Techniques for getting your bass sounding "full"

[shinra]

also i understand you shouldn't overuse effects and also to fuck about with things to learn myself. everybody is making good points, i was just wondering more about other producers approaches to getting nice thick sounding bass.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Op. Have you tried messing with the mid range bass stereo field? Use a stereo imager or automatic double tracking to make it sound wider which can some times make it appear more "full". Only alter the stereo image of a sound when you have it sounding good on its own though otherwise you have wide sounding shite.

this is interesting. normally i use my freq split to fully widen the top end, i've had it in my head that spreading the low and mid ends is not a good idea? can you explain automatic double tracking? if it's duplicating i've heard that's also not good!

if only i knew how much there was to know when i got into this

Yeah dont spread low frequencies that tends to sound muddy (but you knew that already) . Automatic double tracking is duplicating the tracjk you want to effect panning one copy left, one right and nudger the duplicated track off the grid by a few milliseconds, the difference in time between each ear hearing the sound gives the impression of a wider stereo field. If you dont nudge one of the tracks out of phase a bit you will get phasing issues i guess. You will get a louder sound as a result so you just turn both tracks down in relative to each other

[sunny_b_uk]

id only use freq splitting if iv completed most of the track and i feel that i was unable to get the right sound from tweaking my synths or adding from distortion etc (which btw distortion is one of the best ways to get a more full sound imo)
iv had years of practice at freq splitting etc & im more likely to layer since layering is easier and usually gives me better results.
i never feel to frequency split anymore since im confident enough with synthesis.
my advice if you really wana get more "full" sounds then restrict yourself with only synthesis and see what you can come up with.
also improving your fx chains by using a basic waveform, add plenty of FX and automate etc to see how far you can push things.
once your comfortable with both, your sounds will generally sound better

[Efrafa11]

Off the topic of freq splitting a little bit.

I find doing my sub separately or with the drums helps a lot.
I usually also slighty saturate the sub and then run it a decibel or two above where I want it
and lightly compress it.

Also, reverb and delays in portioned measure help things sound a bit bigger. (not on the sub)

Lately, I've been using reasons new pitchshift and lowering an instance of something an octave down
and trying that out on things like hi's and mids for a bigger sound.

[shinra]

Op. Have you tried messing with the mid range bass stereo field? Use a stereo imager or automatic double tracking to make it sound wider which can some times make it appear more "full". Only alter the stereo image of a sound when you have it sounding good on its own though otherwise you have wide sounding shite.

this is interesting. normally i use my freq split to fully widen the top end, i've had it in my head that spreading the low and mid ends is not a good idea? can you explain automatic double tracking? if it's duplicating i've heard that's also not good!

if only i knew how much there was to know when i got into this

Yeah dont spread low frequencies that tends to sound muddy (but you knew that already) . Automatic double tracking is duplicating the tracjk you want to effect panning one copy left, one right and nudger the duplicated track off the grid by a few milliseconds, the difference in time between each ear hearing the sound gives the impression of a wider stereo field. If you dont nudge one of the tracks out of phase a bit you will get phasing issues i guess. You will get a louder sound as a result so you just turn both tracks down in relative to each other

I've heard of that being done in non-digital music before, not sure why I've not given it a try as of yet! It's a cool idea, thank you!

[shinra]

id only use freq splitting if iv completed most of the track and i feel that i was unable to get the right sound from tweaking my synths or adding from distortion etc (which btw distortion is one of the best ways to get a more full sound imo)
iv had years of practice at freq splitting etc & im more likely to layer since layering is easier and usually gives me better results.
i never feel to frequency split anymore since im confident enough with synthesis.
my advice if you really wana get more "full" sounds then restrict yourself with only synthesis and see what you can come up with.
also improving your fx chains by using a basic waveform, add plenty of FX and automate etc to see how far you can push things.
once your comfortable with both, your sounds will generally sound better

Think I am guilty of being lazy with my patches sometimes because I've been getting such good results cranking the shit out of WOW
I'll restrict myself and see what I can do with no FX!

[jrisreal]

Like any other technique, you should only do this if you explicitly hear a need for it.

That's just bollocks. Play around until you like something. Experiment and then you'll find your own way of doing things. Why bother saying stuff like this it instantly makes people feel restricted if they arn't reading it with a pinch of salt, OP might frequency split something randomly and like the results.

I'm definitely not saying not to experiment. Just don't take frequency splitting religiously, as in using it on every sound you come across. That probably wouldn't be a good idea.

[Sonika]

First off, welcome OP!


Second, stereo widener, exciter, harmonic/highly resonant filters, EQ, careful distortion, and mainly just playing around

[ehbes]

Nah OP everyone here is wrong.. You want a fat sound? Feed it unhealthy things duh

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

Nah OP everyone here is wrong.. You want a fat sound? Feed it unhealthy things duh

[Sonika]

[shinra]

god damn it guys!

[dublerium]

Like any other technique, you should only do this if you explicitly hear a need for it.

That's just bollocks. Play around until you like something. Experiment and then you'll find your own way of doing things. Why bother saying stuff like this it instantly makes people feel restricted if they arn't reading it with a pinch of salt, OP might frequency split something randomly and like the results.

I'm definitely not saying not to experiment. Just don't take frequency splitting religiously, as in using it on every sound you come across. That probably wouldn't be a good idea.

Yeah that's cool, it's just you said 'any technique'. Just don't want people starting out to feel like they can't do this or that

[MaZa1]

Also you need to remember to keep those higher bass freqs / or layer your mid with bass sounds with these freqs. If you have too much high end it sounds weak.
And thats my problem now. Mid bass sounds pretty nice, but still feels like it need more of these 100-200hz-ish freqs to sound more full but im not sure how to do this.
Should i try to eq boost those freqs or should i make a copy of the bassline and eq the mids/highs away and try to balance the levels, multiband comp, freq split?
I'm not familiar with compressors, especially with multiband compressors....

[filtersnake]

buggerloads of this.

[shinra]

buggerloads of this.

since i got my hands on it to say i've raped it is a total understatement. it's so fucking good!

[mthrfnk]

buggerloads of this.

I love these guys.

[jrisreal]

Like any other technique, you should only do this if you explicitly hear a need for it.

That's just bollocks. Play around until you like something. Experiment and then you'll find your own way of doing things. Why bother saying stuff like this it instantly makes people feel restricted if they arn't reading it with a pinch of salt, OP might frequency split something randomly and like the results.

I'm definitely not saying not to experiment. Just don't take frequency splitting religiously, as in using it on every sound you come across. That probably wouldn't be a good idea.

Yeah that's cool, it's just you said 'any technique'. Just don't want people starting out to feel like they can't do this or that

Well you still technically shouldn't do things without a reason, but that's the beauty of experimentation...you don't care about what you should or shouldn't do and may get an awesome sound out of it.