A problem I noticed was that I wasn't quite getting the sounds to punch(not punchy) through and out of my speakers, unless the volume was really loud.

I was speaking to one of my friends the other day who also produces, and asked him about my basses not being "full enough". My ratio to the components in the mix sounded good, but I know that i can do a little more to get some more volume out of it (always been a struggle but now I can handle it properly).

He suggested that i use a saturation unit to bring out some of the more audible content. Also advised to have a low cut.

After experimenting, it seemed to have a very good overall result, and one that puts me where I want to be but, I have yet to dial it in.

I was wondering, after getting a satisfying mix, if by adding a controlled distortion/saturation unit on the buss(return), does that help generate a louder signal in terms of audible frequency?

And what frequency range should that bussed(return) distortion/saturation unit work best in?

Or is bussing(return) should be the technique to be best utilized?

Not too sure what you're asking but if your basses need some more girth, distortion is always helpful. Yes, you can create a return track with camel crusher/any distort plugin, have the dry/wet to 100%, and slowly add in that signal to the bass to the right amount. Low-cutting is good but for basses not as much, I would have a sharp cut at maybe ~ 100hz, cus everything below is kick and sub. Give it a little boost in the 200-300hz as well, but not too much that it overshadows the snare.

I was ultimately wondering how the distortion/saturation on different musical components seems to make the signal better.

Not sure if it's a loudness thing or a harmonic thing.

I was wondering what the best way to utilize the distortion/saturation unit in a specific area of the mixing board, and for what components.

What is the overall effect given the many elements that you get when applying distortion/saturation?


it wasn't specifically directed towards bass, but that's where i found the problem to be most prominent initially and then it related to the overall aspect of my leads, then I saw how those two problems, combined, created a lack of presence for my music as it's being projected through my speakers.

It was a little challenging writing the post because I just woke up.

I was wondering, after getting a satisfying mix, if by adding a controlled distortion/saturation unit on the buss(return), does that help generate a louder signal in terms of audible frequency?

I'd say so, yeah. The benefits of saturation in giving something presence in the mix are the greater frequency range through harmonics, and the effect saturation has of compressing the signal. Obviously compression results in a higher average volume, without giving you the problem of peaks and clipping that just ramping up the faders might.

This is kind of a hunch but I think in a way what gives a 'bassline' presence is the frequencies higher up the spectrum than what you might truly consider to be bass.

Regarding the buss, a few mastering engineers (or the ones I worked with) use harmonic distortion to add a little more meat to the track. It just makes things a little louder and more musical, I like using some distortion on the deeper melodic elements.. or something which just needs more grit/roughness to it.