Getting punch in the bottom end at the mastering stage

In the Studio
1

Try this approach and see if it works for you.

There are many occasions where we receive mixes that have a rather ‘woolly’ bottom end with the bass and kick sounding muddy and indistinct.

If you find this pull up the LinMB, go to the low end control and reduce the attack to around 11ms. Pull the threshold control down until it is tickling the low end and see what you think. Bypass the band if you want to hear the difference it is making.

This is one of the approaches you are ‘not supposed to do’ but it works beautifully and introduces terrific clarity and punch to a woolly bottom. :slight_smile:

4 Likes
2

Great tip @BlueMountainSound will certainly try this in my next project.

3

Thanks for the tip, can you specify the low end by HZ?

4

The default bottom end frequency range on the LinMB.

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5

Cool, I will try that!
thank you for sharing the tip.

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6

Thanks for the Tip.
While Mastering i also try to isolate the Low end by Out the mix through a c4 , Soloing the first band to about 100 hz . I then duplicate the track with the c4, only this time Soloing the rest of the bands
That way now that i have the Low band kind of more approachable i can handle or control it better .
I use the Low air along with Mv2 especially for hip hop Masters.

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7

Hi. Thanks for this tip. I need all the tips I can get when it comes to mastering (see I didn’t use a capital M for my use) :sunglasses:
All the best.

8

Same idea I use with the LinMB but I think the latter is a ‘better sounding’ plug than the C4 which I tend to use more at the mix stage.

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9

Nice One! :smiley: Will definitely try this out!
Thank you!

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10

LinMB is certainly a great tool for mastering. :+1:

11

Do you experience any phase issues with this approach? I am usually reluctant to use non-linear phase MB compression in mastering.

12

sorry Kurma, missed this post. I don’t find any appreciable issues. I’ve used this approach for many years now and the proof of the pudding is in the listening. Also checking on analysers as well as listening gives you the reassurance. Try it and see and let me know what you think.

The other point of course is the rest of the mastering chain. I have one that has been developed over the years and it is my ‘go to’ and always includes the LinMB.

The other thing about the LinMB is it’s capacity to provide a result where the phase distortion has been attended to in the development of the plug. It is a beauty. The latency I usually find too much for the mix stage but in the mastering it is ideal.

13

Not a bad tactic. I was just thinking of tackling it with a multiband or a dynamic eq myself. Or to make things simpler, the C6.

Pretty much doing as you saddest with the LInMB, Blue, but possibly adding some transient energy in the right spot with the dynamic eq.

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14

None on the C4. Lately I’m using the F6 a lot for this purpose too

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