Getting your bass guitar and kick drum to lock using phase!

If you have trouble getting your bass guitar and bass drum to lock together sonically in the mix you might try reversing the polarity of one of them. If the kick drum and bass guitar are backwards from each other in phase they will tend to fight each other acoustically. For example, you may have lots of low end in each of them, but when they play together it will sound somewhat hollow and empty. That’s a dramatic case – in the real world the effect is usually pretty subtle. You can usually tell immediately if reversing the polarity helps or hurts. It only takes a second and is worth a try. Usually the bass guitar is easier/better to change because reversing the polarity of the kick drum could degrade how it reacts with the rest of the drum kit. In live applications it’s also important to think through the implications of polarity with the monitor system. Sometimes a stage monitor can have a negative impact on the sound of a drum, or they both may be out of whack with the bass. A few minutes to check can be time well spent. Being very careful with the wiring of all the gear can eliminate the guesswork, but it still doesn’t hurt to check. You never know…