EQ - Playing with bass

Happy Easter all,

It’s time to put the chocolate down and take off the bunny costume. Let’s get our hands dirty in EQs.

In the last video I went through the mixing cycle explaining the different stages involved in transitioning from on track to another. Over the coming videos I’ll b going through some techniques we can use to do this.

This week I’d like to focus on the transition method I used in the video last time. I played around with the bass frequencies and there are a number of different variations on this method. Let’s go through a few of them here (and watch the video to see the ideas in action).

The bass switchover

This is the method I use most often and is pretty much all I prefer to do as it works well for trance. If you are starting out and don’t have the skills to improvise or be fancy then use this method. It may not work so well for other genres of music, just listen to the sounds and you will feel if it’s the right thing to do or not. So how does it work?

• The live track is playing with its bass EQ set to full, let’s call this track B. By full I mean normal levels, don’t turn the knob all the way to its maximum as you’re then adding more bass than what was intended for the track.
• Track A has been cued up and beatmatched.
• Track A is ready to be introduced so turn its bass EQ down and introduce it to full volume gradually or immediately (timing is key, think phrases).
• When the moment is right to switch the tracks over (again think phrases), switch A’s bass to full and kill B’s bass off.
• Both tracks are still playing together but the crowd here the beats of track B more.
• When the moment is right (phrases yet again), kill off track B completely. We’ll discuss different ways of doing this in the future, for now you can just turn the volume down all the way.
• Transition complete.

Killing the live bass

This is a variation that works well if the track coming in should come in strong. If the crowd is bouncing about, the beats of the cued track are powerful and the higher frequencies work well with the live track, use this method to jump straight into it.

• Track B is playing live with its bass EQ set to full.
• Track A has been cued up and beatmatched.
• Track A is ready to be introduced. This time keep the bass EQ full for track A. Introduce track A immediately and at the same time kill off B’s bass.
• Both tracks are still playing together but the crowd here the beats of track B more.
• When the moment is right, kill off track B completely.
• Transition complete.

Killing the live track

Ok, this is a useful variation you can use when you have no intention of playing both tracks together live at the same time once the bass switch over has been done. It works well with certain tracks but only if you have introduced the track in at the right phrase. You’ll just have to practise and obtain a feel for when this method can be used.

• Track B is playing live with its bass EQ set to full.
• Track A has been cued up and beatmatched.
• Track A is ready to be introduced so turn its bass EQ down and introduce it to full volume gradually or immediately.
• When the moment is right to switch the tracks over, switch A’s bass to full. This time though, at the same time kill off track B completely.
• Transition complete.

Until next time….

Here I have shown you some ways of transitioning by manipulating bass frequencies. Practise using these methods on your own tunes to develop a feel for what works and doesn’t work in different scenarios. You never know, you may end up coming up with your own method. If so, I’d love to hear about it.