Sub Bass

M

Matt Carter

New Member
Joined
Jun 14, 2017
Afternoon everyone,

I am new here so this probably has been covered off someone else, so feel free to send a link.

Basically I have been producing for around 6 months, I am still getting to grips with bass design and its probably my worst part of my production.

I am struggling with getting sub basses that are warm and gritty for example tracks like

- Technimatic - Parallel

I was wondering if anyone would mind sharing some tips/ techniques

I know its all about playing about until you find what you want but a point in the right direction would be highly appreciated.

Thanks
Matt
 
ed_snap said:
low pass 2 detuned saw waves ( aka reese ) or low pass a square wave, or low pass 2 detuned squarewaves
Click to expand...

^ I think OP is just asking about sub bass, I don't think he's asking about midrange bass.

I've always heard to lowpass a sine (most common) or square, no others. Saws are only used for harmonics on the sub bass, a one oscillator saw wave that's layered on top of the uh bass, saturating/etc the saw, hipass it to cut out sub frequencies. IME I've found that to be true.

I've always read to use a limiter/expander on the sub bass instead of a compressor. I've had good results with using a compressor even though that's not a best practice. A lot of subtractive EQ'ing if you only want clean sub bass that you feel and not hear, I'd say use a one oscillator sine wave. Feel free to use a 2nd oscillator (also sine) but only if you don't detune them from each other, you'd want the waveforms to be in phase with each other so they're lined up and all it does is make the sound louder. With an EQ, use a lowpass filter remove all the frequencies higher than the sub bass frequency band.

You can get a great sub bass wobble by detuning the 2nd oscillator sine wave by a couple semitones, depending what key you're playing in.
 
low passed saws always sound better than just a normal sine wave. i usually low cut a slightly saturated saw to about 120hz which gives you a really harmonic bass, then EQ out certain frequencies as and when i need to.
 
Take sine wave, apply some gentle saturation,then add another gentle saturation..then..you guessed it,another and another saturation. Then lowpass it.

I found out this gets better results than to distort it to hell once. The same goes for midrange or reesees.
 
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