Kick/bass phase relationship: change polarity for better bass (advanced kick/bass mixing concept)
OK, let's dive a little deeper into deeper waters.
If you make or mix bassy music, this is made for you.
Inverting the polarity of your kick (or bass) can give you a better overall bass result.
You will very clearly hear how I am improving the bass here.
Took these from the mix I did for a decent established artist going for a decent label.
How to do it? What is polarity? Why and how to invert it? Is polarity the same as phase?
Why do these matter and what's the physics behind it all?
These are often confusing, so let's talk about it.
It's good to understand why this happens, and it's good to try and improve.
Uncle Fanu does care about your kick and bass!
If you gift your audio engineering toolbox with one thing this year, let it be this one.
For this one, you will need a proper sub bass system: you will get nothing out of this with your phone or laptop...this is for my sub bass crew (may this be a sub test for your system).
With my Genelec 8350 and Audeze LCD-X, the sub clearly gets closer and weightier.
But Some free plugins that can do this that you can use:
Comments (9)
This such an overlooked tip I swear! I do this every single time to get that perfect relationship between kick and bass. Something I also do is to automate it on and off whenever the bass is changing it's key on melodic songs so it doesnt cancel out on those different key/chord changes.
Yeah man! 90% of the times you may not hear a difference, but when you do, it’s so worth it 👌🏻
Would you suggest that i try to invert the phase of the kick or I use the plugin called InPhase Mono by Waves Audio? If I am aiming to get a better kick/bass relationship?
It’s worth trying. In 95% of cases you hear no difference. But when you do, it’s worth it. And we are inverting polarity (vertical axis), not phase (horizontal). Ableton Live Utility can do it.
This is a great tip. I gotta remember to check phase more often
Nice! I do a phase/polarity check when I’m checking the files for a mix I’m given, but it’s usually drum transients if anything. For some reason, I never connected that with the kick/bass relationship…makes perfect sense!
Yeah it’s one of those quick checks worth doing!
So is this like you get to choose where you get a summed peaks problem (in the extreme case), in the transient or in the release?
"Get to choose": well, kind of, yes.