Dubstepforum.com

How to you make your basslines fit together? like ill have all these things that sound good played on their own, but when i try to structure them they just sound like complete shit. Some one used a great analogy once that was like one part calls out and the other part answeres. Any help is apreciated

dubesteppe wrote:How to you make your basslines fit together? like ill have all these things that sound good played on their own, but when i try to structure them they just sound like complete shit. Some one used a great analogy once that was like one part calls out and the other part answeres. Any help is apreciated

just use/come up with basslines that fit together.. its as simple as that!

Do you have an example?

If you're chopping up a lot of synths and making a glitchy (or dare I mention "Skrillex") bassline, fit comes from good music (your midi notes), and proper production (retriggering or syncing LFOs and oscillators, matching levels, etc).

The other solution is, take elements out until it sounds good or better than it did. Subtraction is hard to do but is usually a good solution. Overcrowded tracks are not suspenseful, nor can you concentrate and appreciate individual sounds that you may want to hook the listener with. Let your sound design and your music speak for itself and give it a stage to shine on. Get the fuckin backup dancers out of the way, unless of course they are scantily clad and have a nice rack.

dubesteppe wrote:How to you make your basslines fit together? like ill have all these things that sound good played on their own, but when i try to structure them they just sound like complete shit. Some one used a great analogy once that was like one part calls out and the other part answeres. Any help is apreciated

you can just take your "main" bassline and just create duplicate channels for it then just change up a few to a lot of parameters until you get something else that sounds good, then duplicate that and change that up again. there is more methods to have a song with different instruments that do sound good together but that is just one method I have told you and there is really nothing to lose when you try it. just experiment really you won't find what suits you until you try different things you know

Here is a message I got from my buddy http://soundcloud.com/raetyken on soundcloud about structuring a drop.

really what you should do, is make a drop with one bass, with the melody you want. Then make a few more basses and copy over parts of the melody you want in those basses to give it a dynamic range of basses. So what you're really doing is just making a melody and then cutting and pasting bits and pieces of it into different bass tracks. It may sound simple but its really complex until you get the hang of it. Even now I'm struggling on getting a good drop on one of my songs I'm working on. If you need anymore help, feel free to ask!

Theres a lot of experimentation going on but one thing I would stress is letting the notes stand for a little and resonate you don't want it to be too rapidfire. Also what is with the corn faces? I've never really posted here before lol.

dubesteppe wrote:How to you make your basslines fit together? like ill have all these things that sound good played on their own, but when i try to structure them they just sound like complete shit. Some one used a great analogy once that was like one part calls out and the other part answeres. Any help is apreciated

This is just one of those things that the more you play around, the better you get at this exact problem. It's an issue everyone has starting out but pretty quickly (especially if you practise a lot), you will develop an ear for it Unfortunately there really isn't much to advise, other than to keep the basses relative similar in their initial makeup. Ie. If your main bassline is a reese, make your 2nd one consist of half square/pulse waves rather than saw. They'll be similar, but different

thanks for the tips guys

amphibian wrote:

dubesteppe wrote:How to you make your basslines fit together? like ill have all these things that sound good played on their own, but when i try to structure them they just sound like complete shit. Some one used a great analogy once that was like one part calls out and the other part answeres. Any help is apreciated

This is just one of those things that the more you play around, the better you get at this exact problem. It's an issue everyone has starting out but pretty quickly (especially if you practise a lot), you will develop an ear for it Unfortunately there really isn't much to advise, other than to keep the basses relative similar in their initial makeup. Ie. If your main bassline is a reese, make your 2nd one consist of half square/pulse waves rather than saw. They'll be similar, but different

this is great advice! you want to have different soundwaves perfect

That guys message helped me alot there, thanks mate!