Advice on drum and bass mix

[Jalisetan]

Hi all,

I just did an album of emotional/tension cues and submitted them, with alt mixes, to a library. But the library then asked for a bass and drum mix, and that’s when my problem starts. My bass lines tend to be very sparse, sometimes just single notes played at the top of every 4 bars to go with the kick drum. And I rolled off the lows on the bass. In the overall mix it sounds right, but in the drum and bass mix, it just sounds blah.

So my question is, should I bring up the low end in the bass and drums mix? Should I introduce more notes to make it less sparse, but which means that this mix would have things that are not present in the main mix? Or should I just leave things be?

I’m totally new to this so any advice is much appreciated. Thanks.

[mikevan]

Hi
every library have their own way, their own rules for mixes, stems, formats etc. so maybe the best thing you could do, if possible, is ask them directly. I would alter the mix to make i sound good on its own, if it sounds ‘blah’ they may not be able to use it. Another solution is bouncing both versions, one being just soloing bass and drum tracks, easy and fast to do, so you have an alternative in case they don’t like the one you send in. Some libraries would also want booms, risers and fx in that kind of mix so, again, if at all possible, ask: if they’re working with you on an album they will probably tell you what they want.

hope this helps

[Jalisetan]

Hi Mike,

Yeah good idea, I’ll contact them. Thanks!

[jdt9517]

Part of the question to ask is how the stems will be used. Some music directors use the stems to create alternative mixes from the main mix. Generally, I will submit a full mix and each part will be submitted as a stem so they can load in a DAW and be separate mixable tracks.

[Jalisetan]

Ah, that’s a good point. Thanks!

[Author]

Posts