Frequency Splitting Bass Processing

[eliash]

Hey everyone,
I was wondering what effects you use for processing a bass through frequency splitting.

Of course what I write below is only a generalization. Every sound should be processed differently.
Personaly,
- my lows are at 300hz and below. I usually put a distortion, overdrive, eq.
- my mids are between 300 and 3000. I usually throw some flanger, phaser, chorus, a little distort and eq
- my highs are 3000 and above. I usually put a little reverb some sort of stereo enhancer/shaper.

[R3b_Official]

This would actually a good thread to start up. There isn't a really set way on what to do besides split up your frequencies and apply the usual effect to low,mid, and high but their are also some stuff people do out of preference like certain effects before others and when to compress and not to compress.

That is my problem when i go to split my bass, i get the gargled mixture of sounds that sound 10% i guess better sounding than the original but nothing finished off that is full and tightly woven together. I have my days with this but it helps knowing your daw pretty well so you do little shortcuts or presets you throw down to cut time down instead of adjusting or replacing stuff over and over.

I have a couple audio effect racks with built in split audio outs. Then i throw the normal stuff on each frequency, bounce that out and do it all over again.

Sometimes/most of the time i loose sound quality. Not sure when to do what and were, im just throwing shit together for a interesting sound. I know what every effect does but sometimes i fell as though its the same thing im doing again or i dont know what else to add when designing a bass like this

[GregoryTJ]

For me the effects, crossovers and filters I use to split the signal all vary wildly from sound to sound.

[eliash]

[quote="R3b_Official"

Sometimes/most of the time i loose sound quality. Not sure when to do what and were, im just throwing shit together for a interesting sound. I know what every effect does but sometimes i fell as though its the same thing im doing again or i dont know what else to add when designing a bass like this [/quote]

Usually, what I do in order to clean a bass up is I make sure I eq every 2nd effect or so, to make sure that I don't have an unwanted frequency (most useful when you have a flanger that's sweeping through low frequencies and that makes the bass sound to soft).

Also, when resampling, less is better imo. You can have one eq and a phaser, then bounce it. Split it again and apply couple effects again, rather then having your fx channel loader. Try that next time, maybe you'll get something you like

[R3b_Official]

Also, when resampling, less is better imo. You can have one eq and a phaser, then bounce it. Split it again and apply couple effects again, rather then having your fx channel loader. Try that next time, maybe you'll get something you like

I used to literally put like 8 effects every time i bounce out a clip but now im doing very small amounts of everything and at most using 3 effects per bounce and i always eq out some harsh peaks but then i feel like im losing more sound quality since your losing all those other frequencies. Sounds flat and dull sometimes

[eliash]

Also, when resampling, less is better imo. You can have one eq and a phaser, then bounce it. Split it again and apply couple effects again, rather then having your fx channel loader. Try that next time, maybe you'll get something you like

I used to literally put like 8 effects every time i bounce out a clip but now im doing very small amounts of everything and at most using 3 effects per bounce and i always eq out some harsh peaks but then i feel like im losing more sound quality since your losing all those other frequencies. Sounds flat and dull sometimes

Sounds great Have you tried playing with the stereos. Sometimes just making a virtual stereo or crossing basses can make a sound fuller

[R3b_Official]

Sounds great Have you tried playing with the stereos. Sometimes just making a virtual stereo or crossing basses can make a sound fuller

What do you mean by virtual stereo and crossing basses?

[eliash]

Well by virtual stereo, I mean playing with the phase offset and the panning, to get a fuller sound. You should invest in a stereo vizualizer (there probably is one free). It shows where the audio is going to, and how it's split across your speakers/headset.
Also if you duplicate your tracks, make one full left and make one full right, and have a slight delay between the two, the sound will come up.

And by bass crossing, what I generally do is I put a track, once again full left, and full right, and automate it, so that through the bass (works for growls better), the full left goes to full right and the full right goes to full left. You get a point in the middle where the two basses cross each other accross the acoustic field, which is quite orgasmic. You can see an example of that in https://soundcloud.com/hydroliks/deep-dubstep-clip at 00:29. Hear how it feels like its coming at you. Ofc you'd only be able to hear it with headsets or decent monitors

[R3b_Official]

Well by virtual stereo, I mean playing with the phase offset and the panning, to get a fuller sound. You should invest in a stereo vizualizer (there probably is one free). It shows where the audio is going to, and how it's split across your speakers/headset.
Also if you duplicate your tracks, make one full left and make one full right, and have a slight delay between the two, the sound will come up.

And by bass crossing, what I generally do is I put a track, once again full left, and full right, and automate it, so that through the bass (works for growls better), the full left goes to full right and the full right goes to full left. You get a point in the middle where the two basses cross each other accross the acoustic field, which is quite orgasmic. You can see an example of that in https://soundcloud.com/hydroliks/deep-dubstep-clip at 00:29. Hear how it feels like its coming at you. Ofc you'd only be able to hear it with headsets or decent monitors

Ohhhh now i understand what youre saying. Ive done this sort of thing before on my leads to get them bigger and wider. I have a couple stereo tools, some are free and others arent. I use this to solo my lows and make it mono in ozone. Ill try the bass crossing thing also! Good tip

[Ink Eyes]

Don't do anything as concrete. Don't go for a certain sound and apply X amount of effects to sound after sound thinking it "sounds better."

Fucking listen. A/B. Simple as that. Sound better? good. Sound worse? scrap it.
After that the problem lays in ear fatigue for me.

[GregoryTJ]

^

[GregoryTJ]

I like to make the low end mono or close to mono most times as in a mix you really can't tell if bass is mono or not and the end-listener will definitely not be focusing on the stereo field of the bass.

One thing I do like doing is putting a stereo enhancer on the mids/highs and automating the wideness of it, it adds a really neat sort of depth to the sound which I have heard in some KOAN tracks.