Unsatisfied with my bass

[T.C.]

Hey guys, long time lurker first time poster here. I'd like some advice on enhancing my bass (including anything from the sidechain compression, to the bass synth itself, to the filters on it, even the kick - really anything that you think could help me sound a bit more polished and professional).

Here's the relevant clip:

Here's how I made the bass groove in Ableton:
- I have a bass synth from Absynth
- I create two "layers" of it - one is an octave higher than the other. Lower is at -3.7 dB, higher is at -16 dB.
- They are both low-pass filtered. (lower-pitched layer at 53 hz, higher at 103 hz). Left the attack and release on the autofilters at default (attack at 6.00 ms, release at 200 ms, 0.00 envelope, no LFO)
- Side-chain compression is applied to each (Threshold ~ -14dB for each, model FF1, attack at .19 ms, release at 12 ms, ratio of 2.5, peak envelope)
- No EQ's were used
- Let me know if you need any more info

If you have any tips on how to improve, let me know! Feel free to be brutally honest - I learned most of this from experimentation, so I could be way off on something (i.e. I have no idea if Absynth is even good for making grooving basslines)

[steevio]

nothing much wrong with it as far as i can hear.

its a smooth bass, sounds right for the track.

not sure what you mean by unsatisfying, it hasnt got much attack (definition), sounds like you used two sinewaves, if you want more attack use a more complex waveform and adjust your filters accordingly.

what notes are you using ?

is your filter following the keyboard ?

[T.C.]

nothing much wrong with it as far as i can hear.

its a smooth bass, sounds right for the track.

not sure what you mean by unsatisfying, it hasnt got much attack (definition), sounds like you used two sinewaves, if you want more attack use a more complex waveform and adjust your filters accordingly.

what notes are you using ?

is your filter following the keyboard ?

I guess I just want a "fuller" bass that seems well-crafted. I feel like mine just seems very basic and simple - it doesn't have that nice "roundness" to it that expert productions have (obviously I don't know the right terminology for this). Here's an example of a track with what I consider impeccable bass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0KEARWEUlI (not sure if YouTube will do it justice)

The notes I'm using on the lower bass are A2 through F#3, and obviously one octave above that for the higher bass.

I'm not sure what you mean by "is your filter following the keyboard?", but here's sort of the path the signal goes through: Absynth -> autofilter -> side-chain compressor. If I've misunderstood, please let me know and I'll try to answer better.

[boudo]

Sounds good in my computer speakers, sounds good in my cheap headphones. Nice loop btw, very smooth

[Stomper]

maybe you critic your sound too much.
did you try a different synth?

I'm not sure what you mean by "is your filter following the keyboard?"

it means keytraking. the filter opens up according to the notes you play. if you play higher notes, the filter will start at higher frequency.

[Opuswerk]

sounds good to me
Maybe adding a tad saturation on it could help... At least that's what i would do if i want to bring the bass up in your clip.

[steevio]

nothing much wrong with it as far as i can hear.

its a smooth bass, sounds right for the track.

not sure what you mean by unsatisfying, it hasnt got much attack (definition), sounds like you used two sinewaves, if you want more attack use a more complex waveform and adjust your filters accordingly.

what notes are you using ?

is your filter following the keyboard ?

I guess I just want a "fuller" bass that seems well-crafted. I feel like mine just seems very basic and simple - it doesn't have that nice "roundness" to it that expert productions have (obviously I don't know the right terminology for this). Here's an example of a track with what I consider impeccable bass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0KEARWEUlI (not sure if YouTube will do it justice)

The notes I'm using on the lower bass are A2 through F#3, and obviously one octave above that for the higher bass.

I'm not sure what you mean by "is your filter following the keyboard?", but here's sort of the path the signal goes through: Absynth -> autofilter -> side-chain compressor. If I've misunderstood, please let me know and I'll try to answer better.

tbh mate theres not alot of difference between yours and the 'impeccable bass', on my good quality studio monitors.

the youtube one has a little more definition because theres space in the bassline, whereas yours has no space, try leaving a couple of notes out, or write a new one.
the youtube one also sounds a bit out of tune to me, maybe it was analogue, it also sounds like it may have been from a pulsewave, but its hard to tell from such apoor quality clip.

you can use one filtered pulse or saw wave instead of two seperate waves, because the pulsewave has the second harmonic (octave) in it anyway, you can sometimes get a cleaner bass from one single heavily filtered waveform. but dont use a squarewave, as it doesnt have the second harmonic, and for this type of bass sound you need it.

i use both methods to make bass, but i quite often go for the single waveform method, because effectively the resulting waveform will be almost identicle anyway if you get your filtering right.
its just whatever sounds best for the track.

EDIT;

btw, i checked your spectrum, and it doesnt tie up with what you said about the notes you used, you have a bass made up of mostly 46 Hz (F#1) and 55Hz (A1) so i'm not sure whats going on there.
maybe your kick is on 46Hz ? ? in which case it is going to be an octave lower than your high bass note, not a good idea, but i suspect the bassline is lower than you said.
unfortunately i dont know Absynth, i'm a hardware producer, so maybe one of the other guys can help you better.

[T.C.]

Thanks for your help everyone! Sounds like I'm not doing as bad as I think (I'm always hyper-critical of myself)