xtal_tower
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 10, 2012
This is my first time actually going to a forum for production help! I'm having trouble with my sub basses, namely, getting them to be more powerful. I've been producing drum and bass influenced tunes for about five years now, and my sound design and mixdowns are getting really close to where I want them to be before I start trying to release music (I wanted to wait until I was at least decent before flooding the internet with more bullshit). Anyway, I do all of my own sound design, make all of my patches, and a lot of my drums, I've got what I feel to be a really interesting sound so far, but I'm running into a problem: How do I get my sub basses to be more prominent in my mixes? I've tried just making them louder, I've tried compressing them, I've tried filtering out the sub frequencies in the other sounds and using bare sine waves eq'd low, I can't get it right. I want a clear drum and bass sub, low, crisp, and fat, like, for example, the one used in this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_40o54-vpw (by the way, holy shit @ neosignal and phace in general these days).
I would like to be able to understand what I am missing/possibly doing wrong, because drum and bass music was my first electronic love, and I want to make sure I'm doing her good justice.
I've been working on this lately, for an example of what I mean:
http://soundcloud.com/xtalforever/mosaic-preview
It's a weird broken beat sort of half-time song, I'm trying to blend the appeal of downtempo with the elements of drum and bass I like.
I think part of the problem is the range of notes I am using, the harmonics in the sub change a lot, so it's hard to get a consolidated low end because it peaks at different points depending on the note. I know there is a way to make it more present, still, I just don't know what it is. I like rolling basslines that are mostly one note, but I don't usually use them, so this is a problem a lot for me.
Another tune I am having problems with is this:
http://soundcloud.com/xtalforever/obelisskk
I am aware that the kick in this has way too much sub, it has since been fixed.
I am working with two KRK Rokit 5's, and the corresponding sub-monitor, using mostly Ableton Live. My cans are Beyerdynamics DT770's.
I am also interested in any suggestions for good compression, distortion, and reverb plugins to use, if anyone has any opinions.
I don't use any mastering plugins, the only thing I put on the master chain so far is a mild compressor (usually threshold lowered just to a flicker, around 1:1.5, and a soft limiter).
Thank's so much for any time you're willing to give, I will be extremely grateful if you can help me solve this so I can start releasing music soon!
Cheers, - Xtal
I would like to be able to understand what I am missing/possibly doing wrong, because drum and bass music was my first electronic love, and I want to make sure I'm doing her good justice.
I've been working on this lately, for an example of what I mean:
http://soundcloud.com/xtalforever/mosaic-preview
It's a weird broken beat sort of half-time song, I'm trying to blend the appeal of downtempo with the elements of drum and bass I like.
I think part of the problem is the range of notes I am using, the harmonics in the sub change a lot, so it's hard to get a consolidated low end because it peaks at different points depending on the note. I know there is a way to make it more present, still, I just don't know what it is. I like rolling basslines that are mostly one note, but I don't usually use them, so this is a problem a lot for me.
Another tune I am having problems with is this:
http://soundcloud.com/xtalforever/obelisskk
I am aware that the kick in this has way too much sub, it has since been fixed.
I am working with two KRK Rokit 5's, and the corresponding sub-monitor, using mostly Ableton Live. My cans are Beyerdynamics DT770's.
I am also interested in any suggestions for good compression, distortion, and reverb plugins to use, if anyone has any opinions.
I don't use any mastering plugins, the only thing I put on the master chain so far is a mild compressor (usually threshold lowered just to a flicker, around 1:1.5, and a soft limiter).
Thank's so much for any time you're willing to give, I will be extremely grateful if you can help me solve this so I can start releasing music soon!
Cheers, - Xtal
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