I NEED BASS!!!

[siLLy KiD]

this is the one field i have been struggling with as a producer... no matter how many soft synths or hardsynths i fuck with i can never find a good solid bass! it could very well be that i'm not eq'ing correctly or what not, but if anyone is wiling to share where they get good solid bass tones from i would greatly appreciate it -=]

also, any general reading material on dnb production that you guys know of would help a lot too (mixing, mastering, good programs to use, etc..).
THANK YOU! <3
it's nice being able to get tips from like-minded producers instead of trying to get something out of "studio-tips from john B" in knowledge magazine...

[Hallifax]

ad an 808 or sine bass under your raunchier bass sounds. Ad an 808 Kick underneath tracks that need a thump in the kick drum. High pass the kick drums, But not too much, you want to leave room for a nice big bassline, but you don't want to take out too much thump from the kicks either or the mix can loose energy depending on the loop or kick drum you use. It takes some getting used to but you will get a feel when there's the right medium of big bass but still enough thump in the drums. It took me a long time to be able to hear the right mix of the two and I always find I learn more with each track I write.

[titanium]

it's nice being able to get tips from like-minded producers instead of trying to get something out of "studio-tips from john B" in knowledge magazine...

tips on howto put up your make-up on 80z style?

but on topic: try use some waves plugs like Rennessaince Bass to boost your lower freqs.

[ALPHA OMEGA]

I've started using baxxpander & just slapping it on whatever bass sounds I'm using in logic.

[Macc]

DO NOT USE RENAISSANCE BASS OR MAXX BASS.

I'll come back to this in a bit, loads of work on.

Let's just say they don't give you bass, they make you think you have bass. But you don't. And they sound fake.

[rmf]

do not use renaissance bass or maxx bass.

i'll come back to this in a bit, loads of work on.

let's just say they don't give you bass, they make you think you have bass. but you don't. and they sound fake.

now that would be interesting... i'm an rbass abuser aswell

[Macc]

dagh i'm just too busy to write a full on explanation! i will though

[titanium]

thinking you got bass, can be enough to believe it macc

[Macc]

Not when it sounds fluffy, rubbish, and doesn't actually make your nose vibrate.

[ALPHA OMEGA]

I do agree with Macc,you should be able to have your source bass weighty as fuck on it's own without having to worry about artificial sweeteners to fakify your bass

I think that's why I've shyed away from having any bass sounds played in my pc for so long as I knew between my sampler & tla eq I could get what I want.

However,very recently I've strated transferring my bass sounds from akai into logic and using the URS eq's to get it sounding right and it works very well

one word of advice if your seperating your bass (subs & mids/hi's if your that way inclined) then leave your subs with lots of headroom because that seems to let those trouser waffling frequencies through unscathed.Once you start raping the headroom in that sub channel then you'll get that distorted sound & start losing your sub frequencies which just won't be able to get through.

So seperate your frequencies if you do a have one of those pendulum/teebee type ideas in your head so the subs can run underneath untouched adding that much loved weight.

[siLLy KiD]

thx for the tipz falla's!

aside from plug-ins though, what about generators? like when you're getting ready to add a bassline, what's the first synth you'd go to? or any other soft synths that you like for that matter (especially free one's )

[batfink]

press the bass boost button on your aiwa dude.

[Macc]

nuff dbb bizzlenessiss a gwaninin.



okay:

maxx bass and renaissance bass work on an 'aural illusion' concept.

when you hear a sound (unless it is a pure sine wave), you hear not just a pure tone, but a succession of harmonics too.


in theory:

what maxx bass and renaissance bass etc do is to listen to the bass input and synthesise/generate (presumably by distortion) harmonics of whatever is below a user-designated cutoff frequency. what this means is that there are an increased number of harmonics of low signals present.

as such, if you completely remove the original bass content and just leave the maxx-bass product, you still think you're hearing the original low frequencies, even though they aren't present at all.

what this means is that the perceived bass extension (god i sound like the waves blurb) of otherwise limited systems is increased.

so now you can hear your ultra low dub bassline on your cacky little laptop speakers, innit! they only go down to 130hz or something, but now you hear the harmonics (the strength of which is determined on the plugin) of that 30hz-bassline, so you think you're hearing 30 hz, when you're not. great! so now everyone's got a subwoofer on all their systems.


in a dog's cock have they.


in practice:

it sounds like someone got your bass, covered it in glue, and rolled it round in a big patch of fluff, then put it back in your tune.



remember, it is adding harmonics - not actual bass! using this doesn't make the actual bass, the bit that makes your beer walk off the table, or your chest cavity vibrate, louder. if anything, it makes you have to reduce that region, because you are using extra headroom for your 'oh so wonderful' harmonics.

add to that the fact that in the context of your whole mix, you now have a whole load of harmonics that sit, ohhh, somewhere in the 100 - 250 hz range to deal with. what's that area, everybody? that's right: mud!

so now we have extra mud in our mix. hurrah

and we've had to turn down our actual bass to do it.



use eq and boost the actual bass instead. if you need harmonics, compress it like a bastard, or open your cutoff, or distort it, or do it a billion and one other ways. alpha omega gives sound advice up there ^^

[ALPHA OMEGA]

the vst synths I turn to are

novation bass synth
reaktor
surge
pro 53 (admittedly for those nasty leads moreso than sub bass)

hardware wise

nord3
nord
waldorf pulse
astation
studio electronics Chameleon atc1 (THE bass king & totally analogue)

tla eq1 for processing

I've recently started using compression on bass aswell but that has to be kept down to a minimum or it just squashes it into a silly little shadow of it's former glory.

[titanium]

softwarewise, albino
hardwarewise, bassguitar with some schjweet valvecompression/saturarion!
sure, youre right macc, but hell, if RBass fattens up the sound and it sounds good .. why not!

[Macc]

Because it doesn't sound good.

[Wilshy]

On your £30 headphones

[Macc]

Ahem £75 ackcherlee

[titanium]

that explains it! ur using cheap shit .. cuz it does sound fuckn awesome on my dt880's

[ALPHA OMEGA]

oooh touchy!

[Macc]

It's not necessarily what you've got mate

Fair enough if you like the sound, but it just sounds fake, fluffy, muddy, and unpleasant to me. And I've mixed eeeeeeeeeeeeenufffffffff tunes on these cans and got plenty of pleasant feedback about my mixes in the past So don't try blaming it on them


I used to use RBass a lot until I discovered how good things were without it

[Wilshy]

Ahem £75 ackcherlee

All my visions are dashed of yoghurt cup style 'phones around your bonce.

Did Zane get you the more expensive ones?!

[titanium]

It's not necessarily what you've got mate

right, its how u use em

but yea, gotta admit, your bass should be proper without these "enhancements" and trouble is that some people think this is like a wondervst to solve all there problems. which it isnt. i apply it in small doses, cuz otherwise it will blur up things!

[batfink]

for bass i use the urs fulltec plug to boost the real 20/30hz lows while gently tailing off stuff from about 100/200hz and above so theres plenty of room for the drums etc.

if you have a bass sound which also has lots of midrange content you'd be best seperating it into a couple of tracks, one for the subs one for the grrrrawwwwshnk.

there you go. sorted.

ps. nuff dbb bass boost presshah helps too skeen.

[ALPHA OMEGA]

if your gonna go boosting a ton of frequencies with your bass sounds then you'll do wise to slap a good compressor over the top to control it all otherwise

sonalksis does the trick for me,especially with it's limit/crush feature