Trouble Cleaning Up Muddy Bass Synths

[TheAudioMedium]

I'm having trouble with a bass synth right now. It's just an Operator based bass sound I created. In order to get the tone I wanted, I used the filter. Now it's got the roundness that I want but it's just sounding too muddy, and not cutting through like it needs to.

I've got the Operator filter on, some EQ, a little Saturator to give just a little dirt and some more power, as well as some Compression (which admittedly, I am not very effective at using). No matter how I try to tweak, it stays muddy sounding, I believe because of the filter setting. But the problem is, that's where I get the tone I want, I just need a way to clean it up, and push it to the front of the mix a bit more.

Do you guys have any tips on how to do this? I tried going back to all of the other aspects in the tune and making sure that nothing is clashing in the lower frequency range where the bass is. Scooped those low frequencies off everywhere else that they aren't needed. That did help with the overall sound but it didn't do much to sit the bass where it needs to be.

Same thing happens a lot when I'm using the LFO with the filter. In order to get the right sound with the oscillations, the filter setting needs to be at a particular spot, which in effect totally changes/kills the original bass sound I had set up, usually muddying it up all to hell. How can I avoid this? (Sounds like a two part question, but really they are the same question.)

This bass is giving me problems. Any ideas?

[Lectric]

Go into a Parametric EQ and look at where the sound sits. Try amplifying some frequencies to find which ones are creating the muddy sound, and then work to cut them out using the EQ.

[Aufnahmewindwuschel]

hm did you try to walk through the frequencies with a rather sharp notch filter and see what sounds nice? and the order of the effects can change the sound alot too

[Brisance]

highpass, leave a small gap, layer with a tight sub. Also, sweep through with a high Q boost on an eq, to find everything, that sounds bad and cut them out.

[TheAudioMedium]

Thanks guys, sound advice. I have been having this issue for a long time with my basses after using the filter to get the sound I like, or applying the filter for LFO oscillation and have yet to solve the issue to my liking on my own.

Appreciate the feedback, going to see if this advice gets me where I need to be.

What do you mean by "leave a small gap" after the highpass though? Like, run the highpass filter, then "leave a gap" in the frequencies between the highpass and the sub bass frequencies?

[render]

post the muddy sound lets us see whats wrong with it

[TheAudioMedium]

Alright. I wasn't really going to post it because it's not dubstep, and it's something I only put together realy quick before getting picked up to hit the bars after a convo I had with a friend who's big on sampling old tunes and making classic hiphop-esque beats. I had never tried that style of production, or that genre, so I gave it a go.

http://soundcloud.com/user9316075/newideaextended

Like I said, in the very beginning of production, just wanted to/need to get the bass sounding better before I proceed further because I just can't take it! It's just the same thing looped to damn near infinity because he was digging the vibe and wanted a long ass version to try to write out some lyrics to.

[Brisance]

What do you mean by "leave a small gap" after the highpass though? Like, run the highpass filter, then "leave a gap" in the frequencies between the highpass and the sub bass frequencies?

Exactament.

[MaZa1]

When i'm having this problem i usually cut some of the low end and layer sub bass under the synth. Then I cut just a little bit round 200-500hz, so it clears the synth little bit. Maybe some boost to the high end will also clear it a bit.

[VirtualMark]

When you're saying about the filter changing the sound and being a problem, have you got the filter set to follow the notes? That can help keep the sound you like.

If it only sounds good on one note, you could always bounce a long note out, then sample it and play it that way.

An old trick used on vocals might help too - use parallel compression, but put an eq after the compressed bit. Then add a bit of high frequencies using a high shelf. Can brighten up a sound a bit while being subtle.

[TheAudioMedium]

VirtualMark, actually no, I haven't had the filter set to follow the notes. I have been wondering about this for a while. Certain notes it would sound exactly as I like it, then other notes certain aspects would be overwhelming or cut entirely. I understand why that is, I just wasn't sure how to "set the filter to follow the notes" as you say. I have found some certain ways to get around it, such as what you recommended but I'm still not sure if that's the best way to do that. It's likely not...

Thanks for your other tip as well. Between here and the Ableton forum I've got quite a lot of great advice that I can't wait to try out.

[VirtualMark]

VirtualMark, actually no, I haven't had the filter set to follow the notes. I have been wondering about this for a while. Certain notes it would sound exactly as I like it, then other notes certain aspects would be overwhelming or cut entirely. I understand why that is, I just wasn't sure how to "set the filter to follow the notes" as you say. I have found some certain ways to get around it, such as what you recommended but I'm still not sure if that's the best way to do that. It's likely not...

Thanks for your other tip as well. Between here and the Ableton forum I've got quite a lot of great advice that I can't wait to try out.

The feature is usually called key follow on most synths. On Operator, click on the filter tab. Where it says freq<key, set it to 100%. By the sounds of it this should sort your problem out.

I suggested other ways as there's usually more than one way to reach the sound you want. Hope this helps anyway!