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Hey guys, i need a bit of help.
I've been writing music, and i really have been enjoying the high pitched bass thing thats going on.
Must die, eptic, ephixa. All those awesome peeps.

Anyway, I heard this song:

Check right at 0:55

That awesome bass! I don't need to know how to make the sound, i can make it just fine. But when i make it, and drop it in the mix it sounds wimpy as shit!
It doesn't have any punch, the growl before it makes it sound puny, like a bug.

I've read plenty of mixing tutorials, i am a fluent mixer and perfectly master capable.
I know how to synthesize these sounds on my own.

I know mid tone frequency is where the beef is, and i also know that it needs huge subbass reinforcement to sound giant and fat, and i have that.

BUT NONE OF IT HELPS. I need high pitched bass, not mid pitched. I have a sub of all frequencies lying beneath it, i've tried all octaves and all sub types. I cannot get my sound to sound thick.
I've tried cutting into the mix to make room for the sound, none of it makes the sound huge. Equal volume. Same notes. Everything.

I've spent months on this sweat and tears and blood. Please help.

I can't listen to the exact sound as I'm in a lecture, but this is for any high-pitched sound;

Look into boosting the content around 100-150Hz. Not just with literal EQ boosts, but possibly with distortion. Another way (which I usually use) is using something like Waves RBass/MaxxBass at around 130Hz to fill out that content range. Once you start using these plugins, you'll notice it's use in recent electronic tunes a lot.

Hope this helps!

Basically, grab the tune, throw it in your daw, and throw on any spectrum analyzer you have and look at the peaks of the sound. Usually where there is a strong peak, there is a fundamental sound underneath it. Try to copy the sound by using the visual and building it like that.

niallr wrote:I can't listen to the exact sound as I'm in a lecture, but this is for any high-pitched sound;

Look into boosting the content around 100-150Hz. Not just with literal EQ boosts, but possibly with distortion. Another way (which I usually use) is using something like Waves RBass/MaxxBass at around 130Hz to fill out that content range. Once you start using these plugins, you'll notice it's use in recent electronic tunes a lot.

Hope this helps!

Would not recommend this, that will give you tons of problems getting your kick drum to fit the basslline nicely. Have you tried simply duplicating your synth a few times? Try three different instances, one for the lows, one for the mid, one for the highs and make slight changes and process them differently.

MoonUnit wrote:

niallr wrote:I can't listen to the exact sound as I'm in a lecture, but this is for any high-pitched sound;

Look into boosting the content around 100-150Hz. Not just with literal EQ boosts, but possibly with distortion. Another way (which I usually use) is using something like Waves RBass/MaxxBass at around 130Hz to fill out that content range. Once you start using these plugins, you'll notice it's use in recent electronic tunes a lot.

Hope this helps!

Would not recommend this, that will give you tons of problems getting your kick drum to fit the basslline nicely. Have you tried simply duplicating your synth a few times? Try three different instances, one for the lows, one for the mid, one for the highs and make slight changes and process them differently.

I have tried both of these methods. Layering is how i primarily make bass. Copy/paste and make subtle changes to give it more tone. It sounds wonderful alone but it sounds wimpy in the mix.

ephyks wrote:Basically, grab the tune, throw it in your daw, and throw on any spectrum analyzer you have and look at the peaks of the sound. Usually where there is a strong peak, there is a fundamental sound underneath it. Try to copy the sound by using the visual and building it like that.

Thats the first thing i thought of lol.

The problem with these basses is the huge gap in the frequency spectrum. It's caused by how they are made, usually pitching two sine or triangle waves 4 octaves apart and distorting them. Because of this, the only way to fill them out is with more distortion. I'll assume you're using massive here, just whack on some brauner tube and crank it right up. Then work on the volume of each osc to get the desired tone. Scream filter also works nicely.

Also, try taking out the low fundamental with a high pass, and see how weak it sounds. The sub is what gives it power, You'll find that boosting the low osc in massive will beef it up considerably. The problem here is that the sub will clash, so gently EQ it out externally with a low shelf, this way the sound is unaffected due to it being exactly the same coming out of massive. Then make sure to sidechain the synth to your kick and snare to avoid clashing with them.

tl;dr - boost low osc and distort like you mean it.

If you're in Ableton, use the OTT preset for the Multiband Dynamics. I seen MUST DIE use it in one of his youtube videos before (its now taken offline for some reason), but it gives some balls to a lot of stuff.

the sound you posted hasn't really got much low end on it. Have you thought about how the other elements in the track might be causing the psychoacoustic effect of making the bass seem like it's got some low end? Sounds like it hasn't got much below 600/700 Hz (i could be quite off their though).

I think sounds like this is very much about the context it's used in, plus it's 99% don to the subtle mixing and balancing process of the whole tune and progression, and not so much the sound it's self (most of these sounds sounds really thin on their own) and something with a lot less low end will definitely sound thinner than something with a lot more low end that's played just before it.

Turnipish Thoughts wrote: Sounds like it hasn't got much below 600/700 Hz (i could be quite off their though).

mfw 700 hz bassline


i would say ur quite far off

bennyfroobs wrote:

Turnipish Thoughts wrote: Sounds like it hasn't got much below 600/700 Hz (i could be quite off their though).

mfw 700 hz bassline


i would say ur quite far off

The sound he posted was very mid/high end. Go and listen yourself. It sounds to me like it hasn't got much going on below 600/700 Hz, serious, I'm not just waffling. I don't even know why he's calling it a bass, I'd call it a screech more than anything.

Brostep has basically screwed the term 'bass'.

look up some skrillex "birdy nam nam" type bass tutorial....The idea is that in the design stage, you're creating a low and high timbre of sound. Then it's just a matter of effecting that sound in it's entirety to make it more full. Resampling that shit will bring out some unique characteristics that perhaps modern bangers haven't explored yet

Cheers!

not being pedantic but if its 700 hz it can hardly be called a bassline

Try unison or chorus.