Well I've been trying for months now to solve the issues I have with using any kind of bass in the program. Maybe it's because Reason is meant for Techno not more natural music styles I dunno but I can never get decent bass in my mixes.

First off it appears that Reason adds volume or dB the lower the frequency. So the bassier the bass the louder it gets. This may not register audibly until you render to wav (where suddenly you find the bass destroying your entire mix) but you can notice your LEDs on the mixer go into the reds. So you hear your bass at a decent level but the mixer shows the bass maxing out and when you render to wav you here why. So essentially nothing you hear bass wise in Reason reflects what you see on the mixer or what you hear when you export. I literally got to turn my bass down till it's barely audible in the mix so that it doesn't over power everything when exported to wav. I'm taking a vast difference from in Reason to wav. Further more I can never get my basses to sit comfortably in the mix, they always seem to be thrown on top of everything. The resonance too is just all over the mix killing everything else.

So I don't get it. At this point I don't see how this program can produce anything without exporting channels separately to wav and compiling and EQing in another program. Any ideas what I am doing wrong here?

Thanks.

Ok. First, it's not Reason increasing the dB on your bass. That is the nature of low frequency sound signals.

You need to use a combination of EQ and compression on your bass sounds. When using EQ don't try to boost your bass, rather try to figure out what is clashing with your bass, usually the kick drum, and cut the lower frequencies of that sound so that your bass has room to breath in it's main frequency range.

Also, it may help you to not clip the bass, and avoid raising the overall dB by rolling off all frequencies below 80Hz in your bass sound, we can't hear anything that low anyway.

By using compression on your bass sound, you can make it easier for the bass to fit into your mix.

Another thing to consider is your actual choice of bass sound, as obviously some bass sounds fit certain types of music better than others. For example, if you were doing something like T.I.'s music, the "Hyperbottom" bass will likely be your go-to bass sound in Reason.

Hope this helps point you in the right direction.

This seems to be an issue allot of people have with Reason, they simply say, "do your bass with another program". Feels a bit of a shame to do this though. Listen to fiasco's comments, he is spot on. Getting your drums and bass compresors and EQ right is key. I must say though bass is something I struggle with more so than every thing else. It good to remember that listening to a song for long periods of time can twist the way you here your track.

This is especially true with bass. Your ears will very quickly become accustomed to the sound and it will drop back in the mix, despite the fact that you havn't change the volume. You need to fix this with fresh ears.

If you do any reading up on the way ears work, which I have, haha. They have a built in compressor that reacts more to bass sounds and hence filters them out sooner. Rest and mix, rest and mix, rest and mix.