Episode 23 - Low End
Show Notes
Topic: Low End
Live with Matt Rad - Episode 23
Oct 20, 2020
w/ Jon Castelli - Week 21
Show notes by: Bradley Will
Low End:
Q: What is the frequency range of low-end?
Jon:
Maybe 100 Hz and less
100-200Hz would be upper-bass (upper bass harmonics)
Sub bass is 60 and below.
Jon thinks of low end punch as 800-2k.
Matt:
Low end is below the body of the snare drum in a mix.
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Q: How do you get bass to translate on AirPods, small speakers, etc?
Jon:
800 Hz, 2.4 kHz. To get those upper harmonics.
When Jon thinks of punch he also thinks of the transients.
He thinks of it as pitch, not EQ.
Q: How do you get the subby stuff to feel impactful on a mix?
Sometimes you need to lower all sub-groups to give your mix buss room for the bass to be heard.
Proper gain-staging is important.
Reducing upper-bass can help the 800-2.4k harmonics to shine.
If you want an aspect of the sound to speak in a given range (600-800), you may need to pull out something below that in the 400 range to leave some space.
EQ-ing also causes phase shift at that frequency and by doing it, off center you’ll have more favorable phase shift on the frequency you wanted to accentuate all along.
Upper harmonics translate on smaller devices.
Jon loves real low end. He’s not going to compromise that if he can help it.
Jon doesn’t always reduce 100-200 in a bass, but sometimes it’s necessary. That is a problematic area in live bass usually, and sometimes in 808s. That’s the range where the 2nd harmonic lives for lots of basses.
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Q: How do you even-out a live bass note in a rock mix?
It has to be played well. Big fingers.
It’s hard to even-out a bad bass performance. You need the parts to be right. There’s only so much mixing you can do to make it right.
Live bass is less forgiving of bad performances.
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Q: Should low end saturation below 150 be avoided?
Jon:
If you have to split your 808, get a new 808.
Matt:
For producers doing low end, it’s all about sound selection.
The faster a tempo gets the less-clear the low-end will be because it needs time to breathe.
Think about the time you need for the low-end to breath.
The release/length of the kick drum is a super important aspect of groove. Severely underrated by most, though probably overrated by Jon who loves it.
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Jon never looks at his music through a frequency analyzer on your mix buss. Turn that shit off. Just ask yourself what feels good.
If you start focusing on that too much you’re going to start mixing yourself into a corner.
Jon uses Pro-Q3 for 99% of his subtractive EQ. He always has the analyzer on.
When Jon does a cut at 400Hz he’ll come back a minute or two later after he does the cut and check that it’s the right frequency. He’ll try 380 Hz and 420 Hz to see if they feel better than his original choice.
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Q: When you’re remaking someone’s side-chains, what are you using to do that?
Jon hasn’t side-chained in a long time.
He’ll usually use a dynamic EQ instead of a full side chain.
Jon likes the sound of the Softube Tube-Tec CL-1B. He only likes it for side-chaining. Nothing else. That’s the only time he’ll use it.
Jon likes the sound of Ableton Compressor for Ableton side-chaining.
Matt uses LFO Tool.
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Q: How do you use transient shaping on low end?
Jon doesn’t do frequency specific transient shaping for a specific frequency because of phasing issues caused by the crossover.
Neutron hasn’t sorted out the phasiness yet.
No one’s nailed it yet.
Giving up phase will give up clarity.
Find the simplest way to do it without giving up phase/clarity.
The lower the frequencies the more audible the phasing is going to be.
Linear phase is almost never useful. It’s mostly going to cause pre-ringing/phasing.
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Q: Do you get a sense that low end is different in different DAWs?
Jon can tell something is from FL because of the clipping and character that is on the kick. He’ll be more additive with his low-end.
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Q: What’s the approach to managing how much the sub trigger limiters on the master buss?
Turn your bass down so that it’s not triggering the limiter and then bring up the midrange to account for the perceived loss.
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You can’t mix low end if you can’t hear low end or if that low end is clear and uneven.
Walk around the room to get an alternate perspective on how to hear the low end.
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”24k Magic” is one of Jon’s favorite Serban mixes. The vocals are amazing.
The vocal is super dense in 700-1k range but it sounds natural.
