Short answer: the kick and the bass fight for the same low frequencies, so the trick is to give each its own space. Let the kick own the very low thump, often around 50 to 100 Hz, and dip the bass a little there. Let the bass own the low mids, around 100 to 250 Hz, and dip the kick there. High-pass everything else off the low end, keep both mono and centred, and decide which one carries the sub.
You can do the same job with sidechain compression, which ducks the bass each time the kick hits, and many people use both. The frequency figures here are approximate zones, not exact rules, and every kick and bass is a little different.
Because they both put most of their energy in the same low frequencies, roughly below 250 Hz, so they overlap and compete for the same space. The kick and the bass are the two low-end anchors of a mix, and in a lot of music they land on the same beat, so their energy stacks into one narrow band at the same moment.
When that happens, a few things go wrong. The low end gets loud and undefined, because two big sounds are pushing weight into the same place. One can swallow the other, so you hear a thump or a note but not both clearly. And the whole bottom of the mix can turn woolly and hard to follow. This is masking: when two sounds share a range, the louder one hides the quieter one and the ear cannot separate them.
The fix is not to make either one quieter. It is to give each its own job in the low end, so they lock together instead of fighting. You can do that with EQ, with sidechain compression, or with both, and the rest of this guide walks through each.
Give each one its own zone and dip the other one there. The classic approach is to let the kick own the very low thump, often around 50 to 100 Hz, and pull the bass down a little in that band, then let the bass own the low mids, around 100 to 250 Hz, and pull the kick down a little there. Where one is strong, the other steps back.
This is complementary, or carving, EQ, and it is the same idea covered in our guide on what EQ is and how to use it: a small cut in one part right where the other needs to sit. The cuts do not need to be large. A couple of dB with a fairly wide band is often enough to stop the two from fighting, and cutting tends to sound more natural than boosting.
| Frequency zone | Who owns it | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Sub, ~20 to 50 Hz | One of them, not both | Decide which element carries the sub, then high-pass the other off the very bottom. |
| Low thump, ~50 to 100 Hz | Kick | Let the kick sit here. Dip the bass a little in this band. |
| Low mids, ~100 to 250 Hz | Bass | Let the note and warmth of the bass sit here. Dip the kick a little in this band. |
| Above ~250 Hz | Everything else | High-pass other parts off the low end so only the kick and bass live down there. |
Two more moves make the carving hold. High-pass everything that is not the kick or the bass, so guitars, keys, pads and vocals stop adding weight down low and only your two low-end parts live there. And keep both the kick and the bass mono and centred, so the bottom stays solid and does not wander across the stereo field. Sweep a narrow band to find the exact spots on your own sounds, since these figures are only a starting point.
Pick one, not both. The very bottom of the mix, the sub weight below roughly 60 Hz, can only really hold one element cleanly, so decide whether the kick or the bass carries it and roll the other one off down there. If both keep full sub, they add up into a loud, undefined rumble that is hard to control.
Which one you choose depends on the music. In a lot of electronic music and hip-hop, the bass or the 808 owns the sub and the kick is shorter and punchier a little higher up, so it cuts through without adding deep weight. In rock, pop and acoustic tracks it is often the other way round: the kick carries the low thump and the bass sits just above it. Neither is more correct, it is about which sound you want to feel as the deep anchor.
Once you have decided, high-pass the other part below the sub so it stops competing down there, and keep whatever owns the bottom mono and centred. That way one element controls the deepest energy and the low end stays solid on everything from big speakers to a phone.
The single most useful habit is to let one element carry the deep sub, not both. Once you have chosen the kick or the bass for that job, high-pass the other off the very bottom and the low end stops feeling like a wall. Everything else, the carving and the sidechaining, gets easier once the deepest weight has a single owner.
Sidechain compression makes the bass duck down slightly every time the kick hits, so the two never peak at the same instant. Where EQ carving separates them by frequency, sidechaining separates them in time: it clears a short window for the kick, then lets the bass come straight back up.
You set it up by putting a compressor on the bass and triggering it from the kick, so each kick hit pushes the bass down a touch and it recovers before the next one. It can be gentle, just enough to give the kick a clear moment and glue the two together, or heavy, where the bass pumps up and down in an obvious way that is a feature of a lot of house and other dance music. Our guide on what sidechain compression is walks through the settings.
Sidechaining is an alternative to EQ carving, or a complement to it, and plenty of people use both: carve the frequencies so each owns its band, then sidechain so they also stay out of each other's way in time. How much to use is a matter of taste, and a little often does the job.
Half of an easy kick and bass is decided before you touch an EQ. A bass that is already focused and sits in its own part of the range needs far less carving to fit under a kick than one that spills low end everywhere. The cleaner the source, the less repair work there is to do later.
We do not sell an EQ plugin, and this page is tool-agnostic on purpose. But the easiest kick and bass to fit together are the ones that were focused to begin with, and that is what we make. The Collection is our three instruments together, ARGISH, SILT and REHEAT, with three separate licence keys. They make clean, focused sounds that already sit in their own part of the range, so a bass from them fits under a kick with far less carving. ARGISH is a self-playing drone synth, SILT is a tape-loop instrument, and REHEAT writes acid lines. Every one ships as AU, VST3, AAX and a standalone app on macOS, signed and notarized, and a VST3 on Windows.
You can hear one free in your browser first, no install and no account, then decide.
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