sub and bass with different notes - bass chords?

[walkah]

Hi DSF!
longtime lurker and first time poster here.
U guys does a great forum here and provide a huge amount of usefull info here.

For my Question:
I was experimenting with, as the subject says, with different notes for Sub and Bass.
for example having the sub playing the 1st and the bass takes the 5th or 3th or even the 7th
pretty much like chords. of course both instruments have to be separated in theyr freqs.

to my ears it is working.

am i doin it completly wrong or is this a widely used technique?

thx

[gr0nt]

There is no right or wrong in art my friend.

edit: but no, ive never done this.

[paravrais]

It's not that often used but it *is* done. Certainly nothing wrong with it but it does take very careful EQ'ing. If you cock up the EQ it will sound like open ass.

[mks]

This will totally work if you do it right. No need for some boring one note bassline. Sounds like you are trying to keep it in the scale and outlining a chord. Keep at it.

EZ

[paravrais]

For what it's worth I've heard sometimes metal bands use bass chords too to create epic amounts of dissonance 0.o, them crazy metallers!

[mks]

I just want to expand on this a bit and say in general, a chord made in the lower register will sound like crap. That's why you usually hear full chords made with a guitar or keyboard. Bass players will outline chords in their basslines though. If you work this into an arrangement, you may have a sub holding down a root note and another bass timbre playing in counterpoint or syncopation to the sub line. I use this technique all of the time and it def makes for some dynamic basslines.

[nowaysj]

We're talking like an octave an a fifth here, right? Two octaves and a fifth?

Another thing to think about - when working with a multi osc synth... you essentially have chords going on right there. Maybe you want to put and osc an octave and a fifth above your sub, right there in your synth, though, not in a separate instrument.

[FluidMoShun]

Yeah I've experimented with this before. I made some bass sounds I really liked by harmonizing 3rds in bass notes. It is kind of overwhelming to just play 3rds non-stop in my opinion, but using them to emphasize notes works well.

And I found it works best with no or very little distortion/effects. Just synthesize a good clean sounding bass for bass harmonizations and go light on the effects.

[walkah]

thanks to everyone for the replys.