Question about key and sub bass.

LG18 said:
The problem on mine then, I now realize, is actually the B on the octave below. If I take the root note at E flat and take it down a whole octave, every note sounds right apart from the B, which is the lowest one. It just rumbles and is out of tune.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Well, no, the 5th/7th would more be a replacement note for the root note, since the root note would be to low.
Just keep the normal progression, and than change the root note to a 5th/7th


Alright, so now everything sounds good except that B?
Yea a B on an octave below is way to low. Like I said, I went to a Csharp once, and I had to pitch everything up because it was too low.
So I would advice to never go below a D.


And thanks :) Still working on that track... Can't get it sounding like it want...
 
LG18 said:
Right I see.

I'll do my best, thanks for your help.

The mixing isn't right. I'm just not sure how to actually get it right. I don't have the right environment or experience to get it there I don't think, haha

On top of that, with the bass being too high it's pointless trying to compare it to other tracks because they're all hitting in a lower frequency. The bass is too high and so is making the kick sound thin, so getting a balance is really difficult. It might be a lost cause. :/
Click to expand...

some general tips...

make sure your kick and sub don't overlap in the important freqz, check with a spectral analyser, pitching the kick up or down a semitone may help

do the same for your mid-bass sounds, in that area its also worth checking if you can EQ the mid bass to give the kick space in its lower root freqz

side-chain the sub/midbass with the kick, so the bass is ducked when the kick hits

high passing the kick is also useful sometimes, maybe around 70-90hz (obv check what freqz are important in your specific kick), depending on the sound you are going for
 
Crizis said:
Well, no, the 5th/7th would more be a replacement note for the root note, since the root note would be to low.
Just keep the normal progression, and than change the root note to a 5th/7th


Alright, so now everything sounds good except that B?
Yea a B on an octave below is way to low. Like I said, I went to a Csharp once, and I had to pitch everything up because it was too low.
So I would advice to never go below a D.


And thanks :) Still working on that track... Can't get it sounding like it want...
Click to expand...

Got it. I'll see what I can do. What you've said has helped, so thanks very much.
 
miszt said:
some general tips...

make sure your kick and sub don't overlap in the important freqz, check with a spectral analyser, pitching the kick up or down a semitone may help

do the same for your mid-bass sounds, in that area its also worth checking if you can EQ the mid bass to give the kick space in its lower root freqz

side-chain the sub/midbass with the kick, so the bass is ducked when the kick hits

high passing the kick is also useful sometimes, maybe around 70-90hz (obv check what freqz are important in your specific kick), depending on the sound you are going for
Click to expand...


I've done those points but I'll go back and do them again. I'll likely have missed something.

Thanks for the pointers.
 
It's sounds to me like it's very nearly there now. Just need to work on the relationship between the kick and sub a little better.
 
Just realised something - I got so carried away with the rest of the stuff I've actually forgot to put a mid range sound in there.

That'd probably solve the lack of definition in the bass

Now to decide what to put there.
 
So is this really true that the room acoustics does matter? I experienced it that in a studio of a friend the sub played on E sounded pretty insane.
I also often heard that G or F# should be very powerful. But what's the fact? Also is it senseful to automate the volume of your sub depending on the sound in your room?

Too many questions...
 
Saftstein said:
So is this really true that the room acoustics does matter?
Click to expand...

There is no real big answer to this. Yes.

G, Fsharp and F have just those frequencies that any sub can hit perfectly. And those frequencies have a nice 'feel' to it. They resonate nicely in the body when played in a club, and they are on the perfect line between 'too high' and 'too low'.
They just sit nicely in the frequency spectrum.

And what do you mean automate the volume?
I mean, when you know your room and monitors, it can be as good as any studio (not that bad acoustics make it easier ofcourse)
 
Crizis said:
I mean, when you know your room and monitors, it can be as good as any studio (not that bad acoustics make it easier ofcourse)
Click to expand...

I echo this sentiment.

Ultimately the goal is to get the mix to sound good in/on the numerous different locations that it'll be played it.
If you have a good grasp of how your monitors and listening space translate to the club, car, ear buds/headphones, blue tooth speakers etc; then in terms of getting the mix to sound right, you can (providing you actually have the skills to do so, which I do not currently posses, :) ) get it to sound as good as anything else I would've thought.
 
Saftstein said:
So is this really true that the room acoustics does matter? I experienced it that in a studio of a friend the sub played on E sounded pretty insane.
I also often heard that G or F# should be very powerful. But what's the fact? Also is it senseful to automate the volume of your sub depending on the sound in your room?

Too many questions...
Click to expand...

each room is different, each room has different "modes", different freqz that it resonates at, with sub you can get something called a Standing Wave, that is where the sound wavelength matches the size of the room perfectly, causing the sound to bounce back and forward, and can have 2 effects, completely cancelling the sound out, as if the sub is too low, and boosting it, as if the sub is too loud

you need to learn how your room responds, and work to that, so if your room has a mode at 47Hz, remember that when you are mixing down, and use reference speakers (like headphones, car stereo, club sound system) to compare what you hear in your room and see if its right, aswell as using the spectral analyser to make sure things are nice and smooth


look up in google for a Room Mode calculator if you want to see what modes are most likely to be the issue in your space - or do a sine-wave sweep thru the spectrum, and walk around your room to see how the sound changes, that will tell you the problem freqz in your room


it is true that you can mix down in most rooms, if you learn the room sound, although you must always use a reference aswell; that's one of the benefits of having a properly treated space, what you hear coming from the speakers, is exactly what you should hear
 
Crizis said:
Oh I like that tip. Easy and to straight to the problem. I'll def try this out
Click to expand...

its a very rough n ready way of doing it, using an impulse response program does the same thing, but in allot more detail; because rooms don't match up to individual Hz perfectly, so in my studio for eg, I had an issue with 57.3Hz, that's not a freq I would ever have thought to test manually lol but i did already know there was an issue in that region
 
If you can work out what notes the vocalist is singing, I can use music theory to work out which notes you could use to write your bassline, that might be more within the normal dnb sub range

All this stuff about the 5th or whatever is just blind guessing about what might work, we need to know the notes to actually be able to tell.
 
Last edited:
miszt said:
its a very rough n ready way of doing it, using an impulse response program does the same thing, but in allot more detail; because rooms don't match up to individual Hz perfectly, so in my studio for eg, I had an issue with 57.3Hz, that's not a freq I would ever have thought to test manually lol but i did already know there was an issue in that region
Click to expand...

Yea ofcourse, that can't be the best way to check room acoustics. But I would just like to know how well (or in my case, how bad) my room actually sounds... When I get to actually treating my room, I'll do it all a bit more indept
 
Back
Top Bottom