SubSonic Efx

Antee · Post by **Antee** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 6:59 pm

yo regaz, when u use the subsonic efx for a bassline, how do u edit it to obtain a fat bass sound?

balazs · Post by **balazs** » Thu Jul 10, 2008 7:52 pm

I just leave the subsonic bass untouched and let it add a nice bottom to the mix for the big speakers. I have given up trying to tweek it, its such a low freq bass that most of the FX dont work like I want them to.

I have been wondering as well if anyone got any good tricks.

adru · Post by **adru** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 3:06 am

i've actually been wondering the same..& has anyone else had problems with it popping if you play a few different pitches on gate?

wax inspektor · Post by **wax inspektor** » Fri Jul 11, 2008 11:30 pm

Use distortion on a clean sub note...
Try knobs at 10, 12 and 5 o'clock
Resample that shit on mono.
(To get things round and soft use the pitch even if you don't change the note.)

Now you got a saw sound with some mid's wich most FX can deal with...

Once I had built a jazzy bass but I just can't remember... :roll:

Any further tips on that sub thing???

@ Adru: Yeah that popping sux. Try to use the (same) notes at different lengths and play them without gate. You can fade them out by the sub, too.

adru · Post by **adru** » Sat Jul 12, 2008 6:50 pm

yea wax,i've been thinking about doing that with my basslines from now on,although it would be really tedious..anyway,this doesnt have to do with subsonic really-but i've tried a few times to take a sampled bass note and make it different pitches-but the pitch effect doesnt do anything to them at all..whats the deal with that?i had been using my old rundown sampletrack to pitchshift stuff,but it really pissed me off a couple weeks ago,and i put my foot through it.not the wisest move,i know,but it barely worked anyway and kinda deserved it.but shouldnt the pitch function work on sampled basses the same as on subsonic ones?i really need to cop some midi keys

606man · Post by **606man** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:30 pm

The subsonic is far more useful for kicks than it is for basslines (imo). Here's why - the subsonic sine wave is added at 30hz. Really low, in otherwords (hence the name). Now, 30hz is about where most mix engineers would CUT the bass, not boost it :lol:

This is becuase bass energy that low generally just eats headroom in the mix and does not actually make it sound more 'bassy'. If you cut at 30hz you can actually turn UP your bassline and it will sound more powerful without redlining.

Kicks, on the other hand, can always do with more sub bass! Add it to you kicks, cut at 30hz on your bassline, put the two together and listen :shock:

ghost bazz · Post by **ghost bazz** » Mon Jul 14, 2008 11:44 pm

606man wrote:The subsonic is far more useful for kicks than it is for basslines (imo). Here's why - the subsonic sine wave is added at 30hz. Really low, in otherwords (hence the name). Now, 30hz is about where most mix engineers would CUT the bass, not boost it

This is becuase bass energy that low generally just eats headroom in the mix and does not actually make it sound more 'bassy'. If you cut at 30hz you can actually turn UP your bassline and it will sound more powerful without redlining.

Kicks, on the other hand, can always do with more sub bass! Add it to you kicks, cut at 30hz on your bassline, put the two together and listen

droppin science! right on 606man... thanks for the 411.

The most successful basslines I've made with susonic are 2 toned ones... where you can put some space between the two notes and have em come out somewhat clean and audible.

Nice tip Wax... I'm gonna try that out.

606man · Post by **606man** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:59 am

Oh yeah - I should have mentioned - you can be experimental and use the sub for basslines (especially for D&B or HipHop!). The only thing I would recommend here is testing your mix on TINY speakers as well as the biggest speakers you can get. Sub bass rarely works on small speakers (for obvious reasons) but you NEED your mix to work on all speakers :lol:

If your work is intended only for club play then go nuts with that sub!

Euclid Ov Oåklånd · Post by **Euclid Ov Oåklånd** » Tue Jul 15, 2008 5:38 am

I've also had the problem of mixing on under powered headphones where I'll use a nice low synth sub and it'll sound right on my headphones but damn near blowout the two 12" subwoofers in my friends ride. So be careful on that front and at least listen to it on a good home audio system, 'cause if you blow out someones sub they'll never listen to your tracks again. Good thing we started his system on low and noticed how bad the mix was before any damage could take place.

adru · Post by **adru** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:47 am

so does that mean you cant pitch shift sampled bass notes
?

balazs · Post by **balazs** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 2:15 pm

adru wrote:so does that mean you cant pitch shift sampled bass notes
?

I have used pitch shift on every sampled bass chop in a track. I adjusted every chop to the same amount of pitch shift. I resampled each chop individually to make sure it didnt have that fucked up attack. Since pitch shift adds that strange sound to it, I usually do some filterin afterwards.
I never tried taking one bass note and making different notes from pitch shift.

Euclid Ov Oåklånd · Post by **Euclid Ov Oåklånd** » Wed Jul 16, 2008 6:13 pm

Yeah, I've also pitched one bass note to three variations. Like Juxt said, I run them through some effects too round out the sound since the 303 doesn't have subsonic. I just have to find out what effect on the 303 can be used to achieve this since the 404 and 303 have the same effects engine.