Studio to Club:  3 Low End Essentials

Ready to make your low end hit harder?🔊 Here are 3 great techniques from industry pros James Hype, Felguk and Streaky to help you achieve that perfect club-ready low end. 👉

James Hype

Multi-band sidechaining for club-ready kick-bass impact

James Hype shares his essential technique for achieving powerful kick and bass separation in dance music using sidechain compression with Cableguys ShaperBox. He emphasizes the importance of selecting the right kick for each track and demonstrates how to use sidechain compression to eliminate phase issues with the bass that can cause the kick to lose impact. By visually analyzing the waveform, he ensures the sidechain is perfectly timed to the kick's length, maintaining its full volume and presence. Hype further refines the process with multi-band sidechain techniques, allowing the upper bass frequencies to remain audible while ducking the lower signal parts to prevent phasing. This approach ensures both kick and bass retain their power, delivering a club-ready sound that slams every time.

Aulart

Create space in the low end with sidechain multi-band compression

Felguk uses two stages of multi-band sidechain compression to create space in the low end and make the kick and the bass work together in a well defined way.

Streaky

Tight and lively low-end with multi-band compression and expansion

Streaky refines the low end of a mix by using a multi-band compressor and expander, such as the FabFilter Pro-MB. The idea is to divide the low frequencies into two specific bands, one with compression, and one with expansion. The compression band is set to below 115 Hz and aims to tighten and control the sub frequencies. The expander band is side-chained from the sub band and enhances the upper bass range from 115 Hz to 350 Hz. So whenever the sub frequencies are reduced, this band adds punch back in. The combination of the bands contributes to a lively, moving low-end that is clear and controlled.