Bass weight might come from a wobbling sub, a blown-out breakbeat, or some slammin’ kicks.
Kick drums in rock mixes sit a little further back, allowing the bass and guitar to rule the low end.
In many modern hip-hop mixes, the source of bass is a single 808-style kick. It’s much easier to achieve a weighty mix when you determine where the low-end will come from at an early stage in the mixing process, being sure to limit the number of bassy tracks you add in afterward. As a result, we tend to keep these frequencies in sounds where they aren’t really that useful, until this build-up of bass eventually minimizes low-end presence through frequency masking. We love feeling low frequencies in music, which is complicated by the fact that many sounds produce them.
Today, I’ll cover some tips for boosting bass and adding weight to a mix. This powerful sound and physical feeling are often created by a careful treatment of low and mid-range frequencies. Some songs seem to have a physical presence that sets them apart from the rest.
