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Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 1:15 am
by dj seizure
So lik how do u make de wobblez?

:D

Okay, so a friend of mine equalised his car and got a 3kw sub woofer in his boot. We went for a spin and I heard some track in that car that have now become my guilty pleasure. One thing that astonished me is the way the bass came through. I'm assuming there is probably a thread on this or there is probably some other info on the production site but I think the way most tracks make a drop work on a huge system is being able to either pan it, modulate it or the note they use is such that it hits from the deep end and really kicks in. As I stated, I really have no idea.

I burnt a load of my tracks and tried it in his car and the sub bass really didnt' give that huge affect that I got with most the other tracks that were played.

Soundcloud

The tune above I made about a month back and I've been trying with the sub bass for weeks to try and make it reach the lower ends.

I know it has nothing to do with the octaves, but more to do with how to modulate it or design in so it hits from the subwoofer.

I have no idea what else I can do or how to improve my knowledge of creating a really good solid bass so I thought I'd come here for help.

Incase this helps with answering questions, I record everything live, cut the samples appropriately on Cubase/Acid/Reaper, it doesn't really matter and then I arrange it in Fruity as this is pretty user friendly. So anyone that has any knowledge on fruity, that would be great.

Thanks in advance for any helpful contributions.


EDIT:

Soundcloud

Used Basic A's help with the Sub bass on an old track of mine ^^

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 10:30 am
by Ldizzy
there is no sub in your song...

im french so i often get things all wrong and sound like a troll...

but maybe if u put one u will hear one :D

i hear ur track is highly percusssive. percussion driven tracks with no sub sometimes manage to get decent bass with 808-kick-like sounds layered underneath

eg :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IXMTZ40Iy0

ur track doesnt have a really big dynamic range.. di u treat it , i maen did u mix it? how?

subbass thread would prolly answer ur question more...

basically, with the info u provided... the answer to ur question is.. get good at mixing :P

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 10:45 am
by Sirius
I've been experimenting with sub hard lately...
I found a technique to make the best sub i have even made...

turned down all the freqs on my mixer cept the lows, which i cranked up 6dB..
then wave my mic it infront of my sub... even put it on the cone & capture the thuds & sub...
fukn nuts i tell ya!!<-- this shakes the fuk out of the house!

!!chea

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 11:58 am
by grooki
Yeah I can't really hear any sub either. There is that "low boom" on every beat, but it sounds like a sub patch that has been hi-passed to me. It sounds like it has the character of deep bass but the actual meat isn't there.

What have you used/how have you made your sub?

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 12:43 pm
by OlzaMK
I'm having troubles with sub bass. I saw a tutorial the other day that sort of gave me an idea.

Cut the low end off all of your drums whilst making it still sound good.
Cut the low end off your lead synths

Your sub bass should have room to breathe and it will sound a lot better.
and eq your sub so it is louder in the areas where you just rolled off the low end on your drums.

I like Sirius' idea, I need some more out of the box techniques to try out.

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 12:47 pm
by deadly_habit
OlzaMK wrote:I'm having troubles with sub bass. I saw a tutorial the other day that sort of gave me an idea.

Cut the low end off all of your drums whilst making it still sound good.
Cut the low end off your lead synths

Your sub bass should have room to breathe and it will sound a lot better.
and eq your sub so it is louder in the areas where you just rolled off the low end on your drums.
no need to eq boost, but bingo
mixing 101 especially key in a genre where the emphasis is BASS
there's no super secret when it comes to dealing with your low end freqs it's just leaving headroom through proper mixing so you have nothing else eating up your bassweight
same goes for any element you want focus on

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 12:55 pm
by OlzaMK
deadly habit wrote:
OlzaMK wrote:I'm having troubles with sub bass. I saw a tutorial the other day that sort of gave me an idea.

Cut the low end off all of your drums whilst making it still sound good.
Cut the low end off your lead synths

Your sub bass should have room to breathe and it will sound a lot better.
and eq your sub so it is louder in the areas where you just rolled off the low end on your drums.
no need to eq boost, but bingo
mixing 101 especially key in a genre where the emphasis is BASS
there's no super secret when it comes to dealing with your low end freqs it's just leaving headroom through proper mixing so you have nothing else eating up your bassweight
same goes for any element you want focus on

Yay I feel like I'm finally doing something right. :w:

I'll stop that boosting shit right now :q:
I'm slowly grasping the concept of headroom.

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 12:58 pm
by deadly_habit
yea 90% of the time it's better to do subtractive eqing and boost the channel gain than additive eq work
hit up the moneyshot/mixing thread if you haven't already for more in depth on headroom and the ilk

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 1:39 pm
by dj seizure
Is there any Youtube videos that have help on this. I understand what everyone is saying, I just don't know how to technically do it on Fruity!

And concerning the bass in talk, 1minute 28 seconds, isn't that the sub bass when it drops it, if not, what makes it not sub bass!?

I'm so confused now.

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:52 pm
by Basic A
dj seizure wrote:Is there any Youtube videos that have help on this. I understand what everyone is saying, I just don't know how to technically do it on Fruity!

And concerning the bass in talk, 1minute 28 seconds, isn't that the sub bass when it drops it, if not, what makes it not sub bass!?

I'm so confused now.
'In FL :

Open 3xOsc, turn volume of bottom two osc's off, Set osc 1 to sine, turn crs tuning knob the whole way down (24 semitones)

Go to INS tab, enable envelope on volume to stop zero crossings, reduce attack and release so they dont take as long, turn sustain up to keep your levels from changing.

Use c3-c4 octave on piano roll, even if your speakers dont pick it up.

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 3:21 pm
by symmetricalsounds
Basic A wrote: Use c3-c4 octave on piano roll, even if your speakers dont pick it up.
and if they don't pick it up get strokin' ya cones

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:03 pm
by OlzaMK
symmetricalsounds wrote:
Basic A wrote: Use c3-c4 octave on piano roll, even if your speakers dont pick it up.
and if they don't pick it up get strokin' ya cones

Sub bass is a bitch to get going at first, Its really trial and error and finding the balance with your speakers. Takes some getting used to.

The best way to get it right is to look at your sub bass soloed into a frequency analyzer and see where your levels are.
Usually the first time I make a sub bass it's really overpowering compared to the rest of the song because my monitors dont pick up all the lows.

Look at the visual analyzer to see what you can't hear and adjust volumes accordingly. Know what I mean?

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:30 pm
by Ldizzy
funny thing is ive never been UNABLE to generate decent subbass (not talking about great).. the mistake of a lot of people is to put too much...

to hear the subbass u have in ur beat i had to turn my monitors up and listen CAREFULLY. you shouldnt be supposed to look for a sub, specially in Dubbass music (shoutouts to my mans timbaland :D )

ur beat basically has high rumble artifacts... but no proper sub... its really squashed..

i cant hear if its ultra squashed cause it doesnt have headroom or if its simply a whack patch to begin with...

It would be a great idea to EXPLAIN HOW U DID TO CREATE THAT BASS.

other then that...
Listen to Basic A's advice he gave u a really good proper way to do it

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:32 pm
by qwaycee_
Ldizzy wrote: you shouldnt be supposed to look for a sub, specially in Dubbass music (shoutouts to my mans timbaland :D )
:lol:

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 5:45 pm
by aureliu5
OlzaMK wrote: Your sub bass should have room to breathe and it will sound a lot better.
and eq your sub so it is louder in the areas where you just rolled off the low end on your drums.
(first post from a long time lurker)

Quick clarification here: When the term "rolled off" is used to describe EQ, does that mean the low frequencies are completely removed or just brought down to a lower level?

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 6:14 pm
by skimpi
yeah just put a massive sine underneath it, it does sound more like the bass is just coming from rumble from all of the percussion etc, you cant go wrong with a sine though.
aureliu5 wrote:
OlzaMK wrote: Your sub bass should have room to breathe and it will sound a lot better.
and eq your sub so it is louder in the areas where you just rolled off the low end on your drums.
(first post from a long time lurker)

Quick clarification here: When the term "rolled off" is used to describe EQ, does that mean the low frequencies are completely removed or just brought down to a lower level?
and well it isnt completely removed, but when rolling off you add a low cut which substantially removes the frequencies, so they may not be completely removed, but they can be decreased by like 24dB or summat which means you can no longer hear it.

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 6:35 pm
by gravity
easiest way to get sub bass: load up a sine wave and play some low notes with it

it really is that simple

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 7:15 pm
by daft cunt

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Tue Nov 09, 2010 9:21 pm
by -[2]DAY_-
I don't really see why... NI Massive for a sine? LP at 40Hz, HP at 20-something and then limit?
Doesn't seem ludicrous, but I feel like there are better techniques



I just use sub samples from wherever or a maelstrom sine and lp at around 75ish
Been trying out the UAD LA2A and psp vintage warmer for volume but I've been bypassing them in the end. Just a bit of EQ to lp and notch out extra-loud frequencies

Re: Sub bass modulation

Posted: Wed Nov 10, 2010 1:24 am
by dj seizure
Just want to thank everyone for their help.

I've learnt sub bass!

Did a little trial, made a quick loop and played it on the 3KW system. The bass tore.

I wanted to feel the drop rather than hear it!

Now my problem is going to be making feasible melodies using such basses that are audible. The track in the OP, will get redone along with all my other productions.

From playing with sub bass, I have also learnt about how to format a kick drum correctly! YEY!


I have loads and loads of other questions about creating a snare which sounds like it's in an open space so it kind of echo's out, or even formatting strong high hats that pan central and don't get drowned out by the bass. But I'll lurk some!

Big up to all and I hope this thread continues into a huge talk about sub bass!