How do I make my sub more audible for those without woofers

[-[2]DAY_-]

the waves maxxbass and Rbass plugs are both great for bring out those phantom harmonics that make a bass really audible but still fat. But in my experience ive only used it on bass guitar, i never messed w it on synth

[VirtualMark]

i think it stands for subsonic. Which means below audible sound. its just semantics, but yeah.. as per the OP if you want sub line to be more audible on normal speakers, layer with low passed square, high pass square layer at ~75, let sine sub remain underneath

I don't think it does stand for subsonic. I *think* that's a reference to speed/velocity rather than frequency, as in a normal plane is subsonic (below the speed on sound). Sub is just a prefix meaning below and so the term sub-bass?

It's odd in that my studio monitors say they go to 50hz but can be pushed a bit lower by blocking the air ports (45-40hz), however, playing a pure sub at 35-45 hz, I can still hear it through them?! It's odd, maybe I'm interpreting feeling it as hearing it, dunno. The ways to deliver those frequencies on a range of sound systems is (to my knowledge) adding upper harmonics to the sound. I use sine sub bass lines almost exclusively, I love the warmth and texture of it, and unless I have a separate bass/low mid line (or a busy tune as is) I will add either subtle distortion, a square/triangle (tho I find the effect less so with tri) to the oscillator, or just layer up the bass with a completely separate synth and filter to taste. I also sidechain a lot more than I used to with pure sine subs, with a slightly longer release than you would normally have to compensate for a low bass kick. That way I guess psycho-acoustically you pick up the sub better because of the dynamics change. however that wouldn't help you on a pair of shitey iPhone earplugs.

A ported box is tuned to a frequency, this has the effect of either extending low frequency response or increasing bass output. However, if you play a frequency lower than the one the box is tuned to, you run the risk of damaging the woofer. Basically the woofer will become decoupled and will no longer use the air in the box to dampen its movement. It'll sound like its knocking, the sound of the coil smashing into the magnet or the suspension stretching to maximum limit. Not good!

By blocking the ports off, you're turning it into a sealed box. It'll play down low but won't be as loud, but will still be using the box to dampen the movement of the speaker. However, the woofer is not designed to be in a sealed box, and will have very different design characteristics from one that is supposed to be in a sealed box. So basically you will mess your frequency response up, instead of having a nice flat response that the manufacturer designed.

[VirtualMark]

I don't know why people suggest that you can't hear a sub bass. Stick your head in my car boot while i play a 30hz test tone and tell me you can't hear it! lol! While i agree that you can definitely feel it, you can also hear it. Sounds lush and deep and huge!

Human hearing is 20hz-20khz, and the top end diminishes as you get older. Below 20hz is called infrasonic.

[gen_]

sub-bass doesn't stand for subsonic.. at least thats not what my academy teaches. It's sub as in below (like sub-zero) and is used as conventional bass (aka bass guitar) didn't produce those frequencies in old rock tunes. (mostly because they were cut off by the engineers eeing as no-one had subwoofers back then and it was therefore a waste of good signal space.)

[tavravlavish]

these thread came at a perfect time for me, I need to work on making my sub lines stand out more, cause that is the only bass I like to use basically hahah.

[pete_bubonic]

Mark - Thanks for your replies. Nice to know how the ported/sealed thing works.

In my tunes (according to spectral analysers) the loudest part of any of my tunes is the sub and a lot of the time hits 30-45hz. I have also played my music very loud through my monitors before. You're saying that this actively damaging them?

Also with regards to hearing 30hz, and hearing it in your car, surely that because you got a fucking large sub pumping out 30-80hz? I've never really understood the freq curves and limitations advertised with speakers, they never seem all that accurate. More for spotting boost in freqs rather than tail offs?

[gen_]

If you get our hands on some saturation plugins, you can drive your bottom end and make the harmonics by hand, otherwise using a triangle wave instead of a straight sine is a good alternative.

[VirtualMark]

Mark - Thanks for your replies. Nice to know how the ported/sealed thing works.

In my tunes (according to spectral analysers) the loudest part of any of my tunes is the sub and a lot of the time hits 30-45hz. I have also played my music very loud through my monitors before. You're saying that this actively damaging them?

Also with regards to hearing 30hz, and hearing it in your car, surely that because you got a fucking large sub pumping out 30-80hz? I've never really understood the freq curves and limitations advertised with speakers, they never seem all that accurate. More for spotting boost in freqs rather than tail offs?

I'm saying that it can damage them through overexcursion in a ported box. You can generally tell as the woofer will appear out of control and there will be audible mechanical distortion. But if you've sealed the box then the air will act as a cushion as the cone has to work to stretch and compress the air. But by blocking off the ports, you're changing the characteristics of the original design and can no longer rely on the manufacturers frequency response charts. I wouldn't worry too much tho, as these charts are not normally achievable in a room, as the actual response will vary depending on the room size, acoustic treatment etc.

I know from building subwoofer boxes in car audio that decent amps come with a built in infrasonic filter(sometimes called a subsonic filter), which is basically a hpf that rolls off below 20-30hz, specifically designed to protect ported subs. I don't know what speakers you have, maybe they have some built in protection?

As for hearing 30hz, sure the sub makes it louder as its a dedicated to playing those frequencies. My point was that i can hear it and feel it, whereas i've seen a lot of comments saying that you can only feel it. Human ears can hear down to about 20hz. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hearing_range

[VirtualMark]

To the op: sorry to hijack the thread. I think you need to find a way to add in additional higher frequency harmonics - you said a triangle wave sounds bad but what about low passing it? Then you control how much gets through. Maybe add a little filter resonance, or as someone else said a saturation plugin. Lots of ways to go about this, you won't actually be hearing the 'sub' part, it'll be a higher frequency bass but might have the effect you're looking for.

[thefrim]

lowpassed square wave = winning

[Plastic Pope]

I agree about triangle waves. They just have a lameness to them! I like finding the right square wave, but sometimes it will sound too metallic so I'll opt for saw. But I agree that subtlety is the key.

The thing I hate about the layering approach is phase cancellation. I don't usually make dubstep but if I were to run into this problem I would try bandpassing a saw. In Massive I've mixed sine and saw for psytrance basses but the saw is hard to control. But at the same time there are other synths I would rather use for sine basses.

Maxxbass is awesome, although with a sine wave there really are no upper harmonics to emphasize. I do not know if Maxxbass adds signal based on the fundamental or uses the overtones that are already there. It does wonders for a thick electro bass and psy bass. But I would turn to your synthesizer first.

The other trick is in compression, which is a magic I am not confident enough to speak about yet.

[tavravlavish]

lets get more tips!

In my mind the best way to go about this would be to leave your sub alone just straight sine (maybe filter a little and drive it a tiny bit) and just do what people have suggested already, layer another sound on top of your sub that's hipassed filtered so it doesn't mess with the kick or sub. From what I've read on here is that driving your sub although it will sound phat with the added harmonics will ultimately make your sub lose some of it's power.

Any techniques for compressing your sub/ pros and cons of doing that?


Thanks dsf

[Plastic Pope]

Tavra, I've used waveshapers on sines too now that I think of it and there is no perceived loss of power. But you could always remedy that by putting the shaper on a highpassed send channel. Also try saturation or distortion. Someone mentioned a 4 kHz boost and distortion. But I suspect that all of these techniques will work, given that your mix has *room* for it.

Regardless, my Macbookpro speakers will not represent subby dnb or dubstep. Sometimes you just get a speaker fuck. But cut the lows at 80 Hz from everything but your kick and see how much better your sub sounds.

[tavravlavish]

Yeah I'll give it a shot, I got an 808 bass in this latest tune I've been making and usually this bass sounds really fat but for some reason in this tune it doesn't really have a lot of power even though it's peaking around -13db. I always make sure to lowcut all of my tracks, everything as a bunch of extra low end noise it's amazing. Especially hihats, hahah. I usually cut most things to around 150-200 to make sure my kick has plenty of room.