Short answer: mixing bass means making the low end powerful and clear so it holds up on every system, from a club rig to a phone. Set the bass level so it sits with the kick and lets the kick punch through, keep the deep sub mono and centred, add a little saturation so the note still reads on small speakers that cannot play the sub, and use sidechain or careful EQ so the kick and bass take turns instead of masking each other. High-pass the other parts off the low end, then check the balance in mono and on a few systems.
This is about balance and translation, not the notes you play or the raw sound of the patch. The frequency figures here are approximate zones, not exact rules, and every bass, every kick and every song is a little different, so treat the numbers as a starting point and use your ears. None of this is tied to one product.
Balance it against the kick first, keep the deepest frequencies mono, make sure it still reads on small speakers, and then check the result in mono and on more than one system. Mixing bass takes a bass sound that already exists and fits it into the track, so the low end feels powerful and stays clear on anything you play it back on. It is a balance problem more than a single setting.
It helps to separate this from the jobs next to it. Writing a bassline is about the notes and the rhythm, the part itself. Designing a bass sound is about the raw tone, the synth patch or the sample before it goes into the track. Mixing bass is what you do after both of those, fitting that finished sound into the mix. And it is not quite the same as EQ-ing the kick and bass together, which is one specific tool for one part of this job, carving frequencies so the two do not clash. Our guide on how to EQ a kick and bass so they fit together covers that carving in detail; this page is the wider picture around it.
The other half of fitting the bass in is keeping it and the kick out of each other's way, since they both put their weight in the same low frequencies and can mask each other. You separate them by frequency, with careful EQ, or in time, by having the bass duck a little each time the kick lands. That ducking is sidechain compression, and our guide on what sidechain compression is walks through it. It also helps to high-pass the other instruments, the guitars, keys, pads and vocals, off the low end, so only the kick and bass live down there and nothing else crowds the bass.
| Step | What it does |
|---|---|
| Balance with the kick | Set the bass and kick levels so both are heard and the kick still punches through the low end they share. |
| Keep the low end mono | Centre the deep bass, roughly below 100 to 120 Hz, so it stays solid and translates on big systems. |
| Add harmonics | Saturate the bass so it has content above the sub and still reads on phones and laptops. |
| Separate from the kick | Use sidechain or careful EQ so the kick and bass take turns instead of masking each other. |
| Clear room | High-pass the other instruments off the low end so only the kick and bass sit there. |
| Check | Listen in mono and on several systems to confirm the low end holds up everywhere. |
The sections below take the parts people get stuck on, the level against the kick, keeping the bottom mono, and making the bass survive a small speaker, one at a time. None of it is tied to a particular plugin, and the numbers are starting points you adjust by ear.
Loud enough to feel and hold the bottom of the track, but balanced with the kick so the kick still punches through, since the two share the low end and either one set too loud will bury the other. There is no single fader position or number that is correct, because the right level is relative to the kick and to the rest of the mix.
If the bass is too loud it swamps the kick and the groove loses its punch. If it is too quiet the track feels thin and has no floor. The level you want is the one where you feel the bass holding the bottom and the kick still reads clearly through it. A common way in is to get the kick sitting at a sensible level first, then bring the bass up underneath until the two feel even, checking that they are not stacking into one loud, undefined low end.
Keep glancing at the whole mix while you do this, because bass that sounds right in solo is often too loud once the full track is playing. A reference track you know well, played at the same volume, is one of the most reliable guides here. How the balance leans is partly a matter of genre and taste: in a lot of bass-led electronic music and hip-hop the low end is meant to dominate, while in rock, pop and acoustic tracks the kick and bass share the weight more evenly. Neither is more correct, so set the balance the song wants and confirm it holds up when you check the mix elsewhere.
There is no dB value that is the right bass level. It is always the bass against the kick, and the pair against the rest of the track. Set the two together, judge it with the whole mix playing rather than in solo, and lean on a reference you trust rather than a number on a meter.
Because low frequencies carry a lot of energy and the ear cannot really tell where they come from, so keeping the deep bass centred and mono, roughly below 100 to 120 Hz, keeps the low end solid and stops it falling apart on big systems. Spreading the deepest bass across the stereo field buys you almost nothing you can hear and can cost you a lot of power.
When the two sides of a wide low end are slightly out of step, they partly cancel each other, which thins the bass and makes it behave unpredictably. Keeping the sub centred and mono keeps all of that energy pulling in the same direction, so the low end stays firm and even. It matters most on large systems. Many clubs, PAs and vinyl cuts sum the low frequencies to mono, so any stereo information down there can lose power, or partly disappear, when the sides are combined. A bass that sounds wide and impressive on headphones can turn weak on a big rig for exactly this reason.
In practice you keep everything below roughly 100 to 120 Hz centred and mono, while the harmonics higher up can carry some width if you want it. You can do this by keeping the bass mono from the start, or with a utility that collapses only the low band to mono below a set point. Either way, the fundamental stays in the middle where it holds together, and the low end translates rather than surprising you on a system you did not mix on.
Width is a top-end and mid-range luxury, not a low-end one. Keep the deep bass mono and centred and let any stereo interest live in the harmonics above it. That single habit is what stops a low end that sounds huge on headphones from going weak on a big system that sums to mono.
Add saturation or harmonics so the bass has content above the deep sub, because phones, laptops and small speakers cannot reproduce low frequencies, and those added harmonics let the ear still hear the bass line even when the sub itself is missing. A bass that is only a pure, deep sub can vanish completely on a phone, so you give it something higher up to speak through.
Saturation adds overtones above the fundamental, up in the range that small speakers can actually play. The ear then reconstructs the pitch of the note from those harmonics, so the bass still reads as the same note and line on a laptop or a phone even though the deep energy is gone. This is the single most important move for making bass translate, and it is why a little grit or drive on a bass often helps it far more than any amount of extra sub. Keep it in balance, since too much can turn harsh on a big system that does reproduce everything.
Mono bass and clean separation from the kick help translation too, so keep the bottom centred, high-pass the other parts off the low end, and use sidechain or careful EQ so the kick and bass take turns. Then check the balance on several systems and in mono: a phone speaker, a laptop, headphones and whatever monitors you have, plus a mono sum. That check is the only way to be sure the low end holds up everywhere rather than only on the speakers you happened to mix on.
Small speakers cannot make deep sub, so the harmonics above it are what the listener actually hears as bass on a phone. Saturating the bass to add those overtones, then checking on real small speakers and in mono, is what keeps the line present everywhere instead of only on a big system.
You can carve, sidechain and mono a difficult bass into shape, but a lot of the work is decided before you touch a fader. A bass that is already focused, with a controlled low end and enough harmonic character to read on a small speaker, needs far less fixing to sit under a kick than one that spills weight everywhere. The cleaner the source, the less repair work there is to do later.
We do not sell a mixing plugin, an EQ or a compressor, and this page stays tool-agnostic on purpose. But a clean bass mix starts with a clean bass sound, and that is what we make. The Collection is our three instruments together, ARGISH, SILT and REHEAT, with three separate licence keys. They give you focused, well-defined low end that is easy to sit with a kick, so a bass from them needs less carving and balancing to fit. ARGISH is a self-playing chord 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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