Where do you normally start your basslines?Should the bassline be on the upbeats (1/4) and be eaten by the kick or should I (ideally) place it more on the downbeats (2/4 and 4/4)?
Really really really depends what you are trying to achieve - there are no rules here
Do you have something specific in mind?
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My basslines are the soul of my music really, I use them as leads so I want them to also drive the energy of the song
In that case, create the bass line first, and then find a kick sound and pattern that fits the rest of the arrangement.
Try to avoid overlapping frequencies from the get go: if you’re new to producing, a sub-bass and a subby kick can be a nightmare to mix. Try to choose sounds that complement each other.
Also, some sidechaining (usually the kick ducking the bass) can help creating some space and avoiding overpowering the mix.
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I’d say probably just use kicks that are focused in a different place in the frequency spectrum so you don’t worry about the bassline overlapping them then
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…downbeat is usually the kik position…upbeat is usually the snare/clap position…
no matter what, there’s always a boom and a tschakk in rhythms…all sorts of call and response is all the basic magic in common music…wether it’s rhythmics or harmonics…
and since those defining basic edges of any rhythm are a given common fact, it’s always a good thing to get started with a bassmotive…there is ur rootnote and keydefining basic musical info embedded by nature…
don’t overthink it, first of all…
sometimes ur kik might be very tonal, too…and if u keep in mind, for a strong translating lowest octave in any kind of music, ur bassharmonics must work with it in some defined way together to get there…
if ur bassline needs to emphasize any downbeat/kik positions in ur rhythmical metrics, u can always duck them a little to leave sonic definition headroom for ur kiks anyways…
so no matter what u want ur bassline to be, in case of clash, ducking that basslinenotes in particular is always ur best friend…so feel free to write ur basslines in any way u want them, kik can always overrule it sonically in the end, if u want it to do so…
just keep in mind, on every floor of ur overall house of frequencyspectrum, which are the sub, the lows, the low mids, the hi mids, the hi’s and the air, there can only be one most prominent element that must overrule it’s sonic neighbours to come out front per each single moment…
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I recommend studying some examples of tracks that you like. Just drag them into your DAW and add a spectrum analyzer with fast response to see how the kick and bass work together. There are many different formulas to fix the balancing act of kick and bass.
For my tracks I always choose which one should be the master: If the kick is the driving force, then the bassline usually sits a bit higher in the frequency or is kept very short (example 1). If it’s the bass, then I keep the decay of the kick short and/or tune the kick a bit higher (example 2). But anything goes really. I wouldn’t worry too much about playing the kick and the bass at the same time, you just need to mix it carefully (example 3).
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…and one more thing…a good trick, in case u get started with a beat, once u start to establish/create a bassline, shorten all ur rhythmical elelements in decay for a while, so that just all the transients, ur naked rythmical/non tonal information, stays left in the picture…
ur ear is always picking up timings right away…but to pick up harmonics it needs a certain minimum of decay/time to get it…
so if u want ur bassline to rule, a short kik is always ur best friend…and the other way around, of course…if u want huge tonal kiks, ur bassline notes better be shorter…or placed somewhere out of it’s way…which concludes with ur first questionary, that brought up ur thoughts about all this in first place…
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Thanks all! Really appreciate the lessons learned
a.k.a. “the backbeat”
this idea of a “backbeat” didn’t really appear until the birth of jazz and blues
If you’re after a funky bassline usually it’s good to place notes on the one and on the off beats and where the swing 8th or 16th notes would go.
There’s no right or wrong way I guess
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