Gluing your kick and bass can be tricky sometimes. When you think of the word "glue" what is the first thought you have on your mind? Probably compression. In this post I'll share a technique that will help you to glue any sound!
It's called saturation. Saturation works in a similar way as compression because it's reducing the dynamic range of the sound. But it's different. It also adds and brings up harmonics of the sound. It's especially effective when you need to make your bass more audible on smaller systems. Let's dive into it!
Step #1 Group your kick and bass properly
To glue your sounds together you need to make a group for your low end instruments. For my tracks it's usually kick, bass, bass layer, bass fx, etc.
Step #2 Apply saturation to your kick and bass group/bus
I like using Fabfilter Saturn 2. It's a versatile and easy to use plugin. It has a lot of saturation algorithms and even modulation if you're into sound design. Here you can play with your sound. Try splitting the whole spectrum into bands. For example you could do sub, mid, and top separately. This way you can work with each band individually.
All you need to do here is to add some drive until you feel the sound has become warmer and fuller. That's the purpose of saturation. It will add new harmonics to your kick and bass and reduce the dynamic range.
That's how you glue your kick and bass together! I always use saturation on my bus and individual channels.
Hope you guys like this tutorial and I'll catch you in the next one!