Side-chain compression is your answer!By side-chaining the kick drum to the bass line you can create more space and dynamic between the two elements while adding a sense of cohesion to the mix as a whole. The idea is to compress/limit the bass track every time the kick drum hits so as to give the kick drum more punch, while blending a bit more with your bass line. It’s like an ebb and flow thing between your bassy friends in the mix…
How To Side-Chain Your Bass Line:
Operating in ProTools (or whichever DAW you prefer), solo your bass track and your kick track
Create an auxiliary send on your kick track to “bus 13″ and turn the level to 0. You can use whichever bus you want but for this example we’re using “bus 13″
In the kick drum’s “bus 13″ send, select, “pre” – This means that the kick drum signal will be sent pre-fader to the bass’ side-chained compressor. Therefore even if the kick track is muted, the side-chained compressor still receives the kick signal. For example, this is helpful if you’ve printed the drums and still need just the kick’s output for the side-chained bass line to sound right.
Now, create a compressor on the bass track. The compressor needs to have some kind of key chain input -a look ahead function is also preferred.
In this compressor, select the key chain/side-chain input as, “bus 13″
Now your kick drum and bass line are talking
Compressor Settings of Your Side-Chained Bass Line:
Adjust the ratio to be above 4, at least… I generally go with 8-20 for a limiting effect. Attack: medium-fast Release: fast, medium-fast
Now attenuate the threshold until it’s compressing to taste and you begin to hear a desired pumping effect in the bass while the kick seems to thump a bit more.
Un-solo your kick and bass and now focus on the dynamic between the two within the rest of the mix. For example, more natural music uses much less of this pumping effect than the drum n bass producer with those pulsating synths. Always to taste and don’t be afraid to go too far… you can always come back.