Guest Satchmo Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 I need some step by step advise on building a solid bass-line, with absolute quality in mind. First off, i have been trying to build my basslines using vst synths i.e a1, and trying to reduce modulation and cuttoff, so that you cant hear the fluctuations in sound.i am relying purely on my hearing to get the bass sound right, but the problem is that when i increase the cuttoff, the bass loses its punch and is overpowering underneath the drums, and when i decrease the cuttoff, the bass sounds too much like a lead line than a bass support. I have used compression as an insert, using the sx compress function, but i cant hear little or no changes in the sound form. Other synths i have tried to use for bass are: fm7,junox2,pentagon,pro52. For some reason i keep on going back to programming with the a-1 for my bass!!! should i opt for a more simple structured synth for bass, with minimal filters and effects? can you give examples!! And, what are the frequencies i should have in mind when designing the bass. What ratios with what compression programs, work most effectively when designing your bass? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Spindrift Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 I find also that not many VSTi's is good for making basses really. I have heard that suprisingly enough uses this tedious little stienberg VB-1, but I have never been especially impressed by their bass sounds either... Simple synths is many times good for bass. And compressors and eq's is not really supposed to drastically alter the sound, instead try to get it sounding as good as you can before applying any fx. If the envelope in the synth is punchy enough then why do you need a compressor. I mostly compress basses to get rid of amplitude differences between differnt note's. Different compressors sound good on different settings. For basses i tend to use a ratio of between 2.5 and 5. The one that i think gives the best control is sonictimeworks compressorX. It's also a bit more difficult than other sw compressors to get right, but you can really get great results on kicks and basses with that. It like a faily sharp ratio of 4-5. Frequency wise the main energy in the sound needs to be somewhere between 60-120, anything below 60z takes a lot of energy to reproduce, and can ruin your dynamic range, but can be very effectful on some pa's (many just filter out the sub's to conserve power) . On a hi-fi and studio nearfield monitors those sub fequencies will most likely not be reprensented though, so be cautios with them. When eq-ing a bass that sound a bit weak, normally applly a boost around 80-90hz, gently remove a little around 200-250 to compensate for frequency bleed. A 'boxy' tendency can be removed around 300-400hz. Sometimes a bit of reverb or delay applied only on the mid frequencies of the sound can be nice to make some impression of space, butmake sure it's clean below 300-400hx to avoid phase problems in the bass freq. You can also try to layer sounds, again making sure you in effect bandpass out certain frequencies to avoid phase problems. The easiest way is for sure to find a synth that just sounds good by itself. Like i said, can be hard with VSTi's though. I use the creamware pulsar card myself, wich has many nice software basses, but they use a higher res processing on dedicated SHARC DSP processors, therfore have more depth that the DSP light VSTi's. A nice analouge synth like a pro-one, juno or SH-101, can be nice to you sometimes if it's a good day for them also. The logic ES-2 and ES-1 is the host native synths that i prefer for basses, but still they miss some depth i think. Hope anything of this was helpful to you.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest DeeperNETWERK Posted September 22, 2002 Share Posted September 22, 2002 Well... What sorta basses are you trying to create? Trance basslines, or dub/chill stylish basslines? You'd be suprised what Neon can do for trance basses... Dont laugh, just go try it. Throw that Steinberg "subass" plug on your final patch and there ya go... Another cool trick, but this is after you created you bassline... Mix it down to audio and have 2 copies of your wave file ready. Compress both files (which are exactly the same) but with different settings. Now, pan one hard right, and one hard left. You'll have yourselve an enormous sound, and have plenty of space in the center for your kick to be pounding away. Sometimes this technique is hit or miss, but when ya hit... It sounds great. For dub style basses... I prefer to use hardware. raise the filter attach 25-50% while the decay sits very low. Then you get that sloppy blobby acid throbbing chilled bassline... Turn up the resonace around 40%, and the cutoff pretty low. Try to use one saw/square waveform, and one sine waveform. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest AMP Posted September 24, 2002 Share Posted September 24, 2002 Trying using TBL vst or Tritium. Plur Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest hal9k Posted October 4, 2002 Share Posted October 4, 2002 yes tritium rulzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!!!!!! great for subbasses:) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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