Getting down there?

[Dimension X]

Hi,

I have been producing electronic music for a few years but there is one element of my music in particular which I think is holding me back somewhat.

That is... When I try to make really 'low down'- sub bass lines. No matter what VST's I use (that I have at my disposal), there always seems to be distortion when I set the oscillator to the low frequency that I actually want (the kind of frequency you feel more than you hear)

I was looking into getting a powercore firewire system and getting the access virus VST which seems to have more low end grunt than the Korg Legacy cell synths and others that I am currently using. But really I need to know if this will actually solve anything or just give me the same problems as before.

I've been advised on another forum to export the wavs once I finish the track and then edit the distortion out using wavelab. However, although this seems to be a usefull technique, I was wondering whether anyone had any other suggestions? As it's difficult to make a track , when you can't even hear it all properly in the first place!

If anyone does have some suggestions that would really be of great help to me.

All the best
Andy

[elektro80]

Some related stuff here: What is bass

Bass is tricky. First of all most consumer playback systems cannot do bass well at all. Unless you intend to deliver a mix for large venues only, stay off the very deep stuff. If you cannot stay off it anyway, be prepared to spend both time and money on this.

Issue number two:
A good studio monitor will hopefully not add the usual embarassing artifacts that consumer loudspeakers will add. This is good, but it also means that you won´t have a clue how it will sound on consumer gear at all. Always keep a few pairs of lesser stuff around for those late night reality checking sessions.

Issue number three:
Your control room/project studio realy gotta be acoustically treated. There is no such thing as to many bass traps. A good control room should of course not be acoustically dead, but those standing waves just have to go.

Issue number four
When you play bassy stuff in an acoustically treated room, well damped and all that, on superb studio monitors, you will be missing the artifacts that 99% of the CD buying public out there will think of as the real thing. This leads to the fact that you should spend some time on understanding the artifacts that spells "there is some heavy bass going on" See the What is bass thread for some ideas.



Another issue when patching up bass on softsynths and recording using DAWs is that you might have gain structure problems and also internal clipping somewhere in the signal chain.

How loud are you really recording your tracks?
See this thread for more info: http://electro-music.com/forum/topic-17254.html

If you really want deep bass, then consider that CD Audio has a limited range and that brickwalling the mixdown or the master will make a mess of dynamics.

Trivia: Most cheap bass reflex ( cabinets vented with a tube or something of the sort ) will selfcombust if fed a really loud bass signal a tad below or at the resonance freq. of the vent/driver system. You can try this with some realy cheap and shitty vented speakers. Use a tone generator. Play it loud and let the frequency drop. Watch the frequency. Soon the cone will start flapping in the wind. If you use a good and powerful amp you will soon have destroyed both the cone and coil. If you are lucky you will set it on fire.

So why won´t pop music CDs kill your speakers like that? Basically because anything below 50 or even 80Hz is filtered out. However, pop music CDs will be damned loud anyway but that is another story.

[elektro80]

BTW: Korg Legacy cell synths.. like the MS 20.. good stuff!

[Dimension X]

[v-un-v]

You could get this month's copy of Sound on Sound mag. This months issue is dedicated to bass

http://www.soundonsound.com/

Personally I've never been able to get decent bass out of a computer. That's why I've always turned to the 'real thing' like an SH-101.

However I know that some people manage it with soft synths. Emagic's ES-1 was good at bass.

[Kassen]

[Dimension X]

[elektro80]

We aim to please.


Trivia: Keep in mind that using presets on many mass market synths and polkaboard is a hazard of sorts. Many sounds are layered and many sounds have excessive bass. When recording these you might end up with a lot of mush and you might end up with level problems because something somewhere is damned loud. Presets are partly made to sound impressive on their own and to show off what a synth can do.
The rule is: Always understand what it is you are recording.