Making deep sub basslines??

Stereojunk · Post by **Stereojunk** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:45 am

Im trying to create some deep sub bassline, id rather not post an example, most mnml tracks that have deep sub basses are similar, besides im not trying to mimic another tracks example id rather hear suggestios.

NickSoundDT · Post by **NickSoundDT** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 2:40 am

There are as many ways to do this as there are people doing it, and this flexibility can sometimes be a source of confusion. I'll mention two ways I've used before.

One approach would be to take a bass heavy loop that you have laying around, drop the cutoff, and then kick up the resonance until it fits in well with your track. This approach just takes a loop and turns it into a ready-made, subby bassline without too much work involved.

Another approach is to actually synthesize the bassline in a synth like Subtractor or Operator. Essentially the same principles apply here as above: Make sure to tune your oscillator to the right frequency range, cutoff down enough to kill any unnecessary frequencies, then resonance up to accentuate the correct frequency (if needed).

This short discussion wouldn't be complete without talking about composition of the bassline. When composing using the first method above, try making it match a frequency that is a multiple of your kick, melody, whatever. This often makes it easier to mix the bassline with the kick and other elements of the track. Another composition issue is watching out for overlap between bass notes and other low-frequency parts of your track. I tend to avoid using overlap, but if you need to there is lots of info on sidechain compression and related topics for taking care of mixing those low-tuned instruments.

Hope this was somewhat helpful,

- Nick

clubfoot · Post by **clubfoot** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 10:18 am

NickSoundDT wrote:a frequency that is a multiple of your kick, melody, whatever.

could you explain that a bit more please?

how do you calculate a multiple frequency?

lcvl · Post by **lcvl** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 1:03 pm

Almost any fat bass sound/sample with the right low-pass filtering will do.

wmayhem · Post by **wmayhem** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:41 pm

lcvl wrote:Almost any fat bass sound/sample with the right low-pass filtering will do.

Just checked your Bandcamp releases. Very cool stuff. I'm a huge ambient tech dub fan. You might enjoy this music: http://www.myspace.com/sursumcordarecords

wmayhem · Post by **wmayhem** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 3:48 pm

wmayhem wrote:
lcvl wrote:Almost any fat bass sound/sample with the right low-pass filtering will do.
Just checked your Bandcamp releases. Very cool stuff. I'm a huge ambient tech dub fan. You might enjoy this music: http://www.myspace.com/sursumcordarecords

Also, would love to have you join Machine Based Reasoning (http://sursumcorda.ning.com) social network for producers of of ambient, dub, minimal, etc...

NickSoundDT · Post by **NickSoundDT** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 4:27 pm

clubfoot wrote:
NickSoundDT wrote:a frequency that is a multiple of your kick, melody, whatever.
could you explain that a bit more please?

how do you calculate a multiple frequency?

What I mean by this is that you can tune your drums to match other parts of your song to make them easier to mix together. Probably best to disregard the "multiple" stuff for now and just think about it that way.

- Nick

Roqqert · Post by **Roqqert** » Fri Oct 31, 2008 4:51 pm

sounds weird i know but very short verbs can work.
make ur kick less subby so you experience your bassline deeper.
also make some high freq's stuff so you got lots contrast.