Inside the Studio – The Low-Down on Direct Bass

Low-end can make or break a mix—trust me, I’m a bass player.

In my humble opinion, the key is to be creative when tracking but leave yourself options, so you have control during the mix. Nearly 95% of the feedback I get from mastering engineers on my mixes is either: Give me a half dB more (or less) vocal and/or give me a half dB more (or less) of the bass.

The bass is mighty, it’s powerful, and it’s a leader. No other instrument can make the vocal sound bigger or smaller—think about that for a minute.