This will pass all bass guitar frequencies above 100Hz and attenuate below 100Hz thus avoiding conflict with the bass drum. The rest of the instruments such as cymbals, hi hats can be mixed the same way as it was in other genres like pop. One thing that you need to be aware is the quality of the bass drum. Electronic bass drum sounds very differently as compared with acoustic kick drums.
The bass drum sounds fat with some space on it. This is accomplished by using electronic bass drum samples and not using real acoustic kick drum sound. This is how the bass drum sounds in disco house (using electronic bass drum samples and EQ with the settings above):
This is how the normal acoustic kick drum sounds with the following EQ settings to accomplish disco house bass drum effect:
50Hz Q=1, +12dB boost
200Hz Q=1, -9dB cut
400Hz Q=2, -12dB cut
Electronic bass drum is more preferable in house music. It uses an strong electronic bass drum starting around 0:50 of the track.
Audio Mastering tips
The mastering process is straightforward and same techniques in rock and pop can be applied when mastering house music. The only slight difference is that the low end and high end are more emphasized in the EQ stage more than the mid frequency. This EQ setting can be (using parametric EQ):
+1.5dB 70Hz Q=0.8
1000Hz -1.5dB Q=1.0
12000Hz +0.5dB Q=0.8
Of course this EQ setting is not applicable to all French disco house music. But you can start with those settings and gradually tweaked your EQ until you are happy with the result. Most house music is very loud so it peaks out at -11dB to -10dB average SPL, making it a loud CD. For details about the mastering tips, read the related tutorials below.
Content last updated on June 28, 2012