Techniques for widening bass?

[Spinlock]

Let me prefix this question by saying I'm new to the forum, and I tried searching the archives before posting, but couldn't find exactly what I'm looking for. I'm guessing this question has been asked, because most dubstep producers seem to have wide bass midrange nailed down pretty well. Here's some techniques I've tried (without much luck):

- Izotope Ozones multi-band stereo tool: questions: exactly how wide do I go (I always seem to over-do it), and above what frequency do I widen (I've been using something like 300hz)

- Reverb: I notice that many dubstep producers use Massive's built in reverb effect to achieve wideness. It doesn't sound wide enough however, and muddies things up with all of the reflections

- basic sample delay plugs which delay either the left or right channel by a small number of milliseconds.

When I hear wide bass in pro dubstep tunes, it sounds like they are using chorus (possibly the dimension expander in massive)? Can anyone recommend a chorus/expander plugin that works well on bass miderange? Thanks!

[upstateface]

Is this the spinlock from DOA? If so large ups, i have a shitload of your bass stab samples. And it's all about duplicating things and panning them/chorus, I usually do from like 600hzish up, but it's all subjective

[boko91]

Panned busses. automate the send

[Siderealdb]

Yeah I think it has to do with the contrast between a bassline that's up the middle, with an automated delay/chorus/flange/stereo width bassline. This helps your brain perceive that the bass is wider than it is, and makes it more obvious.

I didn't find anything wrong with the bass in your sig either, sick tune.

[Spinlock]

Is this the spinlock from DOA? If so large ups, i have a shitload of your bass stab samples. And it's all about duplicating things and panning them/chorus, I usually do from like 600hzish up, but it's all subjective

Thanks! BTW, what chorus is popular these days among dubstep producers? I'm still using Kjaerhus Audio Classic Chorus! Time for an upgrade I think.

I didn't find anything wrong with the bass in your sig either, sick tune

Thanks! I still think it sounds a bit "narrow". dubstep in general, seems to make better use of the stereo field than dnb I find.

automate the send

with an automated delay/chorus/flange/stereo

Are you guys really automating your modulation/delay/stereo effects?? I've always taken a set-and-forget approach when it comes to mod/delay (I'm lazy). Maybe that's the missing ingredient

[upstateface]

what chorus is popular these days among dubstep producers? I'm still using Kjaerhus Audio Classic Chorus! Time for an upgrade I think.

I use the chorus in my emu, but psp nitro has some nice chorus presets.

[Spinlock]

Yeah I think it has to do with the contrast between a bassline that's up the middle, with an automated delay/chorus/flange/stereo width bassline. This helps your brain perceive that the bass is wider than it is, and makes it more obvious.

I didn't find anything wrong with the bass in your sig either, sick tune.

I forgot to say btw, the tune in your sig is a good example of what I'm trying to achieve. Could you shed some light on what you did there in terms of stereo/mod automation?

[Spinlock]

what chorus is popular these days among dubstep producers? I'm still using Kjaerhus Audio Classic Chorus! Time for an upgrade I think.

I use the chorus in my emu, but psp nitro has some nice chorus presets.

I think I'll revisit PSP Nitro. Thanks for the suggestion. Nitro N20 just came out recently as well. It looks like a complete modulation solution -seems to do just about everything!

PS. are emus popular among dubstep producers?

[upstateface]

what chorus is popular these days among dubstep producers? I'm still using Kjaerhus Audio Classic Chorus! Time for an upgrade I think.

I use the chorus in my emu, but psp nitro has some nice chorus presets.

I think I'll revisit PSP Nitro. Thanks for the suggestion. Nitro N20 just came out recently as well. It looks like a complete modulation solution -seems to do just about everything!

PS. are emus popular among dubstep producers?

no not that i know of, most dubstep producers are all software

[societyloser1]

Add a STEREO (!) delay at 100%, no feedback (or only a little), choose a delay below 100 ms (between 20 & 40 is nice), put a filter before the delay to cutoff the low's. (pay attention at the mix, you don't want the delay harder than the original sound)

That's a way to do it...

Phaser, chorus, flanger (with a low rate) can wide things up (I prefer this things for vocals/hihats)
& offcourse) reverb (decay < 1second, I think 300-400 ms sounds fine, also put a filter before the reverb to cutoff the low's!)

Stereo tools or not that effective, because you need a strong stereo sound before it could be used properly... But if you have widened your sound & you think it's still not wide enough... put a stereo tool after all the effects and play with it... (don't overdo it, because it takes the sound in the middle of your channel away... I think)

Edit:
If u use a reverb, don't forget to look if you're using a stereo reverb (I think most of reverbs are stereo, no?)

[Siderealdb]

I forgot to say btw, the tune in your sig is a good example of what I'm trying to achieve. Could you shed some light on what you did there in terms of stereo/mod automation?

Actually, in that track I had 3 versions of the same bass line at different lfo rates, then I cut it up and applied different stereo/phase treatments to each. Normally I would automate the lfo of one bass as well as a chorus/flange on/off or wet signal. It kind of makes the wobble bounce in and out of the stereo field, giving the impression that some parts are fatter by contrast. You also need a fat signal to begin with, or else it's not gonna work. That bass used 5 osc with the sub bass being out of the whole mess.


Hope this helps

[thor_beatz]

Make sure to split your frequencies and keep the low bass mono.

[shaneynclan]

maybe rather than trying to widen the bass, you should bring everything closer to the middle so the bass sounds bigger.

[Basic A]

You try massives dimension expander thingy? Beats the piss out of the reverb.

[makemerich]

waves stereo imager.
u can have fun with it and split it to 2 mono channels and pitch down one side maybe add a chorus on one the phaser on the other andleave it plain in the middle with a bit of eq , just things like that.

[makemerich]

I forgot to say btw, the tune in your sig is a good example of what I'm trying to achieve. Could you shed some light on what you did there in terms of stereo/mod automation?

Actually, in that track I had 3 versions of the same bass line at different lfo rates, then I cut it up and applied different stereo/phase treatments to each. Normally I would automate the lfo of one bass as well as a chorus/flange on/off or wet signal. It kind of makes the wobble bounce in and out of the stereo field, giving the impression that some parts are fatter by contrast. You also need a fat signal to begin with, or else it's not gonna work. That bass used 5 osc with the sub bass being out of the whole mess.


Hope this helps

do you have any examples of this?

[Siderealdb]

do you have any examples of this?

Well, here's something I threw together this morning. The verse sections use a flanger while the chorus section uses a delay.
The bridge uses both. This was done on one bass without resampling and mixed on headphones, so don't grill me on it thanks.

Soundcloud

[Debaser1]

One of the oldest tricks in the book and a pretty medieval technique is export it as audio and put it back in, duplicate it on another track and then move one slightly out of sync with the other and then pan each side. Sort of manual sample delay. BUT, the advantage is that you can mix them slightly differently to give it even more space. Certainly having the same bass doubled and then EQ'd differently can give a real power, as you can have low and high end covered without it sounding too crowded. But don't pan too far cus you'll lose all power delivery.

It's a technique I use a lot for recording guitars. can have some craze effect on a drum kit too.

[Basic A]

One of the oldest tricks in the book and a pretty medieval technique is export it as audio and put it back in, duplicate it on another track and then move one slightly out of sync with the other and then pan each side. Sort of manual sample delay. BUT, the advantage is that you can mix them slightly differently to give it even more space. Certainly having the same bass doubled and then EQ'd differently can give a real power, as you can have low and high end covered without it sounding too crowded. But don't pan too far cus you'll lose all power delivery.

It's a technique I use a lot for recording guitars. can have some craze effect on a drum kit too.

Your begging to have issues in mono/playing out...

[erratech]

mdaStereo is free and has great mono-compatability, as well as working extremely well. Obviously you can only do this on higher freqs. There was a nother free plug called BassLane i think which would sum freqs below a threshold into mono, dont know how well the crossover in it works tho.