Drum and Bass Mixing Essentials – Kick and Sub Balance

The Foundation of Every DnB Mix

The relationship between kick and sub bass is the most important mixing decision in drum and bass production. Get it right and your track sounds powerful, clear, and professional. Get it wrong and everything falls apart. The kick disappears behind the bass, or the bass gets lost behind the kick, or both compete and the low end turns into a muddy, undefined mess.

At 170-180 BPM, the kick and bass interact very differently than in slower genres. The fast tempo means these elements are happening in rapid succession, often overlapping. Managing this overlap is the core challenge of DnB mixing, and it requires a combination of sound selection, EQ, compression, and arrangement.

Choosing Compatible Sounds

Kick Selection

Your kick drum choice should complement your bass, not compete with it. If your bass has a lot of deep sub content (below 60Hz), choose a kick with a higher fundamental pitch (around 60-80Hz) and a strong click transient. The kick provides the punch and attack while the bass provides the weight and sustain.

Conversely, if your bass is more mid-focused (like a reese or growl that sits above 100Hz), you can afford a deeper, subbier kick because it has more room in the low frequencies. The key is that kick and bass should occupy slightly different frequency zones in the low end.

Bass Sound Considerations

For mixing purposes, the cleaner and more controlled your sub bass, the easier it will be to balance with the kick. A pure sine sub or a simple triangle wave sub sits neatly in a narrow frequency band and leaves room for the kick. More complex bass sounds with lots of sub harmonics are harder to manage because they spread across more of the low frequency range.

EQ Strategies for Kick and Sub

Complementary EQ

The most effective approach is complementary EQ, where you cut frequencies in the kick that you boost in the bass, and vice versa. If your kick has its body at 70Hz, cut the bass at 70Hz slightly and let the kick own that frequency. If your bass has its weight at 45Hz, cut the kick at 45Hz and let the bass own that space.

Use a narrow Q (around 2-4) for these cuts so you are only removing a small, specific range of frequencies. Broad cuts will thin out the sound too much. The goal is surgical precision, removing just enough overlap to let each element breathe.

High-Pass the Bass

High-pass your bass at around 30-35Hz. There is very little musical content below this point, and removing it frees up headroom and tightens the low end. Many monitors and club systems do not even reproduce frequencies this low, so you will not miss them. The difference in headroom, however, can be significant.

Low-Pass the Kick Tail

The kick tail (the sustained low-frequency portion after the initial transient) often extends too long and clashes with the bass. Use a dynamic EQ or multiband compressor to tame the kick tail around 50-80Hz. This lets the transient punch through while preventing the tail from competing with the bass.

Sidechain Compression

Sidechain compression is essential in DnB mixing. The bass should duck in volume every time the kick hits, creating space for the kick transient and then swelling back up in between kicks. This creates a pumping effect that is characteristic of professional DnB mixes.

Settings for DnB

Use a fast attack (0.1-1ms) so the bass ducks immediately when the kick hits. The release time is crucial and depends on your tempo. At 170 BPM, a release of about 50-100ms works well. Too fast and the bass snaps back before the kick tail finishes. Too slow and the bass stays ducked for too long, creating an obvious pumping effect.

Aim for 3-6dB of gain reduction on each kick hit. This is enough to create space without making the sidechain effect too obvious. If you can clearly hear the bass volume ducking and recovering, you are probably overdoing it.

Multiband Sidechain

For more precision, use a multiband sidechain that only ducks the sub frequencies (below 100-150Hz) of the bass. The mid and high frequencies of the bass stay at full volume while the sub range ducks for the kick. This creates a cleaner, more transparent sidechain effect that maintains the presence and character of the bass while solving the low-end conflict.

Arrangement Tricks for Better Balance

Sometimes the best mixing happens at the arrangement stage. Avoid programming kick and bass notes that start at exactly the same time on every beat. Slight offsets (a few milliseconds) can help each element have its own moment to shine. Or design your bass pattern so that the bass note starts slightly after the kick, giving the kick transient clear space to punch through.

In sections where the bass is very busy, simplify the kick pattern. In sections where you want the kick to be prominent, pull the bass back. Not every bar needs both elements fighting for attention simultaneously.

Reference and Check Your Balance

Always reference your kick and sub balance against professional DnB tracks. Listen to how your favourite producers handle this relationship. Check your mix on headphones, monitors, and if possible, a subwoofer or club system. The kick/sub balance can sound very different across playback systems, so checking on multiple sources catches problems early.

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