The process of mixing kick and bass should perhaps start with the vision of whether you want your bass to sound fat or whether you want your kick drum to sound lean. Well, audio mixing is a give-and-take process of technical art.

This is why it makes sense to decide beforehand what's going to beefed up with a fat BBL and what's going to be streamlined with some sonically pleasing EQ liposuction. You also have to put into perspective that some genres of music may require your bass to be more pronounced but in some experimental scenarios there aren't any established conventions to take into consideration, therefore in that context, anything goes.

Just remember to follow these protocols by heart and religiously:
  • Decide between putting a kick drum in front of the bass or vice-versa
  • Get rid of rumble below 40 Hz for kicks
  • Avoid steep low-pass and high-pass filters e.g., 24 dB, 48 dB, and brickwall filters
  • Implement sidechain compression (if necessary)
  • Check your bass and kick relationship on a cheap small speaker (or a grot box stereo system)
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