Some Bass Questions

[4LEAFNOVA]

WASSSSSSSUP, im new to this shit

ive made a few dubstep tracks and i can never really get the bass right

its always too quiet, and not bassy enough if you get me

i just need a few tips and tricks to get me goin

so if ya'll could help, it'd be much appreciated

PEACE



ps. im using fl studio

[lynn mc]

basic sinewave = your sub
LFO>Filtercutoff = your wobble
FM-synthesis = your metallic grit

thank you and goodnight

[growlater]

You haven't really given us much to work with here, other than your bass seems to be too quiet. This could be caused by a number of different reasons. Perhaps your monitor gear does not adequately represent the bass of the song (your speakers are misrepresenting the way it really sounds).

I'm also not sure if you mean subbass, midrange bass, both, or what. I'm going to assume its subbass. If this is the case, first make sure you have carved out an area in the mix for the subbass to sit. Basically this means cutting all the lows (highpass filters, lowcut filters, EQ) of all the other instruments so they don't interact and disturb your subbass. Once you are certain you have a nice amount of room for your sub to live (lets say, the frequency range 20hz to 140z), you can start to get down to business. What do you use for the subbass? I would reccomend you use two different instruments for your bass as a whole. For typical dubstep bass, you probably want to let a sin wave (or an 808-like sound) do all the sub frequency work, and leave the midrange up to a synth or sampled tone (remember, you would highpass / cut the lows on the midrange bass layer (wobble for example), so it remains distinctly separate from the subbass). The goal of course is that the midrange and sub work togeather, and sound as though they are one instrument, even though you have them in two distinctly separate frequency ranges.

Your kick can be another source of interference, you may want to cut the lows on it somwhere in the vicinity of 45-80 hz. No sound but the subbass instrument and kick have any business having any activity below 140hz, IMO. If you solo your kick and subbass by themselves, and the kick causes the master volume to go into the red, you maybe can use a technique such as sidechain compression to solve this. (an example of sidechaining in this situation would be a compressor on the subbass channel, side-chained to the kick channel, with a low attack on the compressor) The end result is a ducking sub when the kick occurs. If you don't know how to do this, search the forum.


Grab a free spectral analyzer if your speakers are the problem, I reccomend Bluecat's FreqAnalyst (type that into google, and your first hit should be a free download). Use the spectral analyzer to determine the full extent of your bass, find out where the sub is peaking at (represented by a big hump in the frequency diagram). Its possible that your sin wave subbass really is insanely loud, and you just can't hear it through your speakers (common problem). The Spectral analyzer I mentioned will help you determine the volume of your subbass relative to the rest of your mix.

This still won't solve all your problems, but hopefully its a start. If this doesn't make sense, read lynn mc's post again.

[nowaysj]

Read the stickies at the top of the page. Try stuff out as you read it. You will begin to understand, I promise.

[nitz]

basic sinewave = your sub
LFO>Filtercutoff = your wobble
FM-synthesis = your metallic grit

thank you and goodnight

haha thats one good answer in its simples form.

[4LEAFNOVA]

cool man

i just aquired massive

gunna fuck abotu wit it

cheers for the help man

[grooki]

^^
if you are really just learning, it's probably better to start with something a bit more simple than Massive. You can still get fantastic sounds with simpler synths, and you will start to understand how they work more easily

[deadly_habit]

massive is pretty damn simple and straight forward tbh

[nowaysj]

There are simpler synths with few routing options etc, but for a full featured workhorse, nothing is simpler and more straightforward.

[grooki]

massive is pretty damn simple and straight forward tbh

really? I've never used it tbh, but from the screen shots I thought there would be easier synths to learn from...

[deadly_habit]

There are simpler synths with few routing options etc, but for a full featured workhorse, nothing is simpler and more straightforward.

well circle is imo and sounds better, but that's just me

[nowaysj]

Bro, load a simple patch into circle and feed it some notes... 40% cpu on a powerful pc... no.

[jolly wailer]

TBH if yr on Fruity you should get yr head around 3xOsc and some of the other native plugs like FL Kick and the TS404 before dabbling in other vsts
there are some big big sounds to be made from scratch w/ those..

[nowaysj]

agree everything except the 404

[86.]

is cytrus good?

[nowaysj]

sytrus is amazing.

But it doesn't come with fruity, separately purchasable.

[86.]

really?

always thought it did.

guess not lol

[selophaine]

It depends on how you "acquire" it... if i had the money i would buy it just to get the f'n manual. i'd have to agree about the 404 as well, haven't got anything decent out of it yet, especially compared to the 3xOsc.

[nowaysj]

I wouldn't recommend buying fruity for your main daw. To use as a vsti in your daw, yes.