Dancing to the “boom chik boom chik” makes me happy.  They say I resemble a Muppet.   I don’t care because it feels good.  As a musician, I want to expel the very thing I ingest.   I mimic my body in that regard.  The only problem is, it doesn’t come out right!  Not natural.  I have heard music where the bass and kick like to dance in tight and rousing formation compared to my woppy-cockled waist twists.  Fred Estaire would say it’s a three-step jive.

     

One step is to have the kick drum take lead and carry the weight, the bottom end, the lower frequencies.  The bass then shimmies, or plays, around higher notes/frequencies in the arrangement.   But now, the bass sounds like PePe the King Prawn when I may prefer Sweetums.  You dig meep? 

Two heavy beasts playing low sub frequencies at the same time turns a mix into the last tango come dawn.  Messy.  Sadly, the kick can have frequencies so low, many speakers can’t reproduce it and an arrangement would sound weak. 

     Time for the dance flip!  Bassie Birtha can lead!  Let the kick take the upper frequency space.  This is the music formula for the tunes that weigh in at the 40-80Hz sub-bass category!   The kick then settles in the 80-100Hz space.  To help the bass line stick out, add a mid bass Solid Gold back-up Dancer around 150Hz to about 500Hz above the kick - a contemporary favorite.  Now that everyone is working in close proximity, they all sound heavier.   Be warned:  the bass can only move around a few narrow note steps. Otherwise, if you go up in pitch, you loose weight.  This could have its advantages creatively speaking…

        How about the waltz, let’s ask?  The one where the bass and kick can take the same frequency space?  That third step is the dosy-do.  One idea is that they don’t hit at the same time, but rather they lay down their rhythmic attack on off beats of each other, taking turns.  You could also Duck your heavy partners off each other by sidechain compression.  Now both have the freedom to be as loUd as they want to be and as widE in the Hz as they care.  Your only contender is the pumping it creates. The fact that I always arranged them together was why my low end was woppy-cockled and constipated.  Now that I know better, a booming fart in the wind.

 

Want a listening exorcise?  Pick out 5 pieces of music each from a different genera.  Do you hear the difference in how the bass and kick drum sections interact keeping in mind the three step arrangement?