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So I've been working on a bass patch by following a tutorial I saw posted on here (can't remember the artist that posted the initial tutorial) and I've run into a predicament... The bass was created by using a band-passed acid bass wavetable with the resonance cranked up on the BP filter, added some warmth with tape distortion, compressed, and then eq'd to hell. The result was a nice resonant bass that really booms on a few notes in one octave... the rest of the notes sound super pussed out.

My question is this: is it more recommendable to leave the bass as is, or to scoop out bottom frequencies up to like 100hz and throw in a sub sine? What are your experiences with this?

Also, it seems to me that the bass is taking up a bunch of headroom. Can this be caused by the resonance on the low end frequencies? The bass sounds great if I mix loud, but then other elements in my project start to suffer. Should I focus on a way to quell the bass, or just be tedious about how I eq all other elements in the mix?


As it's been said here a million times, I know I should "do what sounds good," but I'm interested in your personal opinions and experiences on the subject matter.

Headed to work right now... I'm going to post a clip of the project file when I get home, but I wanted to get the discussion rolling

this is a debate that goes over and over and tbh, I think there's only one answer (imho). Sine wave subs make for THE MOST POWERFUL SUB BASSES. Anyone who tells you otherwise is kidding themselves/ignorant.etc. Yes, you can make some awesome subs with say, low-passed reeses (they tend to be warmer, but not more powerful).

Basses tend to take up a lot of the frequency spectrum, so therefore you end up cutting quite a bit out - usually one for the kick (at around 100hz) another for snares (200hz or so), sometimes some for leads or other basses.etc. - and then doing a high-pass around 40-50hz depending on where your sub is sitting.

This has been popping up a lot and atleast in terms of sounding as big as possible your going to want to have proper gain staging.
Getting your levels right will help so your bass doesnt wash out the rest of your tack while still sounding big.
Depending how you eq'd and you did your resonance the boosting certain frequency's could very well
over accentuated them to where it's giving you mixing problems.
A spectrum-analyzer never hurt to look at to see where your bass is really sitting.
Depending where its sitting might also give you and idea if you want to layer it with a sub or not.

So I scooped out all but the top of the bass and applied some multi-band distortion and threw a sine underneath.
I don't have monitors so I can't tell if there's a gap between the sub and the rest of the bass, or if they are mudding into each other. Sounds decent to me, I'd appreciate some constructive criticism, though.

Also been trying to learn about compression and transient shaping on drums feel free to comment on that, too.
Is the mixdown retarded?

Soundcloud

with a bandpass, you're cutting all frequencies except for the band you've set it to. therefore, those notes that are "booming" are basically in the middle of the bandpass, where the frequencies are not being cut out and are being resonated by the filter.

the notes that don't boom - are probably in the frequency range that is being cut by the filter. either they are above or below the band you have it set at.

If you have a pure sine wave sub, then the frequencies it takes up - is only that frequency. So low-passing just above it works a treat (usually good to low-pass at it's highest note).

You can try making the cutoff of the bandpass filter "follow" the notes. Most synths have this function, which synth are you using? A limiter/compressor may also help.

e-motion wrote:You can try making the cutoff of the bandpass filter "follow" the notes. Most synths have this function, which synth are you using? A limiter/compressor may also help.

Is that like keyboard tracking?

I'm using maelstrom in Reason 5.
It's too bad there's no Q on the bandpass filter... that would be fun...

Keytrack exactly

MoonUnit wrote:So I scooped out all but the top of the bass and applied some multi-band distortion and threw a sine underneath.
I don't have monitors so I can't tell if there's a gap between the sub and the rest of the bass, or if they are mudding into each other. Sounds decent to me, I'd appreciate some constructive criticism, though.

Also been trying to learn about compression and transient shaping on drums feel free to comment on that, too.
Is the mixdown retarded?

Soundcloud

FIRST:
If you don't have a hifi or monitoring setup of any kind, get yourself a frequency analyzer and a pair of headphones. Get yourself a frequency analyzer. Get yourself a frequency analyzer. Get yourself a frequency analyzer. With the emphasis of the two being, a frequency analyzer.

SECOND:


THIRD:
After listening to that clip, I can tell you that your intial levels are off. If your initial levels are off, no number of over equalistation or over compression will make it sound any better. If anything, only worse. Try setting all the levels of your tracks to -24db, then readjusting the levels as necessary without compression and without equalisation. Do you have a limiter/compressor on the master bus? Take that off too. If your mix doesn't sound pretty good before you start compressing/EQing, your levels are the problem.

FINALLY:
Assuming you have good gain structure (which is why I included the preface), all it really takes for a powerful sub is a sine. Not that a sine is the end all of all subs, but generally it is safe to say that a sine would be the simplest.