I think it’s genre dependent, if there is space enough, to have the bass be the biggest thing in the mix.
What are your experiences when working with low end? I’d love to know what you do to make sure the low end is just right for you.
We cover the following questions during this episode of FAQ Friday!
• So when does low end become too much low end? (0:30)
• What do you make of the whole top down mixing/mastering thing? (3:06)
• Regarding Compression – It’s typical to compress a bass recording, what other circumstances would you prefer to see compression having been used on the way in as opposed to being done in the box. (5:45)
• What is your favourite compressor plugin and why? (8:35)
• On heavy prog material with lots of time changes would you automate compression settings or would you aim for a global setting?(11:22)
• At what sample rate do you set your interface for tracking? (12:48)
• How do you deal with low mid range? Trying to get rid of muddiness and not losing the power which this frequency contributes to the mix? (14:22)
• Does it make a difference if you EQ before or after reverb?(15:42)
