bass.... help

anyone have tips on programming bass notes...i can't seem to ever match the bass notes with the melody using the sixteen levels function...
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what do you go by when your programming bass... do you use the kick drum as a reference point or to you base the bass on the melody.....

also how thick is your bass, when you initially start... is at -18db... or higher?
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seriously... i tend to avoid putting bass in my beats.... because it becomes to cumbersome to program....

your bass kick drum and bass guitar have to be tuned so they don't collide. I don't know how low the db's I go cause I use my monitor to reference the level of bass drum within the mix.

getting bass notes to work is dependent upon the type of track your are making. if i am making a straight up drum line with a funky bass line, i'll take the sample of bass loop from wax and maybe compress it in the computer, maybe a little eqq to kill the mud around 500 Hz or so, and do the same with the kik drum, cept different eq settings so as not to muddy up the mix. but if you are using a lot of other stuff in the high and mid range, then a lot of bass can sometimes confuse things. in those instances i ll make a bass line that is relatively simple. just a coulpe of notes to highlight the rythym. filter and tune to match other samples.

i guess. .its just my speakers.... cuz its hard as hell to differentiate different bass notes...

It depends on your style of music, but in general you could use a high pass filter on either your kick/bassdrum or bass. They both have a lot of lower frequencies that can make your mix sound muddy in the bottom end. If you roll off the overlapping freq. on either of them they should come out more clear.
Try using a freq. analizer on single tracks to find out what's going on with those freqencies, it's sometimes easier because it will visualize the problem.