I was working on this bass track the other day.

I multed the bass so that I mixed the verse and chorus bass parts differently.

I ended up slapping a bass emulator, an EQ plug-in and the Rbass from Waves to mix it.

In the end the bass parts sounded very different, which was the point.

The verse was thick and deep while the chorus was stringier and punchier.

Exactly what the quiet verse and rock chorus needed.

I thought to myself, the EQ curves on these tracks are so different from each other but I didn't drastically EQ the basses that differently.

And Captain Obvious over here realized that it's not just your EQ plug-in that's EQ'ing stuff.

As I was adding the amp simulation I put way more middle and treble on one track than the other.

And on my Rbass I was accenting a completely different frequency.

Of course, this all affects the frequency response of the bass guitar (and any other instrument you're mixing for that matter).

Any compressor has a different compression response and different compressors all react differently to the frequencies that are put into them.

The same goes with many of your plug-ins, which is why you see a simple EQ in all your reverbs and delays for instance.

They all add to the frequency spectrum of the instrument even though they're strictly not an EQ plug-in.

So keep that in mind when you're mixing. If you have 6 different plug-ins on a track and you want to add a new EQ plug-in because it needs more bottom, thickness, presence, air etc...why not go through the plug-ins you've already got on there and see if one of them is getting in the way?

If you need more air but your compressor is compressing the signal so that characteristic doesn't get through why not reduce the compression to see if that works?

Or if you have a frequency slider on the compressor, like on my Fabfilter Pro-C, you can program it to let all the high frequencies through, essentially adding air or top-end to your instrument.

But if you're struggling to EQ in general and don't know the first thing about working your plug-in, you can get easy and practical training with EQ Strategies - Your Ultimate Guide to EQ.

Currently, EQ Strategies - The Ultimate Guide to EQ is available for 50% off this week as a part of my birthday sale!

All you gotta do is head over here: www.eqstrategies.net, pick a package and use the coupon code ‘birthday50’ when you check out to claim your 50% discount.

Enjoy!

Björgvin