Hi guys,
I’m almost done finishing mixing a song but there’s this one bass solo I can’t get right. I never had to mix a bass solo before, the song is kind of a pop/jazz or r&b, not really sure how to classify it.
Anyway, I’ve used an EQ with a big boost on the mid-range + a big volume boost too, so the bass solo can be heard clearly. It works okay, but I feel there is probably something smarter to do to make the bass heard without having to boost the volume that much. The problem is that when the solo ends, the bass returning to its original state doesn’t work, it feels like the mix is crumbling down a little because it seems to suddenly lack low-end.
Any idea on how I could deal with that?
What about bringing the volume of the rest of the instruments down a bit, and just using the mid and high boost EQ (and maybe some extra saturation?) to get the bass to cut through, instead of raising its volume? (Like the bassist engaged a pedal chain and the rest of the band played softer.) It seems like what you want to avoid is the drop in low end in particular, so maybe the only issue is that you are boosting that frequency (by way of increasing the volume of the bass.)
Just an idea, if it helps! I have never mixed a bass solo. You could also listen to some live bands play bass solos, or other recordings to see if you can tell what they are doing.
1 Like
Thanks Cristina, actually that’s pretty much what I ended up doing in the meantime. No need to bring down the volume of the other instruments as there is only drums and Rhodes at this particular moment and they are already playing a lot softer during the bass solo in the original performance.
But I did add parallel compression with a hi-pass filter so I could raise the mids and overtones without actually boosting the lows too much. Besides, the bass was a little bit buried in the mix so I brought it back up in the rest of the song anyway and now the transitions are a lot smoother.
By the way I just posted the song here.