sub "POPPING" issue (problem in both Operator & Massive)

[xrylex]

so im having that annoying issue with my sub bass "popping". this is happening in both massive AND operator. im sidechaining my kick to my sub, but even with the compressor disabled im having issues with popping. since im having the issue in 2 different synths there has to be an obvious solution that im just missing since its almost 3am.

- ive tried messing with attack time which doesnt totally solve the issue.
- ive tried filtering, which doesnt do shit, nor should it other than adjust volume.

i dont have anything else on the channel other than a limiter that isnt doing anything other than sitting there to catch peaks, and just a single oscillator/single sine wave running in the synth.

thoughts?

[hiddenbase]

when does the popping occur?

can you throw up an example?

Are you sure it's not your envelopes being too sharp?
Not memory or CPU?
Tried restarting?

[xrylex]

when does the popping occur?

can you throw up an example?

Are you sure it's not your envelopes being too sharp?
Not memory or CPU?
Tried restarting?

the pops are occurring mostly with shorter notes/switching quickly from note to note

not memory or CPU because it happens with everything else in the project frozen and the sub solo'ed with the CPU usage showing about 40%.

def not a restarting issue, its an ongoing thing.

i can post an example but its not going to help much as you are just gonna
hear sine waves with pops

i wouldnt think the envelopes are too sharp but that sounds more likely to be a potential cause than any of the other things you suggested. if i adjust them so they have a super slow attack/long release then my sub doesnt match the midbass notes and it sounds like an un-synced mess.

what trips me out is that its happening in both massive AND operator.

[Sine69]

I've had that problem before too, but turning up the attack time on the amp envelope always fixed it. If you can't get that to work I have no idea what it could be

[xrylex]

I've had that problem before too, but turning up the attack time on the amp envelope always fixed it. If you can't get that to work I have no idea what it could be

ive had the issue before but only when sidechaining, as soon as i turned off the compression it would stop. so i ended up bouncing to audio before sidechaining and that solved the issue in the past. this is doing it without the compressor even on...

how far did you have to crank up the attack to solve it?

[ChadDub]

Add a bit of release and if possible enable Monophonic mode and enable sliding.

[Sine69]

I've had that problem before too, but turning up the attack time on the amp envelope always fixed it. If you can't get that to work I have no idea what it could be

ive had the issue before but only when sidechaining, as soon as i turned off the compression it would stop. so i ended up bouncing to audio before sidechaining and that solved the issue in the past. this is doing it without the compressor even on...

how far did you have to crank up the attack to solve it?

I don't remember the exact amount since I'm not on the computer I normally produce on, but in Massive I wanna say the attack was at 30%, and I had to play around with the attack on the compressor as well.

[lyons238]

As stated above set your attack on the amp env and/or compressor a bit higher and turn portemento up a bit so it slides from note to note. If that doesnt fix it i dont know what the problem is.

[trench]

I had this issue and it turned out to be my CPU\RAM struggling... I could tell because the pops weren't always in the same spot and when I rendered the track the pops went away. it was doing this even when the CPU meter in my DAW wasn't anywhere near %100. I'm not saying that's the issue with you, but dont always trust your DAW's CPU meter (plus it doesn't show RAM).

Only other time I’ve had this issue it was fixed with attack and release adjustments.

[xrylex]

i really appreciate the suggestions, will try some different things later today and see if i can get this solved.

[1point5]

the popping is usually just the wave being stopped mid-cycle, and in low frequencies this is much more apparent. You can add some attack and release to your sub, but you may still get clicks when changing notes. If your synth is set to mono and legato voicing with a bit of portamento it shouldn't be as bad. It is also possible to remove pops with EQ (i never thought it would be until I saw someone do it) - just lowpass around 100hz

[dubesteppe]

try making your sub have a softer attack, and some portomento

[Toolman4]

You mentioned the attack, but what about release? Turn that up on the synth's amp envelope and see if it doesn't help...

[Augment]

It's either the attack or your CPU

[staticcast]

try giving your synth more voices, if it's currently monophonic, and turn off retriggering. you'll have to be careful with your midi programming to make sure your notes don't overlap, but you'll avoid clicks from notes cutting out when another voice triggers.

[eldoogle]

the popping is usually just the wave being stopped mid-cycle, and in low frequencies this is much more apparent. You can add some attack and release to your sub, but you may still get clicks when changing notes. If your synth is set to mono and legato voicing with a bit of portamento it shouldn't be as bad. It is also possible to remove pops with EQ (i never thought it would be until I saw someone do it) - just lowpass around 100hz

Yep. I usually zoom in on the end of the wave and make a cut when the waveform is in the middle, not going up or down (bad explanation).

[dmisreal]

what they said
it may just be the notes over lapping and phasing just a little
( at me if im wrong)

[pandy]

some good tips on sub bass right here.

[xrylex]

SOLVED!!!

after a combination of attack/release adjustment and adding a filter around 90db i still had a slight issue so i started messing with glide settings a bit. this seemed to solve most of the issue except on parts where there was lfo modulation to sync with lfo modulation of a midbass or pitchbend sync'ed with midbass... so i did some manual overlapping of notes which solve things...

but i thought that since that solved the issue, i might be able to smooth things out a bit further with still keeping the correct note lengths.

so i went back to the original note lengths, changed the way i was triggering the modulation by consolidated a bunch of my midi clips into bigger sections and then zooooooming waaaay in and making sure the on/off triggers were dead on with the midi note positioning... and now.. all is well.. no more popping. even after adding the sidechain compression im still pop-free... woot!


and def some great tips/troubleshooting advice in here!! thanks everyone!