Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

When using distortion on bass guitar, be sure to apply a filter on the low and high end.  

Your focus should be on the mid frequencies if you want to keep the low fundamentals crisp and clear.  

Try rolling off the low end up to 400Hz and cut the top end down to 3-4KHz. There shouldn't be much frequency content in the high end other than some finger/pick definition, this is bass guitar after all.  

Apply your chosen distortion with an EQ filter before it and your distortion will only affect the frequencies you want it to. Distort those mids for cutting bass guitar!

Knowledge Wednesday By: DAWsopenat7 No comments

Weekly words of Wisdom!

High Pass Filter – This tool allows you to attenuate/remove frequency content below the chosen frequency cut off, therefore allowing the higher frequencies to pass through. Try this with a parametric EQ plugin on your rhythm guitars to remove the unwanted low frequency content. Start by rolling off up to 80Hz to create space for the kick drum and bass guitar which will immediately have more clarity with this mix move and even increase as far as 120Hz if needed. This is a great trick to allow the bass guitar to sit nicely underneath the rhythm guitars. Below is generally what a high pass filter will look like.

Low Pass Filter – This tool allows you to attenuate/remove frequency content above the chosen frequency cut off, therefore allowing the lower frequencies to pass through. Try this with a parametric EQ plugin on your backing vocals to remove some of the unwanted high frequency content. Start by rolling off at 6-7KHz to put the backing vocals a little bit further back in the mix and allow the main vocal to be the dominant one. This is a great trick to easily create depth and space in a mix without using reverb. Below is generally what a low pass filter will look like.