Bass frequency/volume question

daft cunt · Post by **daft cunt** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:32 am

I have this sub bassline going from D#2 to A#3. I roll out at 90 Hz and when it hits A#3 there's a serious volume drop while to my hear it sounds just fine. So I tried cutting above 250 Hz which is approximately the frequency of A#3 but then the sound of the whole bassline plain sucks.
Should I care about the volume drop in the 1st place?

james fox · Post by **james fox** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 9:45 am

Daft tnuc wrote:I have this sub bassline going from D#2 to A#3. I roll out at 90 Hz and when it hits A#3 there's a serious volume drop while to my hear it sounds just fine. So I tried cutting above 250 Hz which is approximately the frequency of A#3 but then the sound of the whole bassline plain sucks.
Should I care about the volume drop in the 1st place?

what do you mean by 'roll out at 90hz'?

does the volume drop show on the channel mixer when the notes change?

martello · Post by **martello** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:27 am

I have had this problem several times. Maybe it is good to make for each bass note separate channel and EQ them individually.....?

daft cunt · Post by **daft cunt** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 10:50 am

james fox wrote:what do you mean by 'roll out at 90hz'?

EQ out frequencies above 90 Hz (80 actually).

james fox wrote:does the volume drop show on the channel mixer when the notes change?

Yes

alvin18 wrote:I have had this problem several times. Maybe it is good to make for each bass note separate channel and EQ them individually.....

I thought about automating the EQ then I checked Eskmo's remix of Nude which as a similar bassline and it appears he just coped with the volume drops. If it works for him...

magma · Post by **magma** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 11:19 am

Try and play on a couple of different systems before deciding whether it's ok or needs changing... you may find the volume difference more or less apparent on different speakers...

jalfrezi · Post by **jalfrezi** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 1:15 pm

sounds simple but if you just change the velocity of the note that's louder so that its the same as the other it will work and is a lot simpler than fucking about with eq and compression.

if it still doesn't work THEN try compression.

i've listened to the eskmo track and the none of the notes stick out to me.

It could be that its just your room is boomy at that frequency, every room has its frequencies that resonate more than others. You need to just learn what downfalls your room has and just work with it knowing that its your room not your mix. or spend money on acoustic treatment.

james fox · Post by **james fox** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:05 pm

Daft tnuc wrote:
james fox wrote:does the volume drop show on the channel mixer when the notes change?
Yes

really? that is weird... i thought it would be room related, but if it shows on the mixer it can't be

how much of a difference in db are we talking here?

daft cunt · Post by **daft cunt** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:07 pm

Jalfrezi wrote:i've listened to the eskmo track and the none of the notes stick out to me.

It could be that its just your room is boomy at that frequency, every room has its frequencies that resonate more than others. You need to just learn what downfalls your room has and just work with it knowing that its your room not your mix. or spend money on acoustic treatment.

Everything sounds fine on his tune. You have to look it at in a sound editor to see that the higher notes are lower in volume.

Nothing especially wrong with the acoustic of my room, it does sound good. I was just wondering if I should let the higher notes quiet as they are.

daft cunt · Post by **daft cunt** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:09 pm

james fox wrote:how much of a difference in db are we talking here?

5/6 dB

james fox · Post by **james fox** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:11 pm

that's quite a lot!

erm, no idea then

edit: try soloing the bassline and taking all the fx and eq off it. does it still have the volume difference?

this is going to bug me now.

i'm such a geek.

daft cunt · Post by **daft cunt** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:13 pm

james fox wrote:that's quite a lot!

erm, no idea then

Actually that's fine according to the Eskmo's tune I was talking about and the answer of Macc in this thread : http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=74832

james fox · Post by **james fox** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 2:15 pm

uh, ok - i guess if it sounds right, then it is

Sharmaji · Post by **Sharmaji** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 5:35 pm

if we're talking sine waves, A4 is 440 hz. A3 is 220. so if you're cutting at 90... you get the picture. same thing goes for filters, if you've got a low-pass filter on the synth you're using, adjust so that it's not knocking down the fundamental of the higher note. it's like low-passing a hihat; at 5k it sounds chunky, at 100hz you've passed all the program info that's there.

make sure the midi velocity is all good.

otherwise, if it's a sample and it loses content higher up the keyboard, try distorting to get some more harmonic info in there, then lowpass to get rid of the higher frequency info.

generally not a fan of compression on sub, but that can also work. YMMV.

requiem.mf · Post by **requiem.mf** » Fri Jan 30, 2009 6:28 pm

Would dropping A#3 to A#1 help? It would put A# note closer to D#2 and that should give it more sub characteristics. I might be wrong on this but worth a try.

sub7 · Post by **sub7** » Tue Feb 03, 2009 7:31 pm

Jalfrezi wrote:sounds simple but if you just change the velocity of the note that's louder so that its the same as the other it will work and is a lot simpler than fucking about with eq and compression.

if it still doesn't work THEN try compression.

i've listened to the eskmo track and the none of the notes stick out to me.

It could be that its just your room is boomy at that frequency, every room has its frequencies that resonate more than others. You need to just learn what downfalls your room has and just work with it knowing that its your room not your mix. or spend money on acoustic treatment.

I'm had that problem too, I ended up lowering the velocity of the louder, high note and spent about 15 minutes matching the lower high velocity note, with the higher low velocity note, (say that 10 times fast) it's feckin' madness, but it is possible and my eq analyzer showed the same levels round the same freq. so I moved on after I saw that. I tried to keep the channel steady while all this was going on... I usually have my hand near the speaker to feel the difference between the notes as well..

Bouncing it down and listening to it on a different system or car stereo is worth while I think when your trying to work through a certain bass, especially if you are worried about loudness of one note over the other and you are worried that your low note won't have as much boom as your getting with the higher note. Then after I matched them up a worked with the eq and compression as I would normally do with any bass... hope that made sense....I mean that's how I learned the downfall of the room I write music in......

sub7 · Post by **sub7** » Fri Feb 06, 2009 3:26 pm

Just to follow up I've still been working with that bass and the different booms it gives with different notes and the adjustments I had to make on the velocities. I think adjusting the channel more (I ended up lower the channel to -6) and working with the eq and no compression did work better than with compression, I have a lot of LFO movement (with a low amount) on it at times and it seems to react better without the compression and worked better with an eq'. It sounded good at a low volume, home listening level and then I cranked it up on blast and it didn't hammer the subs on my speaker, but gave a pretty big push on them......

TeReKete, I took your advice and I think it worked better for me, I now see what you mean about not really trying to compress the bass if you don't have to.....thanks

I'll try to follow up one last time with the finished track that I'm currently working on, to see what all of you think about the bass in general, since the topic relates to the issue we're discussing. Whether it may blow or not, I can at least tell you what I did so you don't make the same mistakes or vice versa....

-Werd

somejerk · Post by **somejerk** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 1:39 pm

just fuck with it til it sounds good.

r · Post by r » Sat Feb 14, 2009 3:54 pm

wtach out maybe its your acoustics

headphone if you are not sure otherwise use compression if the volume is too much. short attack, long release, high ratio and high treshhold. Kinda limiting

spencertron · Post by **spencertron** » Sat Feb 14, 2009 4:08 pm

i have this issue and i put it down to my room acoustics and poor monitor placement (not suggesting that this is the case in this instance).

'My Headphones of Truth' normally help to reassure me that the subs are not lost despite what the room acoustics tell me...as all subs whatever note/frequency, always seem to soar in the headphones, probably not the best way to do things but it stops me from being concerned about volume drops.

7thSun · Post by **7thSun** » Sun Jun 13, 2010 1:53 pm

Does anyone ever put a low cut filter on the baseline to cut at 20Hz? What effect could those frequncies have below that?

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