Making basslines dirtier!

BLoodstaiN`

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Joined
Feb 28, 2010
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Bruges, Belgium
So i've got comments on my last track to beef my basslines.
So my idea was, DISTORTION!
So i put ohmicide as an insert, and started distorting and no matter what i always get an annoying sound extra which i don't want.
so i tried to make them dirtier in massive itself, but again, unwanted noise.
Whatever i do, i get a bassline, okay it's dirty, but it doesn't sound smooth anymore.

So i kinda need your help on how to make a bassline dirtier without ruining it o:
 
try using Amp distortion, but on a low gain, or overdrive just on the midrange, find distortion plugins where you can set dry/wet and EQ points, then just give it a bit of top end or mid-range distortion at 30% or less....if you dont have those options, duplicate your channel, add distortion to one of them, add a low/highpass filter and reduce the volume till u get a balance....things like Chorus and Phase can warm the sound of distortion very nicely
 
Defo try what Miszt said... And I'm pretty sure freq splitting will help a ton in you achieving the sound you want, you could add dirt to all the places you want it so you don't get undesirable element in your sound. Also, as I'm sure you might have already discovered, less is more in most cases regarding distortion - at least this is the case for me
 
Try using Kjaerhaus Classic Reverb as a tone control/enhancer. Really small size setting (2.5 and under), boost the early reflections and the mix and then play around with the size, damping and Hi damping.

Small adjustments to the size setting in particular can really change the whole sound.
 
I've been doing this a lot recently, my mate said it was from icicle or something.. ignore the settings tho, just loaded it up.
 

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I've been doing this a lot recently, my mate said it was from icicle or something.. ignore the settings tho, just loaded it up.

I'm sure a lot more people a side from Icicle split frequencies up that way, but Icicle does demonstrate this technique in his masterclass video, it really opened my eyes to the benefits of freq splitting!
 
on ohmicide did u change the dry/wet mix on each fader. i find that ohmicide always works best if used in small amounts otherwise it just turns what ever u are working with into noise.
 
what if you stack a few instances of ohmicide on top of each other, all at like 5-10% wet, is that a happening idea?

Ohmicide is quite CPU hungry. Several instances would probably eat your processing power alive without resampling. :mad:
 
Ohmicide is quite CPU hungry. Several instances would probably eat your processing power alive without resampling. :mad:

That matters what kind of PC you have. I have no problems running 10 instances of Ohmicide on my AMD 6-core CPU.
Also to beef up the low tones, try the Oxford dynamics on a send bus, and only use the "Warmth" function on 100%. Then adjust the amount of send to that bus to warm up low tones.
For dirtier bass I would add a Bick Tick Nastyshaper on a send channel, could also do it on a insert but it is quite loud in volume so I mainly use it on a send bus, which works good, you keep the original signal but add some distorted signal into it.
 
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frequency splitting?? mmmm what is this? something i must try by sounds of it

Sounds confusing, but it's fairly simple. Basically, if you want a dirty bassline, you get better results by splitting the bass into three sections....Low, Mid and High. So you have an almost sub like low end which you can boost slightly. A mid range area which you can distort / overdrive etc. And the high end part which you can add chorus, phaser, reverb, distortion etc etc. Basically building a heavy bass which has the grit and filth at the high end without messing up the low end of it.

Splitting frequencies can be done a number of ways. You can have three instances of your bass patch open, and EQ each seperately. Or you can send the bass channel to three seperate mixer channels, EQ each accordingly then route back to one channel.

If you need me to go into more detail let me know and I'll try and explain it a bit better
 
Sounds confusing, but it's fairly simple. Basically, if you want a dirty bassline, you get better results by splitting the bass into three sections....Low, Mid and High. So you have an almost sub like low end which you can boost slightly. A mid range area which you can distort / overdrive etc. And the high end part which you can add chorus, phaser, reverb, distortion etc etc. Basically building a heavy bass which has the grit and filth at the high end without messing up the low end of it.

Splitting frequencies can be done a number of ways. You can have three instances of your bass patch open, and EQ each seperately. Or you can send the bass channel to three seperate mixer channels, EQ each accordingly then route back to one channel.

If you need me to go into more detail let me know and I'll try and explain it a bit better

My basslines i tend to make a bass and layer it with a sub anyway.... is that what u mean?? or dya mean u take 3 instances of the same sound n do different things to each part?
 
Either or really. Basically if you have a seperate sub layer, then you can just split the other bass into mids and highs.

Ok, let me try to explain an example.....So, Im sitting here, about to try and make a thumpin bass sound. I get a basic square / sawtooth combination. Nothing fancy, and play it one one sustained note for 4 bars (You can get more creative than this, but I'm just using this for the example)

From here, I route the bass channel, to 3 seperate send busses, and label one High, one mid and one low. On the low, I put an EQ and cut everything above say 200hz. I also mono this channel as it is the low end of the bass. On the Mid, I will put another EQ and cut everything below 200, and above say 1khz. And on the High, I will again add another EQ and cut everything below 1khz.

So, here we have the basic bass, split into three different frequencies, 0-200hz, 200hz-1khz and 1khz-16khz. Now from here is where you can go crazy. As a rule I tend to leave the low end pretty much as is, maybe a slight bit of saturation but thats usually it, but thats just my personal taste, others may feel differently. On the mids, I tend to add some very subtle distortion, and a small amount of overdrive. Followed up by a second EQ with a notch filter, which I automate to sweep up and down the spectrum at varying rates. On the highs I will add some chorus, a little phasing maybe, some more distortion, maybe a little reverb, and again sweeping notch filter automations.

Finally, I will route all three back together into a final channel, where I will add one final EQ to mould them all back together, and compress slightly. Adding some subtle sidechaining to the drums.
 
in my case ill only split the bass into mid and top then coz i always layer a sep sub under any of my bass sounds. I guess u guys are using Ableton tho? I use cubase n have only really played with sends when sidechaining. If im honest i dont know how to put eq on seperate send channel then to re-route them into one channel with cubase so ill have to look into it
 
Yeah I use Ableton. But only recently made the switch. Used to use FL Studio before that, but it can be done easily in both, so I'm guessing it's simple enough to do it in that.

I know ARTFX uses cubase, he may be able to tell you how to do it.

To be fair tho mate you can do it the other way where you have three instances of your bass sound open, and EQ each one to suit. Without having to worry about how to send and return. The only reason I do it that way is because it's easier on the CPU
 
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in my case ill only split the bass into mid and top then coz i always layer a sep sub under any of my bass sounds. I guess u guys are using Ableton tho? I use cubase n have only really played with sends when sidechaining. If im honest i dont know how to put eq on seperate send channel then to re-route them into one channel with cubase so ill have to look into it

I assume you understand how to send a track to a send bus, then when you select the send bus and go the the left side of your screen where it gives you the detailed track options like volume and panning and there will be an option called "out". Make a new group track, route the "out" to this new group track, then go to your bass track and put the "out" of this track to the same group track. Now the bass will be send directly to the group track, as well as to the send bus which is then routed back into the group track.

So for mid and high splitting, send the same bass track to two different send tracks, EQ them on the send tracks and then use the "out" function to route them back into a new group track and add some final compression to glue it all back together. This is all from the head, I'm not at home so I could be forgetting something hahaa.. :D
 
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