Dubstepforum.com

Ok so I've been scouring the forum, for a couple of hrs now. I've made this track with this huge kick made up of a couple kicks I layered and eq'd. Shit thumps hard. My current WIP I'm actually really loving, the intro is done, working on dropping it now. But the kick is to big and clashes hard when I try to throw sub. I've been told the kick is too big and I understand this. I've tried a couple things to eliminate the clashing. Sidechained the sub to the kick, I hate the way it sounds, I don't like it. I've tried eq'ng out the clashing frequencies, but then the kick loses that umph. So my question is kind of stupid, but are my only options to find a different kick, or deal with the loss of power to make room for the sub? I thought I could use my ears to take care of this problem, and it's easy to get the frequencies to stop clashing, but then it doesn't sound how I want it to. Sorry my post is long winded and possibly confusing, but I am extremely frustrated.

Soundcloud
Is the track in question, I can post up one with sub in it, but seems pointless.

this happens to me a lot. there is a sweet spot on the side compression. too much compression, and the sub bass will cut out... too little, and the kick clashes.


that sweet spot can be hard to find. sometimes it is even more elusive than the g spot

Let them clash, it sounds better that way.

ChadDub wrote:Let them clash, it sounds better that way.

Take all the sub out of the "sub bass" so you just get the audible tone.

Make a new instrument, make it a sub.

Use the same baseline but either sidechain the kick to that track, or play around with the midi notes with stuttering and such.

Post results here.

-T

Filter out the sub from the kick when your sub bass drops. You can either use a normal filter and automate it to turn on or you can use a sidechain filter so it only turns on when the sub bass is playing.

Heartless wrote:Filter out the sub from the kick when your sub bass drops. You can either use a normal filter and automate it to turn on or you can use a sidechain filter so it only turns on when the sub bass is playing.

This, I'd automate it so when the sub isn't playing the kick still has all those bottom frequencies in it but when it drops put a low cut filter on, if you've got the sub playing underneath it and you set the levels right it should give the illusion that the kick is still huge

take the sub out completely. Who needs a sub these days?

it shouldn't do that, its probably the kick but yeah fuck sub bass it causes to many problems who needs it.

try layering a kick with some punch a bit higher up in the frequency range, or try pitching up the lower freq kick, it probably loses power when you high pass the kick cos all the power is in that area.

Elongate your kick a bit and take the sub out use the kick as your sub for a quick reference check out some of bengas work alot of basslines are made from 808 kicks anyway so just make your kick thumb everybar and it should still be nice and filled low end wise with your kick carrying the track. Just my 2 cents.

Instead of sidechaining the sub to the kick, make a click track with the sam pattern as the kick, mute it, and sidechain it to that. Put the compression with a fast attack and release, Adjust the compression so that you can't hear the bass compressing audibly, then mute the drums so that you can make sure its still turning the bass down.

oprs wrote:take the sub out completely. Who needs a sub these days?

i love me some sub to bump.

BeastModeForDummies wrote:Ok so I've been scouring the forum, for a couple of hrs now. I've made this track with this huge kick made up of a couple kicks I layered and eq'd. Shit thumps hard. My current WIP I'm actually really loving, the intro is done, working on dropping it now. But the kick is to big and clashes hard when I try to throw sub. I've been told the kick is too big and I understand this. I've tried a couple things to eliminate the clashing. Sidechained the sub to the kick, I hate the way it sounds, I don't like it. I've tried eq'ng out the clashing frequencies, but then the kick loses that umph. So my question is kind of stupid, but are my only options to find a different kick, or deal with the loss of power to make room for the sub? I thought I could use my ears to take care of this problem, and it's easy to get the frequencies to stop clashing, but then it doesn't sound how I want it to. Sorry my post is long winded and possibly confusing, but I am extremely frustrated.

Soundcloud
Is the track in question, I can post up one with sub in it, but seems pointless.

Sorry I forgot to mention this earlier, but do you have a sidechain-able mutlipressor? This should help out tons, as you can squash the sub bass fequencies without squashing the higher end of the instrument.

If you don't, you'll have to do frequency band compression manually, which is basically just bussing the bass out to two aux channels, making a band filter on each aux track (one high one low). Let he bass play out of those tracks. Now you have the higher range and the lower range of the bass, and you can work with this separately. It takes a lot of fiddling, but I have faith that you can come out with what you want to hear, or you can come to a good compromise that you will be happy with.

That is, if you already haven't by this time!

Turn the fucking kick down?

mmjdw wrote:Turn the fucking kick down?

What's wrong with his kick level? It's dance music isn't it?

Heartless wrote:Filter out the sub from the kick when your sub bass drops. You can either use a normal filter and automate it to turn on or you can use a sidechain filter so it only turns on when the sub bass is playing.

this is what i was going to suggest. just automate either a filter or an eq so you can have your huge kick during the intro and then drop it out once the bass drops.