How do you get that gnarly Reese to cut through the mix?

I've got a Reese going — two detuned saws, a bit of unison, into some multiband distortion — and it sounds massive solo'd. But the second the drums come in it just turns to mud and disappears.

Signal chain is saw → unison → multiband dist → a notch EQ to tame the low-mid honk. Do you split the sub off and treat the mid/top as a separate wide layer, or keep it as one bass?

Always split it. Keep everything below ~120 Hz as a clean mono sub, dead centre — a sine or a filtered layer, nothing else down there. Then let the mid and top of the Reese spread wide.

Sidechain the mids only to the kick and snare a touch and it'll punch through without fighting the sub.

Automating the notch helps too — have it track the bassline note instead of sitting static. Kills the boxiness on the lower notes without thinning out the high ones.