3 Tips For Mixing 808s and Kicks

Leveling – It’s really important to keep in mind that you should always start this process by balancing the levels (volume) of your kick and bass to the best of your ability. This will make your job much easier in the end. It’s also smart to use high-quality 808s in your beats. Go here to download some.

Feathering – The idea here is to compensate the gain boost/reduction, we’re essentially allowing some room for your kick to cut through without causing any problems such as distorting the sound of your bass. The reason we typically want to roll off the low end (~30Hz) is because lower frequencies require more energy to produce than higher frequencies. This basically just means you could be using this energy on frequencies that actually make that mix slap! This is a general practice in mixing, so you pretty much want to do this to every track, as it usually can’t be heard.

ADSR –  If you soften up the attack time on the bass VST, you can get the bass to dip out of the way of our kick.  It’s important not to overdo this because even the slightest bit can make the biggest difference.

Compression – Just place that good ol’ compressor on the bass track, and then select your kick track in the side chain menu in of the compressor.  This will cause the bass to dip out every time the kick is engaged. The threshold and ratio are going to control how much the volume ducks when the kick hits.