Sub Bass Techniques

[bassinine]

well, they probably don't have to worry about it considering it's probably better for them to leave it a plain sine, and let the mastering engineer decide exactly how to process it.

[Gravehill]

oh mastering engineer, how would they process the sub in the mastering phase though?

[neonmansion]

Check it out if you want a subbass that moves with your sounds.

Thats awesome.. Using a vocoder to trigger the bass is actually a perfect way to do it and so obvious i can believe it didn't occur to me. The only thing i can see that would limit it is pitch? Like if the sound were to bend pitch the sub wouldn't change pitch.

[bassinine]

oh mastering engineer, how would they process the sub in the mastering phase though?

that is actually really good trolling right there.

you know, because that's what our whole conversation was about.

[Gravehill]

oh mastering engineer, how would they process the sub in the mastering phase though?

that is actually really good trolling right there.

you know, because that's what our whole conversation was about.

our conversation was about processing the sub, not mastering. I could see the mix engineer touching the sub channel but how would you do that during mastering? Its a serious question

[bkwsk]

If you've got a busy mix and want your sub to cut through the mix, add some upper harmonics there. It's that simple, really. That's why some producers advise to use triangle waves instead of sines to program the sub, actually. It all depends on the effect you want to achieve. If you want the sub to be not-heard-but-felt, then use a sine and don't make it too prominent. If you want your sub to punch the listener in the face, add harmonics.

[Genevieve]

oh mastering engineer, how would they process the sub in the mastering phase though?

that is actually really good trolling right there.

you know, because that's what our whole conversation was about.

our conversation was about processing the sub, not mastering. I could see the mix engineer touching the sub channel but how would you do that during mastering? Its a serious question

Band saturation. Sub is anything below 100 hz, but in the context of dance tunes, probs more like anything below 70 hz. So he just puts a multiband processor (dist, compressor, saturator) of some kind on there and just touches everything below 70 hz.

[elyhess]

woah!

[DrVinnyBoomBeats]

Just put notes in the sub-bass range. It doesn't have to sound like anything.

[bassinine]

exactly what gene said. sorry, not meaning to be a dick, i just get frustrated when i'm trying to explain concepts that i think the listener is not fully grasping.

[krispy]

A good trick if you use massive to make your subbass...
If your bass line has some wobble to it, use the same LFO settings but apply it to the amplitude of the OSC instead of the filter. Helps the sub bass mimic the bass line a bit better. I'm not sure if you can do this with other synths or not.

[OfficialDAPT]

Check it out if you want a subbass that moves with your sounds.

Thats awesome.. Using a vocoder to trigger the bass is actually a perfect way to do it and so obvious i can believe it didn't occur to me. The only thing i can see that would limit it is pitch? Like if the sound were to bend pitch the sub wouldn't change pitch.

You could just write in a pitch bend on the midi that's triggering the subbass. FOOLPROOF!!

[bkwsk]

A good trick if you use massive to make your subbass...
If your bass line has some wobble to it, use the same LFO settings but apply it to the amplitude of the OSC instead of the filter. Helps the sub bass mimic the bass line a bit better. I'm not sure if you can do this with other synths or not.

Yes, you can.

[sine143]

I like to go ahead and apply the vol mod it to the amp section of massive, not just the amp section of the single sine osc. sounds better on really quick vol lfos (1/16 and above) with deep sub.

[Sinergy]

I've been noticing lately, and it seems lazy and odd to do, but by the sound of it a lot of midrange wobbles in tunes I've been listening to and have a sine layered underneath but rather than wobbling the bass with the wobbles, it is just a straight bassline. Just one note, so long as the wobble is one note.

Anyone else do this?

It just makes sense to me that if you've got a wobble at 1/8th LFO rate, you're do the same to the sub-bass underneath it to create force and depth to the sound that is *usually* the focal point of the tune at that point in time.

[shakas]

other people might have more knowledgeable opinions on this but....as usual, there's always this train of thought: it's personal preference. and also...with a pure sub sine wave, your only options of modulation to go with your mid-wobble is on the pitch or the volume (or amp envelope parameters in general)...if your mid-wobble isnt a pitch wobble then i doubt you'd want your sub to be. a sync'd volume wobble can go good with your mid-wobble, if that's what you wanna hear. If you're talking about putting a filter on your raw sine wave sub...i guess you could do that to if you like. i just never do it.

[Proctra]

With ALOT of dubstep it takes a sub and wobbles it steadily and changes notes every 1/2 bar. Making a more subtle calvin harris effect in disguise. A simple and fun way to keep a relatively simple drop sounding fresh throughout.
I'd prefer not to just simply layer a fat sub, as it flattens the tone of a wobble which kinda defeats the purpose.

[Genevieve]

? A lot of tunes have a sinewave with an lfo on the volume playing along with the wobble.

You can do anything with it really. I sometimes use sub as a separate instrument. If I feel the tune isn't fast enough, but sounds the way it should, I might put in a long line 8th note sub stabs or something.

[dickman69]

i do it some times

sounds funny

i like it

[bassinine]

sometimes. sounds different when you do it different ways.

sometimes fast wobble and long continuous sub.
Sometimes make an 808 with a fast-ish decay and just duplicate it for every pulse of the wobble.
or put an Lfo on the sub in time with the wobble.