In music production, it is a basic guideline that low bass frequencies should be retained in mono. This is primarily true since it allows for seamless integration with multi-speaker club systems and keeps the stylus from bouncing off the record if your music is recorded on vinyl. However, many modern electronic music genres tend to have super-wide stereo bass sounds, and in the following tutorial, I will show you how to make your bass wider.
As usual, I have prepared a short sequence in our SoundBridge: DAW, which contains most instruments of the full mix, including the bass sound. Let us listen to it in the context of the full mix and then solo.
~Full Mix – Bassline(Unprocessed)
~Bassline – Solo (Unprocessed)
Create an Octave of Your Bass Sequence
The bassline is quite prominent in the mix, as evidenced by the audio examples above. It’s pretty loud and primarily monophonic. To improve the sound, I will employ a few techniques, the most important of which will be to make it wider or stereo. First, duplicate our bassline channel, place it above the original one, and then transpose the bass sound up to 12 semitones.
~Bassline 2 – Solo (Unprocessed)
Increase the Stereo Image of the Octave to Make Your Bass Wider
After that, I’ll widen the newly created and transposed bassline layer. To do that, I will apply the so-called “Haas Effect,” which will essentially use a short delay (latency) between the left and right channels of the sound. As a result of this change, the stereo image will be more comprehensive. I accomplished this by utilizing Audec’s free Haas plugin. As shown in the image below, I increased the latency of the right channel by 3.5 ms in comparison to the left channel. The width value on the right is also reduced slightly, as is the main volume.
~Bassline 2 – Solo (Processed With Haas)
Use an EQ to Tame the Harsh Frequencies of the Bass
Since the two versions of our bassline sound too sharp for my taste, I will apply some additional filtering. First, I will use the low-pass on the upper channel, while on the lower track, I will use a high-pass filter.
By mixing the two channels, we now have the full bassline sound that fits much better in the mix. Let us listen to it solo and then in the context of the whole mix.
~Full Bassline – Solo (Processed With Haas and Filter)
~Full Mix – Bassline (Processed With Haas and Filter)
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