Kick Drums and how to mix them.

Studiowaves

Does excess bass make the high end sound muffled? After experimenting with several mixes it seems to. For instance we had a heck of time finding a suitable kick drum for a particular mix. If the drum had too much sustain the overall mix sounded muddy. Lowering it's volume helped but it was still a problem. This led to the use of a very tight kick drum sound rolled off below 65 hz. The click sound from the beater seems to add to the overall rhythm and the quick tone burst of the drum enhanced the initial attack or punch of the bass instruments. Mixing seems to be a simple plus and minus situation. If you increase the bass the highs sound muffled. Perhaps our hearing has compression. Meaning heavy bass tones turn down the volume of the high end. It seems that way to me, anyone else experience this?