In this tutorial, I will give you few ideas and thoughts why you should make sure that the low end of your EDM track stays mono and how to do that in FL Studio.

First, why is it important to make sure that the lower frequencies of your mix are in mono, especially if it’s aimed for clubs?

The “low end” is the FUNDAMENTAL in electronic dance music. The low end holds the energy of your whole track so it needs to be as solid (and punchy) as possible.

What could possibly make the low end sound inconsistent and not so punchy in a club sound system?

Some stereo widening effects such as chorus, haas effect tricks, etc. Even though they are cool and they have their place when applied to UPPER FREQUENCIES, they can be BAD for low frequencies.

Why?

The thing is, if the stereo widening effect sets the phase of the audio between the left and right channel out of sync (which they usually do), and you don’t have an option to control the frequency range where it will be applied, your low end may suffer phase cancellation issues when those channels are mixed together.

Many club PA’s sum low frequencies to mono and if your low-end material is having a left and right channel phase mismatch, bass levels may sound inconsistent and it’ll partly loose the focus. And that’s bad.

(And also, maybe not so relevant these days, but IF your song is going to be pressed on to vinyl, the low end needs to be mono anyway.

By keeping the bass in mono, you will ensure, that your track retains its energy and hit hard in the dance floor.

And even if the club is having a full stereo system, the installation, alignment and how people are positioned on the dancefloor, varies. Many people are standing so that they hear only one of the speakers. In fact, only small amount of people are in the middle of the floor to hear the music in full stereo.

That is why you need to make sure that the low end sounds consistent whether it’s listened in stereo (in ideal position) or summed to mono and/or listened to only one speaker.

So keeping the bass in mono already from the beginning of the production is indeed a good idea!

Ok. Here are a couple of practical ideas you can do to keep the bass section of your track in mono.

Stereo Analysis Tool And Mono Tricks

For starters, you might want to load some stereo analysis tool to the Master channel of your DAW to keep an eye how the audio signal is spread in the stereo field. If you don’t have one, check out Stereo Tool by Flux. It’s an awesome free stereo imaging and analysis tool and that’s what I’m using in this tutorial.

Reading the analyzer is pretty self-explanatory: the wider the stereo spread of the audio signal, the wider that yellow/orange visual stuff in that vertical axis:

And vice versa: if the left and right signals are identical (a monoaural signal) the result is a straight line:

Ok. I have loaded a kick drum as an example and routed it to one of the Mixer insert tracks.

As you can see (and hear), the kick is slightly spread in the stereo field – most likely in the higher frequency area so it’s not completely mono:

Now, your DAW usually has some inbuilt option or a plugin to set audio to mono.

In FL Studio, there’s a Stereo Separation knob in the Mixer which you can use to merge left and right channels.

Turn it all the way to the right and it will sum the left and right channels to mono:

As you can see in the Stereo Tool, the kick is now mono:

So this is a quick way to “monoize” any audio.

However, what if you want to retain the stereo spread of those upper frequencies, but still want to make sure that the low end stays mono?

You can use i.e an equalizer which has a mid/side processing option, such as Fabfilter Pro Q. With mid/side EQ, you can use a low cut filter to filter out all the stereo information from the low-frequency area.

In FL Studio, you can use Maximus for something similar and here’s how:

Load Maximus to same Mixer insert track where your kick is and turn OFF the compression for all the Bands (including the Master) as we are not going to use Maximus for compression here. We are using it just for controlling the stereo width of different frequency ranges:

Click the Low Band and dial the Stereo Separation -knob to 100% merged. This’ll sum stereo data to mono only in the low-frequency area defined in the low-frequency band settings.

Also, as a side-note: set the Look-ahead delay (LMH Del) to zero milliseconds to avoid latency delay appearing to the Maximus output. The look-ahead delay control has it’s used if you use Maximus for compression and/or limiting, but in this case, it’s not needed.

Switch on the Bands display to see what kind of frequency range the Low Band covers and use the Low Band Frequency knob to set the Low band frequency cutoff value. Set it to around 90 or 80 Hz. This’ll mono everything starting from that frequency value and below, but leaves the stereo information above that intact:

Let’s move on…

Making Bass Presets Mono

But what about those bass sound presets included in your favorite synth plugin? There are tons of ready-made presets and you can’t be 100% sure whether the low end works in mono.

(I’m using Spire and one of its factory presets “BA Drill Bass” as an example here):

So how to make sure the low end stays in mono?

You can use the same process as with the kick: mid/side EQ or Maximus.

I’m using Maximus here so I’m just going to drop it to the same Mixer insert track where Spire is routed and use the same settings as with the kick: I turn off the compression for all the bands, merge the Low band to mono and set the Low band frequency cutoff value to around 80 Hz. This leaves the stereo spread in the upper frequencies intact.

Now watch the stereo analysis tool as I isolate the low-frequency band (isolating can be done by simply muting the Mid and High bands):

Voila, it’s in mono!

But did this particular preset actually require “monoizing” the low frequencies? Did it contain a stereo information? And how to check it?

You can check it with Maximus: while the low-frequency band is still isolated, set it’s Stereo Separation knob to default and watch the stereo analysis tool:

As you can see, the low frequency range of this bass preset does contain a stereo information. But there’s not much of it and at least to my ears, it seems to sound alright when summed to mono. So this particular sound could’ve worked perfectly well in a mono sound system as is.

However, checking how the lower frequencies sound in mono already at this stage of production, keeps you safe from nasty surprises when the track is going to be played on a dancefloor.

In worst case scenario, some bass presets may contain so much stereo manipulation that when you mono the low frequencies, complete phase cancellation happens from time to time. If that’s the case, then simply by merging the left and right channel isn’t going to fix that. It just makes the phase issue apparent in an early production stage.

Even though the stereo analysis tool helps you to see the stereo width visually, you need to let your ears to be the final judge: when you mono the low-frequency range, and listen to it in isolation, does it sound weak from time to time? Is there an inconsistency in its volume level?

If it does, you might want to check out how the bass sound patch is build. Depending on the synth plugin you’re using, check the effects or special features that affect to the stereo width, such as chorus, some special stereo widening parameters, etc.

If there isn’t an option to set a specific frequency range where the effect will be applied, try decreasing the stereo widening effects until the low frequencies sound consistent in mono.

So with that said – and if you’re wondering why I’m not advising to just pass the whole mix through mid/side EQ, Maximus or some other tools that can make the low frequencies to mono: It’s one way to do it for sure, but by making sure that fundamental low frequency sounds works in mono already in the early production stage, makes it possible to spot possible problematic sounds and frequencies and fix them right away, which – in some cases – would be very hard or impossible to fix just by processing your whole mix with low frequency mono summing tools.

EDIT: Also, in some cases, you may want to mono slightly different frequency areas separately for kick and bass, which isn’t possible if you use the mono tool just in Master channel.

However, one way to deal with mono compatibility is to use e.g Maximus in the Master as a sort of ‘analyzer’ to keep checking how the low frequencies sound while you’re producing and if you spot a wonky bass sound then go and deal with it individually.

Bulletproof Way For Mono Bass

If you want to be 100% sure that the low frequencies of your favorite bass preset is mono compatible, but you still want to retain a stereo depth it has in the upper frequencies, try this:

Cut all the low frequencies off from the bass sound and layer a pure sinewave bass underneath it.

In FL Studio you can do it easily by using 3xOsc and Layer channel. Here’s a step-by-step process:

Assign the plugin that contains your favorite bass sound preset to an empty Mixer track and use i.e Fruity Parametric EQ 2 and high pass filter to roll off everything below – let’s say – 100 Hz:

Next, load 3xOsc and make sure you have a sine wave selected as oscillator type for Oscillator 1. Disable Oscillators 2 and 3 by setting their Mix level to 0%. Tune down the Oscillator 1 by two octaves by setting it’s Coarse pitch to -24 semitones.

Next, go to the Instrument settings and set a Root Key using the Preview keyboard. This is where you define which key plays the current pitch of the Channel.

This is also useful feature when you want to play i.e low pitch notes with those middle keys of your MIDI keyboard.

The default root key is C5 (C5 is the middle C – MIDI note number 60 – in FL Studio).

So in this example, when you hit a key of C5, the 3xOsc gives you a lower C as we tuned down the Oscillator 1 by two octaves from it’s default pitch. Measured in hertz, that’s 130.81.

Now, 130.81 Hz is a bit too high for a sub bass when played from middle C, so you might want to set the Root Key so that when you hit C5, you’ll actually get a low C (65.41 Hz).

In order to change the Root Key setting, simply right-click a note to in the Preview keyboard. Set it to C6. That blue note shows the root key of the channel. Setting the root key higher will cause a given key to sound lower in pitch. So now, when you hit a key of C5, you’ll hear a low C (65.41 Hz) which is good for sub bass.

Why is it important to set the Root Key when layering sub bass with another sound if you do use the Layer channel method?

To make those two sounds sound alright in relation to each other.

The thing is, if you use the Layer channel method (and perhaps a MIDI keyboard to play the notes), remember that you use the same channel and MIDI notes to play two different sounds – two different synths which might be tuned differently.

That is why you want to make sure that 3xOsc sub bass goes low enough in relation to your bass preset sound.

You don’t want to leave it too high, but on the other hand, not to make it go too LOW either.

In most cases, setting the Root Key to C6 works just fine as many basses presets has been tuned so that middle C gives you that 65.41 Hz.

However, if you’re not going to use a Layer channel method, just leave the Root Key as is as you can draw the notes manually to the Piano Roll and go as low and high as you want independently with both sounds.

As a side note, check out StereoSavage by PluginBoutique. It’s a quite accurate VST stereo tuner. It’s quite helpful for all kind of tuning tasks if you feel you can’t fully trust your ears.

Ok.

Next, load a Layer Channel and set those two instrument channels as Children by selecting them with the Channel selector and clicking “Set Children” under that “Layering” dialog:

That’s about it. Now you can use the Layer channel to play both instruments and you have a 100% mono low frequency bass.

The end

Watch the video version of this tutorial below:

The post Why And How To Keep Low End In Mono in FL Studio appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.

Everybody probably knows how to sidechain “pump” bass, lead, pad, and everything, but what if you want to sidechain only some specific frequency range – i.e low frequencies? In this tutorial, I will show you how.

What’s the benefit of sidechaining only a portion of the frequency range? Less pumpy music while still getting the advantage that the lower frequencies of bassy sounds aren’t clashing with the bass of the kick (though this isn’t a benefit if you WANT your music to pump). Let’s say you have a bass sound covering a wide frequency range and you sidechain it to your kick in a traditional way: the whole bass sound will pump when the kick hits (depending on your compressor settings of course). But when you set the sidechain to be active – i.e – in the lower frequency range, only the low end will “duck” and the rest of the frequencies stays intact.

Ok. Here’s how to apply this method:

Let’s assume that you want your kick drum to be the sound that will trigger the sidechain effect on your bass sound. In that case – assuming you have assigned kick and bass each to their own Mixer tracks – drop a Fruity Peak Controller to the kick drum’s effect slot and Fruity Parametric EQ 2 (or your favourite EQ plugin) to the bass sound effect slot.

Now, in the PEQ2, set the frequency value. Use low shelf filter (if you are using the default preset of PEQ2, low shelf filter is the band 1). The higher you set the frequency, the wider the range in the frequency spectrum the sidechain “duck” will affect. If you want to dip only the low frequencies, set it to around 100-150Hz.

Next, right click on the Band 1 level controller and choose “Link to controller…” from the menu.

Now, link the PEQ2 low shelf frequency volume slider to Peak Controller by choosing ‘Peak’ under the ‘Internal controller’ menu.

Under the ‘Mapping formula’ select ‘Inverted’. This sets a mapping relationship between the controller and the target control so that the increases in the controller value decreases the target controller – in other words, we’ll get a dip in the PEQ2 low shelf filter frequency volume every time the kick hits.

Now, in the Peak Controller, disable the ‘Mute output’ to hear the kick. Set the ‘Peak base level’ to 50% (this sets the PEQ2 low shelf filter volume level to 0.0dB). Set the ‘Peak amount’ to 200% (this drops the PEQ2 low shelf filter volume level to -18dB every time the input signal – kick – hits).

And that’s it.

TIP: lower the ‘Peak amount’ value in the Peak Controller if you don’t want the volume dip to be so drastic.

There’s also a faster way for this method where you don’t need to use the Peak Controller at all: just use automation clip on the PEQ2 frequency level slider to manually draw the dipping curve.

The end.

Watch the video version below:

The post How To Sidechain A Specific Frequency Range appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.

Getting your mix sound right – especially in the low-frequency area – can be challenging. If you don’t have a proper listening environment and a decent monitoring system you easily end up with an unbalanced mix that doesn’t translate very well to other audio systems (club PA’s, car stereo’s, etc).

In a situation like this, spectrum analyzer comes in very helpful. It will show you visually what’s going on in your mix in frequency-wise and this will help you to tweak your sounds in a way that they won’t clash with each other too much.

In addition to the built-in analyzers that come with your DAW, there’s a bunch of really good free third party spectrum analyzer plugins available such as iZotope Insight, Voxengo SPAN,  and Blue Cat Audio’s FreqAnalyst. My personal favorite is SPAN I like it because it can show the frequency peaks as bars and personally, I find it easier to read bars than curves.

But how do you use a spectrum analyzer in practice?

Firstly, it’s a good idea to drop it into a Master channel. This way you can see the frequency spectrum of each sound in your mix individually (by soloing the tracks/channels) as well as the whole mix.

How do you read the spectrum analyzer? What to look for?

For instance: check where in the frequency range your sounds are peaking in solo… do they clash badly with each other?

Are there any unwanted frequencies in your sounds/samples that need to be EQ’ed (ie. low frequencies in hi-hat samples)? Then make changes to your mix according to that.

I find spectrum analysis extremely useful especially when working with kick drums and bass sounds. Due to the limitations of my budget monitors, I can’t tell for sure how low the kick drum or bass line will go so I quickly check it in the spectrum analyzer.

For example, if I have sub bass peaking in the 30-50Hz area and I see that the kick drum’s ‘tail’ is also peaking heavily in the same frequency area there will be problems: they clash, make the low end sound messy, may cause phasing issues and they will unnecessarily use most of the mix headroom.

So I need to make a choice: I can try to make the bass sound less prominent in that area either by EQing it, using a different bass sound, re-arranging the bass sequence (so that the bass doesn’t hit at the same time with the kick) or using sidechain compression.

Or I can just roll off the low end from the kick. Anyway, without the spectrum analyzer, this kind of problems wouldn’t be so obvious.

Another thing you can do with spectrum analyzer is to check the frequency range of a reference mix – a well produced commercial song in the same musical genre as yours – and do a comparison: try to identify in what frequency areas your song is lacking the power or on the contrary, if there’s something that is unnecessarily prominent. Then make changes if necessary.

Check the video below for a spectrum analyzer in action. In the video, I have an example mix with a sub-heavy kick and sub bass and you will see how the analyzer reveals a problem in the low-frequency range which wouldn’t have been so easy to detect with my monitor speakers. I’m using the Seven Phases Spectrum Analyzer in the video:

That’s about it. As a summary, I would say that a spectrum analyzer is an indispensable tool in the bedroom studio.

The post Use Spectrum Analyzer To Make Your Mixes Sound Better appeared first on How To Make Electronic Music.