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I got a track in which my sub-line is just a 1-hit sample of a bass guitar. When I spectrum analyze it peaks at 80hz. And it sounds all well and good on my KRK RP5s, rattles my room and stuff.

But when I tested it out on my friend's subwoofer. There was absolutely no sound from the subwoofer.

Do I,
a) layer under neath a 40-50hz sound
b) pitch the audio sample lower somehow to reach those proper lows.

Thanks for any help!

Layer a sub under it to keep the sample in tact

Do both, and pick the one you like the most.

Simply layering it with lower frequencies could cause issues. but by all means try it. Remember that: frequency = pitch...do it by ear but if you are struggling, a pitch to frequecy chart will help, in selecting the correct frequency for the lower octave. for example E (octave 2 on standard midi keyboard) = 82hz...E (octave 1) = 41hz...so workout the key of your bass guitar sample.

As to why it's not touching your friends sub but rattling your KRK's...the low end response on the krk's wont be as low as the sub, so they are probably reaching their lowest response and running hot, which is gonna sound deceptively weighty...could also have alot to do with where the crossover is set at on the sub, it may be set to cross over at less than 80.

NB - the 80-100hz growl seems to grab peoples attention on sound systems (despite all the room below that to play with) which we have observed when playing with crossovers on sound systems over the course of an evening...why not keep the high end character of the sampled bass guitar...by hi-pass'ing it, and layer it with a sinewave in key, you'd get the best of both and keep things clean in your production.

@the_agonist
wow thanks a lot man, you just confirmed it all for me. I had already split the guitar bass sample 2 ways, high passed at 400 to process the high content separately and low passed at 150. But I guess 3 bands is the way to go:

30-55hz (my friends subwoofer getting some action)
80-100hz (my KRKs getting some action)
400hz - above (detail of the strum)

Definitely gonna make sure new underlying sub is in key and 1 octave below. Cheers!

Agonist:

One octave is half the frequency, so yeah, if you remember that, the charts useless for anytihng aside from tuning.

why not keep the high end character of the sampled bass guitar...by hi-pass'ing it, and layer it with a sinewave in key, you'd get the best of both and keep things clean in your production.

Basic A wrote:Agonist:
the charts useless for anytihng aside from tuning.

not entirely...

i recall using the chart to pin point the exact frequency (sub frequency) within the electric guitar i had recorded (in fact identical scenario to what bob katz demonstrates in his online vid where he works on some bass guitar, yep i've had his book a while now and chart too ;-0)...it helped as i was able to just pull out the problem frequency (boominess below 100hz area..obviously i knew what key i was playing in, and went down the frequency chart and pulled the frequency (way more accurate than sweeping through and avoided any hi-passing which could destroy all the loveliness of nice mic' on nice guitar via nice valve amp etc. (this sounds eerily like the bob katz scenario but it's not uncommon)

So for corrective eq'ing it can be a good reference for fine accurate work, especially when working with live recorded instruments, not so much the resampled, twisted up uber processed synthetics that seem common place on here (i appreciate this is a different scenario to what the OP is dealing with, but i have found the chart very useful)