Make Space for Bass in Your Ableton Live Mixes

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In this episode of Sound Design Live I talk with producer and course instructor Steve Knots about getting great bass with your Ableton Live mixes. We also discuss:

• 

  

  Going to school in NYC.

• How to get your clients and colleagues to care about sound system tuning.

• The most important things he learned at music school.

• The benefits of education.

• The nuts and bolts of living and working in Prague as a US expat.

• Steve’s number one tip for travelers.

• Why getting out of NYC was the best decision Steve made for his career.

• The biggest mistakes new Ableton producers make with their bass tracks.

• How to find the best teachers.

Notes

1. All music in this episode by Steve Knots.
2. You can find all of Steve’s courses here.
3. Expert Audio Repair and Services in NYC
4. Making a Living as a Sound Engineer: Be observant of what your client needs and how to solve the problem for them.
5. City College of NY Sonic Arts Center
6. Top mistakes new Ableton producers make with bass:
   • Leaving all of your channel volumes too high and running out of headroom.
   • Trying to fix that by strapping a compressor onto the mix buss.
   • Not knowing the words gain staging or headroom.
7. Quotes
   • It’s really hard to find out on your own how much there is to know, what’s important, and how to solve my problem.
   • One of the biggest values you get from an online course or university education is that someone else is organizing the information in a sequence so you go through it in the right order.
   • Do all of your planning up front so that your trip doesn’t get interrupted.
   • Turn all of your Ableton channels down and your studio monitors up.
   • You can’t put two feet in the same shoe.