bass/drum compression

[Guest Mushroom Lolipop]

i'm very happy with my mc505. however i can't get the powerfull bass i desire (like i heard on this weekend: parasence and gms live in Portugal)

 

does anyone have any tip on cmpression ? will it make my bass bigger ?

 

i've just bought a used emu 5000 ultra and i'm going to try sample and compress/distort every single bass line i've composed 'till i get THE SOUND (hehehe) but i don't know if that's what i'm looking after...

 

what Fx is advisable for making bass and kick drums louder ?

Behringher composer? Alesis or Dbx compressors ? Has anyone tryed SPL transient designer ?

 

thanks (see in boom this summer...)

[Guest Reece]

maybe its just the difference between hearing your toons on your home monitors/stereo and hearing tracks on 30K rig?

lot more bass in the second! ;-)

:-)

[Guest Psyckou Lolipop MushRoom]

I'm still using a old peavey 15Watts guitar amp... i'm sure it has some of the guilt for my weak bass/kick sound

 

someday i'll have enough $$$ for 2 NS10 and a decent amp

 

however i've my bass sound can be bettered, i'm sure

 

sometimes the sound on the mc505 is just to muddled... and i can get the Fx compression to work right

 

and if it pumps on my peavey it will blow the speakers on a '30k rig'

[Guest lifeform]

it's all about how you EQ your kick i've found. Jack up the bass around 60hz (not too much though!) then drop it down somewhere between 150-500 hz. here's some compression settings that may be useful... Just a guideline so dont be afraid to tweak it.

 

Kick/Snare-

Attack: 1-5 ms

Release: 0.2/auto

Ratio: 5-10:1

Knee: Hard!

Gain: 5-15 dB

 

Bass Sounds:

Attack: 2-8 ms

Release: 0.4/Auto

Ratio: 4-12:1

Knee: Hard!

Gain: 5-13 dB

 

also if you use cubse for sequencing... they have a new plug called "sub bass" really helps out with the phattness of everything. Hope this helps. : )

[Guest Psy Mushroom Lolipop on M]

I'm going to try that too. Sample my bass lines and EQ them and i'll try your settings. thanks.

 

i'm not using cubase. i'm going 100% hardware for now (until i fix my computer, at least)

 

 

thanks

[Guest CompleXz]

Great tips lifeform!

[Guest CompleXz]

I tried out Sub Bass........And it helps alot!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks LifeForm for the great tips!

 

Cheers

CompleXz

[Guest lifeform]

No problem people! : )

 

I find the "reinforcement" preset works best for basslines!

[Guest phlux0r]

I'm using my Waldorf MicroQ for my kik&bass (and, of course a whole lot of other sounds) so I was wondering if anyone else is using this wonderful machine for their kik&bass. I'd like to exchange some tips and tricks and maybe even some patches. Im mainly after creating a dark phatt beat similar to Hujaboy's latest album. A fast driving bassline and a deep/dull/hard kik is my goal.

Problem is I don't yet have a HW compressor so, would it be a good idea to record the kik and bass tracks separately (using Logic) and to use the Logic Compressor and Fat EQ? Has anyone experimented with that?

 

Thanks a lot for any insight,

phlux0r.

[Guest ukiro]

I'm no pro musician, but my main advice here would be to make sure your kick and bass sound as good as possible before EQing, because the more tweaking you have to do with your EQ, the harder it is to gain perfect control over your frequencies and levels, in my experience. Take the extra time to get the kick just right at the beginning, it pays off in the long run.

 

For kicks, anything below 45-50Hz is useless, especially in a PA (they usually cut somewhere around there to prevent rumble and protect the speakers). There are other tricks for making the bass appear deeper than it is. I've learned a LOT from studying waveforms in soundforge; I rip a track that I think has a killer bass and then I look at the waveforms, levels and frequencies. By trying to imitate that one can gain a great deal of knowledge and eventually develop ones own style and technique.

 

Also, people are generally told not to use headphones for making kicks and basses, but I think it's perfectly OK to do the bulk of the work with headphones. As long as you make sure to test your sounds in a variety of speaker setups you'll be OK, and headphones generally give better control over subtle details, especially if you can't afford a set of good studio monitors.

[Guest Reece]

OT, just going back to the third post....

 

dood, pleeeeeease dont buy NS10's!!!!!!!!

 

industry standards maybe (unfortunately), but just listen and compare to pretty much anything else, imo, they suck a whole lot of ass!!!

 

:-)

[Guest CompleXz]

I think it´s best to use Monitors when making musik and also when

your fixing the EQ.

After all that´s done, then u can use your headphones

for just fixing the details on the track.

It´s always good to try out the track on different speakers.

 

Anyway remember that it doesn´t take one or two days just to learn

how to get the perfect sound out of your track.

 

I started making music back in 1995 and I can only say that it´s

first now, that my new tracks sound perfect.

 

I started with Impulse tracker then Dream Station and now Cubase VST/32.

 

But it´s not what program you are using that makes the sound, sound better!!

However it does help to have a program like Cubase or Logic!.

 

;D

[Guest Psy Lolipop MushRoom Borg]

Ok Reece... i wont buy NS10

 

i was advised to buy them i a supposed expert, but the he is into trip hop and i'm into trance...

 

and i thought it would be easy...

[Guest hogus]

I spent 3 months working just on bass to get the sound I wanted right...

 

Most of the trick of it sits the the synthesis. Finding a balnce between harmonic content and the amount of pressure you're excerting per sample.

 

EQ wise, try cutting your frequencies below 40Hz on your kick drum a bit... You'll be amazed at how much it can actually lift your bass sound out of the mud... It's not like any P/A gear really produce much sound below 60Hz anyway and its just eating up your dynamic range, while you're getting nothing for it...

 

Also cutting a notch somewhere between 90 and 130Hz on your bass to make space for the kick is standard advice just about everyone will give you... It depends where the punch of your kick sits.

 

Most important is that your kick and bass sounds interact well with each other.

 

Even without any compression you should be getting a decent bass sound.

[Guest Psy Lolipop MushRoom Borg]

I still don't get it...

 

everythings sounds kind of right but the bass is still muddled...

[Guest Slidingtrancer]

Thanx hogus, that's really bogus advice!