Where do you guys cut your sub bass?
Where do you guys cut your sub bass? Posted on: 27.03.2011 by Verona Fashbaugh How low do you let your sub bass go? I've been working on a few tracks where some of the notes my bassline hit are as low as 41Hz or so.Now, I understand a lot of subwoofers don't go that low. I guess maybe a better question would be, for the most part, how low of frequencies can most subwoofers produce? How low do you guys let your frequencies go? | |
| Verona Fashbaugh 28.03.2011 |
Originally Posted by Nephew
Not sure if I'll actually use it or not, but still... good looking out. |
| Verona Fashbaugh 28.03.2011 |
Originally Posted by Nephew
Thanks for the tip though. |
| Ling Zambada 28.03.2011 |
Originally Posted by Lambox
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| Holly Reque 05.04.2011 | I go around 30 hz it seems to work well with clubs etc and not overpower anything or make any speakers fart. |
| Breana Singerman 06.04.2011 | I don't use a maximizer at all, and I have a limiter on but I RARELY hit it, it's there just in case. And you don't want a loud mix down, far from it! You want a very dynamic mix down, leave yourself plenty of head room, so when you play it out you can push it a little harder on the mixer and get that warm bass humming while still having space for all the other sounds to shine. |
| Jolyn Brunello 05.04.2011 | thanx for the reply...i heard the master you did of whyte's recent track(sweet!). i'll try experimenting a bit. cheers when you say some of it will be the mastering do you mean when the maximizer and limiter brings everything up.maybe thats my problem..if i can get a sweet but not hugely loud mixdown done then mastering could add that weight that im after maybe? |
| Breana Singerman 04.04.2011 | Haven't listened to the links yet, but will check them in a bit. As for beefing up the low end, a simple way is to compress, but not over compress where you lose the dynamics. You could even use a multi band compressor just for the ubber low end. A lot of what you're hearing might have to do with the mastering as well. I am by no means a mastering engineer, but I do my own subtle mastering when I finish a track just so I can play it out when I spin, and even a little mastering know how when applied gently can really bring out your low end and give you track a lot of energy.(This is no reason to be slacking on your mix down though! Your mastered project will only sound as good relative to your mix down.) |
| Jolyn Brunello 04.04.2011 | prob wont hear it on pc speakers |
| Jolyn Brunello 04.04.2011 | thanx nephew you always give sound and thoughtful advice mate,its appreciated.is it good practice to just have a single sine oscillator for sub and maybe layer a pitched down 808 tom on top of it just above the kick?.what sort of processing can be used to beef up the sub (apart from pitch envelopes for the attack)im really struggling at the mo.i do sidechain and compress the sub but it always sounds slightly weak with the kick.i suppose im trying to make it for club systems and im only using rockit 6's but i can hear the sub enough on these speakers with tracks i've purchased.i'll put a couple of links to tracks for you to hear the sort of bottom end im after.it sounds pretty basic mate hope you can help at 4.40 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vt6T...eature=related at 6,10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74U010rakmc i cant even hear the bass on this through my pc speakers but its there in spades http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UESEbuw_FbM |
| Phung Furfari 01.04.2011 | Fact it there is no default setting, it depends on the slope of the filter and how it sounds. It will be very difficult to judge optimally without having a full range system and heavily bass trapped room. |
| Marnie Foye 29.03.2011 | Your typical sin wave sub bass sounds great with a tube amp on it. It really doesn't distort the low frequencies. Just gives them better presence, and a fuller sound overall. |
| Breana Singerman 28.03.2011 | You don't have to use that specific chain per se, but it achieves the result I was trying to point you towards none the less. And like I originally stated, if you're going to use this trick depends on where you're intended audience is going to be listening to it. Example, if you're making an "underground" club track, there really wouldn't be much use for this unless you're going to use it for a break down or build of some sort. On the flip side, if you're getting commissioned to remix a Lady Gaga track, then obviously it's going to be aimed at more radio play and top 40 listeners, i.e. people who listen to most their music in their cars or on their iPods, so you would want to make the bassline something you could hear in those environments. That's what I was trying to get at my friend. |
| Verona Fashbaugh 28.03.2011 |
Originally Posted by Nephew
Not sure if I'll actually use it or not, but still... good looking out. |
| Breana Singerman 28.03.2011 | I'm not talking about making it super distorted, just a little bit so you can actually hear it. Not something I practice often, but it has it's time and place. The idea is to make it so you can hear the bassline if you're in a listening environment where you won't be able to feel it. If you use Ableton, just go to the audio effects>audio effect rack>Tone and Colour>Crunch-n-Munch (if your on 8 that is, one earlier version I believe it's in performance & DJ). Slap that on your bass line and you'll hear what I mean. Just adds a little bit of distortion on top of it so you can hear the bassline if you can't feel it. Obviously you'll have to adjust the settings to taste, but you'll be able to hear the bassline none the less. Hell, try making a sub bassline and listening to it through your laptop speakers/earbuds and see how much of it you can pick out, then add the crunch and munch and you'll be able to follow it with no issues. BUT, I would only do this for a radio version if you will if you intended for it to be pure subby goodness, otherwise leave it off and rock it in the club and let the low end do it's job |
| Jolyn Brunello 28.03.2011 | just to clarify nephew are you saying distortion on a sub bassline is ok?. |
| Sherril Sondergard 28.03.2011 | i found it really hard to get that nice clean shaking effect w/ subbass. |
| Breana Singerman 28.03.2011 | When making it for radio/ipods the challenge lies in making a bassline people can actually hear. This could be done by simply layering an organ one octave above the bassline, by adding a little distortion to and so on. But when making it for el club-o's, by all means, keep it low and subby. |
| Verona Fashbaugh 28.03.2011 |
Originally Posted by Nephew
Thanks for the tip though. |
| Ashirumatic DJ 28.03.2011 | 30Hz - the sub sounds you feel the most exists between 35-47hz - this is that really low presence that shakes allot of dancefloors. Producers like downlink, Excision, Propa Tingz etc... all cut 30hz and below. |
| Sherril Sondergard 28.03.2011 | i cut it where the kick is |
| robert chanda 29.03.2011 | Nononono. You're supposed to cut the midrange, then drop the bass. [youtube]lQwnt9dMDUU[/youtube] P.S. 35 Hz is a good place, although the 808 bassdrum is all around 80Hz. |
| Ling Zambada 28.03.2011 |
Originally Posted by Lambox
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| Breana Singerman 28.03.2011 | Why wouldn't you add some distortion? It's a real common producer trick so you can hear the bassline if you can't reproduce it properly on listening set ups, i.e. ear buds/laptop speakers where there's no sub available. And I'm not talking about doing whole different arrangements for your 'club' and 'radio' versions, just to approach the mixdown and mastering a bit differently and to make it so people can 'hear' the sub bass if they don't have a sub on the radio version. That's all. |
| Verona Fashbaugh 28.03.2011 | I don't know man, making club and radio versions of tracks I release probably isn't real practical. I'm not trying to please everyone, I'm trying to please the most amount of people. I can't imagine much of my music gets played out in club settings, but I'm not about to distort my basslines... Thanks for the advice though. |
| Breana Singerman 27.03.2011 | Remember, by trying to please everyone you'll end up with no one happy then. |
| Breana Singerman 27.03.2011 | I believe it depends on who your audience is. I make my stuff to be played out by DJs on big systems, so I engineer them that way. If you expecting a lot of people to be listening to it on their laptop or iPod, then you would more than likely add a bit of distortion to the bass so they can actually hear it and would more than likely add more compression on the master channel than you normally would. You could actually make two different mix downs if you really wanted to, the actual club track and then a radio mix as well so you're hitting all points |
| Verona Fashbaugh 27.03.2011 |
Originally Posted by Nephew
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| Breana Singerman 27.03.2011 | Well, are you making your stuff for people to listen to at home/on their ear buds, or are you making it to be played in a club? And while your headphones may be able to go that low, you really can't feel it I'd say. But that's just me. |
| Verona Fashbaugh 27.03.2011 |
Originally Posted by Nephew
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| Nedra Fresneda 27.03.2011 | 30Hz |
| Breana Singerman 27.03.2011 | I'd also like to add that I do have a sub for my monitoring setting up so maybe that's why I can tell the difference. |
| Breana Singerman 27.03.2011 | I cut out anything below 35hz myself, and I've noticed there is a difference between 35hz and 40hz. But I would let the mastering engineer worry about that as he'll most likely put a filter at the start of his chain the cut out anything below a certain amount. |
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