can never get my bass sounding right

[chaotix]

whats the secret, i usually layer my bass as this is what i thought i had to do. Sub layer, then i usually duplicate the channel, bump it an octave up and make it a bit ore gritty, then duplicate that, bump it up another octave, and make that the highes. my bass always sounds super dry though, and hollow almost. How do you get that clarity, yet have it powerful. any good tuts on this? (I've watched a lot, and gotten no where.)

[jrisreal]

I don't think there's any secret to sound design. Just after each effect/processing technique, make sure it sounds better after than before.

[Earjax]

The secret to sound design is practice and also take your time, e.g if your going to distort something, don't just wack on a load of distortion in one go, do it in little bits with different plugins to give a better colour to your sound.

[jrisreal]

The secret to sound design is practice and also take your time

THATS what I was forgetting spot on

and don't lose creativity

[didi]

^^ don't rely on a formulaic method for all of your basses. Experiment, try new things, and choose depending on what suits the track.

[Jas0n]

One octave between sub and not-sub sounds like it might be a problem too. If your sub is right around 35-40 it would be silly to try to put something up one octave (70-80) ... practically still within sub range. Then on the other hand, if your sub tone is closer to 100, maybe the problem is that what you're trying to use for your sub is too high.

[JTMMusicuk]

wanna know the secret to being a good producer....just piss around till it sounds better than last time

[Acidhedz]

I think everyone else has said it well, but I will add my own little story about fooling around with bass.

I started off trying to mimic songs like Louder, and Skrillex stuff because that was what I heard first when I started looking into dubstep. Save your comments, I think Dara O'briain says it best



Anyway, I looked at all the tutorials I could find, which is how I found this site actually, but got annoyed because none of them really helped me all that much. I finally concluded that doing things other people's way just doesn't work for me, and the only way I was going to make anything I liked was to do on my own.

So I did. Just mess around till you get something you like.

[chaotix]

One octave between sub and not-sub sounds like it might be a problem too. If your sub is right around 35-40 it would be silly to try to put something up one octave (70-80) ... practically still within sub range. Then on the other hand, if your sub tone is closer to 100, maybe the problem is that what you're trying to use for your sub is too high.

but technically you could just use the ocs pitch on your synth, so I don't really think bumping my bass up on octaves is really much different. Who knows though. I just find it hard to make my drops sound like they are in conjunction with the rest of my song haha. I could give you guys an example.

[Jas0n]

One octave between sub and not-sub sounds like it might be a problem too. If your sub is right around 35-40 it would be silly to try to put something up one octave (70-80) ... practically still within sub range. Then on the other hand, if your sub tone is closer to 100, maybe the problem is that what you're trying to use for your sub is too high.

but technically you could just use the ocs pitch on your synth, so I don't really think bumping my bass up on octaves is really much different. Who knows though. I just find it hard to make my drops sound like they are in conjunction with the rest of my song haha. I could give you guys an example.

Not sure what you mean here, but... an example could never hurt.

[hasezwei]

duplicate your sub
distort the fuck out of it
use amp simulators and typical guitar effects
automate the volume before the sound goes into distortion for different sounds
resample
???
BASSLINE THAT FITS YER SUB

bonus points for frequency splitting/multiband processing. also only highpass AFTER the distortion.

[hasezwei]

or instead: make midrange sounds, arrange them, then make the sub after that. i thought thats what everyone does.

[chaotix]

maybe I'm putting everything on the wrong level.

I usually have my sub sitting on C-1, then my mid on Middle C, and my highs one octave above that on C1. Is this what most people do? care to share?

I try to keep things as basic as possible cause when i dive to fast into all the FX, I make a mess quick. My bass never seems to have that hard hittimg UMMFF though.

I have a feeling I'm missing something.

[Acidhedz]

I think I start my low bass on C3 usually. Using a pure sine wave and looking at an analyzer I try to get the peak around 40-80, then go from there.

Find an EQ board that has more controls, the one I use has 31 bands. On my bass I push everything 80 and under till it makes my woofer hum a bit. I have it turned all the way down so I'm just listening for it to start pushing, then the bass is good, at least to me. That hum tells me I'm getting the sub in, and then it's up to the listener to decide how much they want.

The way I look at it is that my job is to produce a cohesive song that works for me, if the people that listen to it like lots of bass they are likely to have a powerful woofer and the bass EQ turned up on their system. So as long as I know my woofer is purring for me, I know theirs will roar for them.

[chaotix]

The best way I can describe my bass is "toy factory" bass! Here's a video to show you guys what I mean. My bass always sounds this bad and yes it's kind of embarrassing haha.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5WPFHu6 ... ideo_title

[Acidhedz]

Don't know what to tell you. In Acid all I have to do is hit the + or - keys on the numpad to pitch things down. When I'm doing a synth based bass I usually just use a pure sine wave or the free vsti itchy has for big bass layered under whatever else I am doing. I'm not great at melody, so I usually just match my bass to my upper range stuff and let them dance with each other. When I use samples of vocals or something I make 2 or 3 copies then separate one each into high, mid and low. That way I can fine tune everything to my hearts content.

Like I said in the other post, people have EQ and speaker control so they can boost things where they like on a song. I just worry about making the song sound as good as I can.

Do you layer your bass sounds? I made the mistake of trying to do it all in one synth, except I didn't have one good enough. Now I always use at least 2 different synths, usually a cool sounding one on top of a sine wave doing the same notes at a much lower octave.

[chaotix]

Yeah in the video above you can actually see I use three channels, highs, mids, lows. I listen to each one of them on their own and it doesn't sound too bad. Then i bring it all in together and it just sounds hollow.

Then i've heard sending them all to a compressor too glue them together a bit more helps, but I don't notice much of a difference.

[Cubicle]

Yeah in the video above you can actually see I use three channels, highs, mids, lows. I listen to each one of them on their own and it doesn't sound too bad. Then i bring it all in together and it just sounds hollow.

Then i've heard sending them all to a compressor too glue them together a bit more helps, but I don't notice much of a difference.

then you aren't compressing correctly.

I'm in love with compression when it comes to glueing synths together.

[Acidhedz]

I'm an Occam's Razor kinda guy, so the first thing I would try is turning your mids and highs down, and the sub up gradually. Loop the bass and listen to it while you adjust your levels and you should eventually hit a sweet spot.

I am not well versed in using compression, but I do know that using it would kill volume dynamics so I'm not sure why anyone would want to flatten their track that way. I like it when things dance around.

[Ghost of Muttley]

Three octaves of bass with a lot of harmonics is going to cause phasing which is why it sounds hollow.