I tend to go for basslines with a lot of note D in them, cos I find thats pretty much the lowest you can go.... but I was listening to a couple of tunes of mine in the car yesterday and it cant really reproduce those low frequencies too well...(maybe round 50 hz), so as a result I didnt really get any bass in the car although there was loads of bass comin out of my home system.
So I may start havin my basslines a bit higher. Im about to put some commercial stuff through an analyzer just to check where those bass notes are hitting.... but im sure a lot of dnb does have very low bass.... is it just me!?!?
I was using a plain sine wave btw, and Im always torn between using that and using a bit or square action, because i do like slightly higher harmonics, but i can just feel the power of the bass moving away. and yes i know about layering. dont sound the same.
i was reading something the other day about low-end processing using tools like the waves maxx bass....cant remember where the article was now
but ill have a search and try and find it again.....things like the waves maxx bass process the bass signal by adding harmonics that the ear will associate with the fundamental frequency, so using it on your sub bass for example, the maxx bass will add harmonics that are related to the fundamental frequency and the human ear will relate the added harmoics to the sub bass's fundamental frequency, making it more audible to the human ear....good for using on your bass should the track be played on a radio or any other medium with a narrow bandwidth....are you splitting your bass too....i.e. processing the sub bass and mid-range bass's separetly? you try distorting the sub bass slightly to again add harmonics to it.
i suppose it depends on how u made the sub bass in the first place, be it a single sine wave, or a low passed reece, ur not going to need anything below 30hz, sometimes when my subs aren't coming thru a very subtle boost around 50hz helps bring it out a bit more, also as Seph said a touch of tape distortion can give it more character and make it more audible
Originally posted by Digital Cause
... but I was listening to a couple of tunes of mine in the car yesterday and it cant really reproduce those low frequencies too well...(maybe round 50 hz), so as a result I didnt really get any bass in the car although there was loads of bass comin out of my home system.
So I may start havin my basslines a bit higher. Im about to put some commercial stuff through an analyzer just to check where those bass notes are hitting.... but im sure a lot of dnb does have very low bass....
You should have a sub for support on the low end, but you need low mids too in your bass. Subs alone is not enough and they don't have character so if everyone did it this way all tunes would sound the same. Layering is the solution.
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when i do my seriously low sub basslines, it's always the same, at least 2 seperat tracks, one is a low low sine wave with EVERYTHING above 120hz filtered out, and then whatever type of other synth, usually the same as the sine wave synth, s they sync a bit, with everything below 200hz filtered out.
then mix together, compress, add my nuts.
true bass only comes from sine waves, since all sound is made of sine waves.
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This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by Halph-Price: 16-05-2009 23:01.
on the theoretical side to bring out the fundamental waves you could layer the direct harmonics over the top i.e n=2,n=3 waves.
so iff the bass frequenciy you were using was 60hz layer 120hz and 240hz over it i.e just double but probably reduce the volume of the higher frequiencies as they go up so:
100% 60hz + 50% 120hz + 25%240 etc.
(make sure all the waves are in phase!!!!!!!!!)
this is in theory from what i know about wave superposition from AS level physics but yeah...
Originally posted by techlogix
using keys f and g is good becaus ethe low notes are generally the strongest in terms of sub power.
...
...
want to expand on why that is? Wouldn't that make F# the godlike bass note?
i dont really know why that is haha but i do know that it works for me
unfortunately i dont get to "into" frequency and such and cant see the point in frequency analysers nowaday
so i may be missing the point somewhere, but f sharp is also good, i find that d is pushin it to its extremes really im not sayin use only these key signitures either but when you make a bassline etc make sure that the sub is transposed to the most powerfull note it can so if your bline has a low note like a c transpose that up 12 semi tones, this is how i generally do it anyways and i try to have f, f sharp and g as my lowest notes in the bline. sometimes i will push it to a d but then the bass starts to sound tired
Originally posted by techlogix
using keys f and g is good becaus ethe low notes are generally the strongest in terms of sub power.
...
...
want to expand on why that is? Wouldn't that make F# the godlike bass note?
Because F on the on the lower octave hits round 40Hz and G roughly on the 50Hz, pretty much the lowest feqs you can _easily_ use in our DNB track. I kinda favour G because It gives me few lower notes to go down with in my productions. D on the other hand is right on the lo-sub edge round 35Hz and It realy doesn´t sound good on basic sound system. This means you have to include the upper octave round 70Hz in order to get some more weight to the notes and you don´t have any lower note reserve as they go below 35Hz.
Originally posted by techlogix
using keys f and g is good becaus ethe low notes are generally the strongest in terms of sub power.
...
...
want to expand on why that is? Wouldn't that make F# the godlike bass note?
Because F on the on the lower octave hits round 40Hz and G roughly on the 50Hz, pretty much the lowest feqs you can _easily_ use in our DNB track. I kinda favour G because It gives me few lower notes to go down with in my productions. D on the other hand is right on the lo-sub edge round 35Hz and It realy doesn´t sound good on basic sound system. This means you have to include the upper octave round 70Hz in order to get some more weight to the notes and you don´t have any lower note reserve as they go below 35Hz.
winrar
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Originally posted by techlogix
using keys f and g is good becaus ethe low notes are generally the strongest in terms of sub power.
...
...
want to expand on why that is? Wouldn't that make F# the godlike bass note?
Because F on the on the lower octave hits round 40Hz and G roughly on the 50Hz, pretty much the lowest feqs you can _easily_ use in our DNB track. I kinda favour G because It gives me few lower notes to go down with in my productions. D on the other hand is right on the lo-sub edge round 35Hz and It realy doesn´t sound good on basic sound system. This means you have to include the upper octave round 70Hz in order to get some more weight to the notes and you don´t have any lower note reserve as they go below 35Hz.
winrar
...
This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by DJ_Rx: 18-05-2009 08:45.
Originally posted by Halph-Price
when i do my seriously low sub basslines, it's always the same, at least 2 seperat tracks, one is a low low sine wave with EVERYTHING above 120hz filtered out, and then whatever type of other synth, usually the same as the sine wave synth, s they sync a bit, with everything below 200hz filtered out.
then mix together, compress, add my nuts.
true bass only comes from sine waves, since all sound is made of sine waves.
and why would you filter out everything above 120 hz from a pure sine wave, which has no harmonics?
and also i do distort my subs sometimes, but the point is that a pure sine wave is the strongest bass, as soon as you distort it it becomes more like a square wave which is feels less powerful
the 120Hz sine wave WILL always have higher & lower harmonics, it's almost impossible to narrow the quality of you EQ/filter that perfect...and you will ALWAYS have certain noise /artefacts
1 sine wave with no harmonics isn't musical, it's more a static abstract representation of something nearly inexistent
Distotrion on sine is a common method to 'add' harmonics (they're already there in your 'sine'(minimal), so filtering them out is not that stupid if you want to use/process them later...)
Originally posted by Halph-Price
when i do my seriously low sub basslines, it's always the same, at least 2 seperat tracks, one is a low low sine wave with EVERYTHING above 120hz filtered out, and then whatever type of other synth, usually the same as the sine wave synth, s they sync a bit, with everything below 200hz filtered out.
then mix together, compress, add my nuts.
true bass only comes from sine waves, since all sound is made of sine waves.
and why would you filter out everything above 120 hz from a pure sine wave, which has no harmonics?
and also i do distort my subs sometimes, but the point is that a pure sine wave is the strongest bass, as soon as you distort it it becomes more like a square wave which is feels less powerful
good question, the answer is a pure sine wave that stops mid refraction or rarefaction becomes a SQUARE wave. not a nice sound. it may seem pointless to filter the basslines, but it just helps eliminate any problems the synth might create. It's a little trick I was taught by an experienced electronica artist.
also, if you play them at the same time as me, if you hit a few higher notes, you'll not have a super loud sine wave coming out at 500hz.
seems redundant, but it does stop other harmonics from entering.
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but ill have a search and try and find it again.....things like the waves maxx bass process the bass signal by adding harmonics that the ear will associate with the fundamental frequency, so using it on your sub bass for example, the maxx bass will add harmonics that are related to the fundamental frequency and the human ear will relate the added harmoics to the sub bass's fundamental frequency, making it more audible to the human ear....good for using on your bass should the track be played on a radio or any other medium with a narrow bandwidth....are you splitting your bass too....i.e. processing the sub bass and mid-range bass's separetly? you try distorting the sub bass slightly to again add harmonics to it.
unfortunately i dont get to "into" frequency and such and cant see the point in frequency analysers nowaday 
