Sub Bass Question

Centrepoint

Centrepoint

Active Member
Joined
Apr 25, 2016
Location
Cambridgeshire UK
Hi, Happy New Year people.

I'm a new producer and need some help with sub bass if anyone could help.

Do you use sub bass as the main bass line or do you layer it under a certain section? For example would you layer it under another, higher frequency bass line or layer it under your pads lets say?

What frequency should it be around and how important is it to a track?

Any basic information, or if you can point me somewhere in the right direction, would be nice, cheers.

P.S.
I recently posted my first tracks on here, without putting any sub bass on them, i just used a single bass line(??sorry not sure how to describe it), any ideas or info you think would improve them would be absolutely smashing?
 
Hello again, I'm starting to feel like a spambot lol.

The sub just fills the bottom end out and gives you the weight to rattle teeth. Sub can be the main bassline like in Skeptical - Cold One


but more often it'll just be the lowest part of a bass that covers a larger frequency range.

Sometimes it'll be layered under a higher pitched bassline, you get this a lot in jump up tunes, cus there's little or no low end in the screechy screechy sounds like here


so he's layered a sub underneath. I would say it depends what bass your working with and how much low end it has, sometimes it's already there sometimes you need to add it, and you just need a decent set of cans or speakers to hear if its got the rumble you need!
 
Btw, can anyone tell me how loud your sub is supposed to be in tunes or does it just need to be as close to 0 as possible after limiting your track?
 
WhoSayReload? said:
Btw, can anyone tell me how loud your sub is supposed to be in tunes or does it just need to be as close to 0 as possible after limiting your track?
Click to expand...

It varies from track to track. Use a spectral analyser (SPAN is a good free one) and compare it to a reference track if your headphones or speakers can't produce the sub frequencies. Test the track out on as many setups as you can. A modern car system is normally a good way to go for the average joe who doesn't have access to a club system.
 
Yeah basically it's job varies tune by tune but it is very important. It spans from 20-60hz which is approximate note-wise to about an E0 though to about a B1. A sine wave usually does the trick in my opinion though some people prefer using more harmonic waves and low-passing them
 
ifanmusic said:
Yeah basically it's job varies tune by tune but it is very important. It spans from 20-60hz which is approximate note-wise to about an E0 though to about a B1. A sine wave usually does the trick in my opinion though some people prefer using more harmonic waves and low-passing them
Click to expand...
This.
 
In regards to Cold One, it's a simple bass, but has been processed in the right way.

It could probably be done with 3 layers.

1 sine with, with barely any processing.

1 distorted sine wave at the same frequency, which is then hi & low passed after the distortion, but is a lot lower in the mix.

1 detuned saw wave, which is distorted, high passed at 100-150 HZ, low passed & with a short reverb applied. Probably mixed at a low level.
 
Centrepoint said:
Hi, Happy New Year people.

I'm a new producer and need some help with sub bass if anyone could help.

Do you use sub bass as the main bass line or do you layer it under a certain section? For example would you layer it under another, higher frequency bass line or layer it under your pads lets say?

What frequency should it be around and how important is it to a track?

Any basic information, or if you can point me somewhere in the right direction, would be nice, cheers.

P.S.
I recently posted my first tracks on here, without putting any sub bass on them, i just used a single bass line(??sorry not sure how to describe it), any ideas or info you think would improve them would be absolutely smashing?
Click to expand...


In most dnb tunes the sub bass fills out the low and of your main synth and follows the same melody pattern ect.

But, some dnb tracks, as previously mentioned here, have the focus on a weighty sub, and build other elements around it (like skeptical tunes ect..).

There was also a thread somewhere on this forum about tunes which have a complete other subbass construction than the main synth, you should deffo check that out.


On the production side, you can easily make a sub bass out of a sine wave. That's the most easiest way.
To make it wider/ bigger, you can lowpass distorted or detuned waveforms like a square.


Make variation in your sub by adjusting the velocity of notes and automating the ADSR rates :)
 
Because I'm very much a sample based producer, any bass sounds that i use tend to to be grouped together and then low cut at around the 80-100hz mark. Then i add a clean sub bass, warmed up with some subtle tube distortion, that follows the same pattern as the bass sounds. If i cut at any frequency above 100 on my bass sounds then I seem to lose the low mids and therefore lose the character of the original sounds.

I used to just copy all of my bass sounds and then low pass but i realised that can get messy if you've added lots of effects to the original sounds.
 
prettyherb said:
In most dnb tunes the sub bass fills out the low and of your main synth and follows the same melody pattern ect.

But, some dnb tracks, as previously mentioned here, have the focus on a weighty sub, and build other elements around it (like skeptical tunes ect..).

There was also a thread somewhere on this forum about tunes which have a complete other subbass construction than the main synth, you should deffo check that out.


On the production side, you can easily make a sub bass out of a sine wave. That's the most easiest way.
To make it wider/ bigger, you can lowpass distorted or detuned waveforms like a square.


Make variation in your sub by adjusting the velocity of notes and automating the ADSR rates :)
Click to expand...

Cheers herb, very helpful indeed.
 
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