Creative Sub Bass Processing

[musicandme]

Obviously it's a pretty cut and dry sound...low-passed sin wave, but there must be some good tricks you all use, because all subs are not created equal (hello Mala). Multiple waveforms? Certain effects? What tricks have you learned to beef up that sub bass?

[phrex]

there are so many threads about this.

but as a little hint. add resonance to you sub in your synth. then split the channel so you have a plain sinewave sub and the resonance seperatly. EQ/process as you want.
lean back and enjoy.

[sinister87]

use an envelope with fast attack/decay with no sustain to modulate (lightly) the pitch of the sine wave up. this will create the thump you hear in sub basses.

EX. if you are using massive set envelope 3 to the pitch of the oscillator containing the sine wave, from here have it modulate the pitch of osc 1 by an amount between .05 and .25 using the envelope.

[Kaslo]

Pure sine sub should be kept relatively consistent imo - you can modulate the pitch however you want but it's pretty hard to rein in a heavily-modulated sub bass. The real modulation that's going on in a lot of dubstep I find is more in the lower midrange. The only problem when it comes to putting more effects on the sub is that you're putting your track at risk for phase issues, wild volume dips and peaks, etc. - and re-compressing after can only fix so much.

[mikeyp]

speaking from personal experience and a few things i've read, just keep it simple and get the power from the mixdown.
if you were to take a pure sine wave and turn your volume way up, holy shit bass. so just make sure it's sitting right in the mix and it'll be strong.

[blinx]

ive played around with using two sine waves one at -24 other at -12 and then only mixing the higher one in to taste.... not sure if it really did much but i read Phaleah talk about how he has a sinewave that is actually two sine waves an octave apart that he uses for his subs so i tried to recreate that kind of.

Otherwise i just like a simple single OSC sine wave, eqed to taste and setting a little higher mix/level wise then probalby most cats do but that depends on the track/situation too.

[bassinine]

yeah, short of pitch-bending and saturating, maybe adding a square an octave higher.... not much else to do with it. unless you're trying to resample until it's not a sub anymore.

[Discern]

add a triangle wave on top

[jordycash777]

I know this is a very unorthodox way of doing it but it gives me a really heavy sub bass. Just a sine wave in massive with the intensity a lil over halfway. Put a lowpass filter on it with the cutoff at default and no resonance. After that I use sausage fattener to compress/slightly saturate the sub to make it thick. The last thing I do is I add an eq and boost wherever the punch is coming from in the sub. I've also heard of people using the "just sub" preset in camelphat but I've never tried it

[benjam]

No point lowpassing a sine unless your adding harmonics through saturation etc as its only a single frequency Try LfOs and envelopes on the pitch to give it movement and shaping the vol env to give it punch From there its just getting it to sit right in the mix.

Also use subs with different vol envelopes in the same track. Eg, One with a slow decay and a one with a quick decay for pulses/quick stabs

[test_recordings]

I don't get why people make a 'bass' then add a 'sub' of just a sine underneath, why not just make one thing at a suitable level in the first place?

[benjam]

I don't get why people make a 'bass' then add a 'sub' of just a sine underneath, why not just make one thing at a suitable level in the first place?

What if you want just the sub playing with no bass over it? You can also process them separately if theyre different patches

[test_recordings]

I don't get why people make a 'bass' then add a 'sub' of just a sine underneath, why not just make one thing at a suitable level in the first place?

What if you want just the sub playing with no bass over it? You can also process them separately if theyre different patches

Then do it that way then. You could also just filter or EQ it? No messing around with two channels etc

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

I tend to make my sine sub. use a little tape distortion and compress until i hear the sub squaring up. then i back off the threshold a little bit so its not just a filtered square. then i add a lowpass at the end of thsignal at aound 100-120hz. this gives u a beefy but still sine wave bass.

[Turnipish_Thoughts]

use bass guitar samples. cycles from them <3 Instabeef

[_Agu_]

I don't get why people make a 'bass' then add a 'sub' of just a sine underneath, why not just make one thing at a suitable level in the first place?

Things like distortion add some low frequency hum into your sound. That hum is going to stay there (and eat your headroom) if you don't hi-pass your bassline and add clean sub under it. It's also easier to make room for the kick this way.

[test_recordings]

Then split the frequencies so you only affect the higher ones? That's what I do, almost all bass guitar distortion effects do it to too because you don't have the luxury of adding extra oscillators and the general point is that a bass guitar sounds good on it's own anyway.

I understand the reasoning why but there's more than one way to skin a cat, right?

[ftwgmorm]

Remember that all you can do with a sub is just change its volume and pitch. That's all. That's all you can do. So do not throw a compressor on your sub while looking like an idiot.

[test_recordings]

I used to do that lolol

[forbidden]

love feonix's approach to sub on his new release. but it's really just pitch modulation and note placement. also really like this collab he did with deafblind, one of my favorites right now but i had to give it a rest, rinsed too hard: Soundcloud