by Versilaryan » 14 Jan 2012 12:04
"Muddy" just means that the sounds aren't very clear. People talk about muddy bass a lot because bass sounds are already hard enough to hear, so it's really easy to make them indistinguishable from each other. If you have too many bass sounds going around, especially if they're not supposed to be there and are clashing with each other, then you end up with a muddy bass.
To clear up lower-frequency muddiness, I highpass as many things as I need to, and make sure not a single bass sound is panned. Highpass your snare and cymbals as much as possible (though be careful with the snare -- if you highpass it too much, you lose a lot of the attack and body of the sound), and if you have a lot of complex synths, highpass those, too. I even highpass some basses so that the sub-bass and the kick drum can cut through more. Pads, too -- if you have basses, no need for bass in the pads.
When I stick Ozone over the master track, I use its stereo widener to make the bass as mono as possible. If there are bass sounds panned left and right, they could be out of phase with each other and cancel things out or augment them, mucking things up. Making everything mono and centered in the bass ensures that it doesn't happen.
And lastly, try sidechaining your basses to your kick drum, if you don't already. That way, the kick drum becomes more prominent without the two fighting each other for dominance. That'll let you lower the volume of your kick drum, reducing how much stuff is going on in the lower frequencies.
Ooh, and don't forget to remove DC offset. Not sure if that affects muddiness in the bass, but removing it will remove those super-low bass frequencies you can't hear anyways and open up a little more headroom to make it louder without distorting it.
I'll add some examples when they're done uploading.