Sub bass and how to use it right

[MrCrackles]

hey there,

I want to know if there are some videos/ tutorials (or some helpfull tipps from you ;P) about how to use the subbass right (especialy in dubstep ). Till now I've just pushed the "sub" frequencies of my bass section, because cutting the low-end and "replace" it with a subbass never worked fine for me. I know that's not the best way to archieve a good mix but that's why I'm asking you for help ;P

[Makkon]

I'd be interested in this as well.

[Foxtrot89]

If I'm not mistaken, sub bass is usually just a sine wave that plays low notes that are mostly silent on anything but sub woofers. Just cut out the lower frequencies (< 100hz) on your mid frequency basses and fill it with a sine wave. This usually works for me. This way your sine fills the sub and the rest of your bass sounds fill the rest of the frequencies out. Not sure if this is what you want, but all the tutorials I've found on youtube do something similar.

[Flutter Rex]

Look at your kick frequencies. Then at your sub. Again at the kick. Now take your equalizer and cut the shit out of this sub. From major kick frequency up to the high end. Now look at yourself. You did this shit. I'm on a poneh.

[the4thImpulse]

If I'm not mistaken, sub bass is usually just a sine wave that plays low notes that are mostly silent on anything but sub woofers. Just cut out the lower frequencies (< 100hz) on your mid frequency basses and fill it with a sine wave. This usually works for me. This way your sine fills the sub and the rest of your bass sounds fill the rest of the frequencies out. Not sure if this is what you want, but all the tutorials I've found on youtube do something similar.

Pretty much this.


A very simple way of thinking about it:

You either have a HUGE kick with a lot of sub bass content that will carry on until the next kick drum hits and you will have NO sub bass line.
- or -
You have a sub bass line and the kick (along with every other sound) has those frequencies cut out (~80Hz) with a high pass curve.

[Ed Viper]

You have a sub bass line and the kick (along with every other sound) has those frequencies cut out (~80Hz) with a high pass curve.

That's about 90% of what I do, except I leave the kicks' low freqs and sidechain the subbass track to them.

[MrCrackles]

i know i know, but everytime I cut off the low frequencies of my mid-bass section ( somewhere between 90-110 hz) and let an additional subbass play the same things
the whole drop/part/whatever sounds not as powerful as without cutting off the low-lows of the actual bass sound

[Lavender_Harmony]

Alright, some sub-bass tips from moi.

Firstly a sub bass doesn't have to be a sine wave. it can be a low-pass filtered saw, square, even triangle. It is usually best to keep the waveforms you use pure, and if you layer them, use the same waveform, with one an octave above. One good tip on using sub bass and keeping tonality is to layer one with a hi-pass, so only the lower has that bassyness to it, but the higher mimic's the tone at a more audible level, without creating muddiness.

For those making wobble type sounds, if you find that once you put your sub under it it loses power, it's because your sub isn't moving. This is paramount to having a good, punch sub in your track. Don't just syncopate it to your wobble, add sidechain to your drums, have the wobble of the sub itself accent on the beat, change the groove a little so it's slightly behind or ahead of the wobble itself. You should feel your subwoofer pumping, and you want to utilize this. Also remember, cut a little space for your kick in the sub, but don't go overboard, use sidechain and every time the kick sounds it will pull in those frequencies and let the kick slam through and accentuate the bass. This will take a lot of trial and error, it took me several attempts to get it right in Arrivederci, but if you want a frequency analyser, you'll see the bass frequencies fly down drastically on the lower bars–thats the sidechain and EQ working together.

I'm not claiming I'm the best at adding sub, I'm really not, but I'm getting there and I think you guys have the potential to be much better at the bass musics than me ;'D

[Icky]

Just let the sub bass play the same notes as the regular bassline. I always use a sine wave myself since it's just a clean low sound.

[MrCrackles]

Lavender from now on you're the guru of this page! ;P

But seriously, every advice from you I've read here on mlr was very helpful and detailed

So I think it's time to say thank you for your effort to help out "noobs" like me.^^

[K3WRO]

Just let the sub bass play the same notes as the regular bassline. I always use a sine wave myself since it's just a clean low sound.

This, it works

Sometimes, I like to sidechain the sub bass, in any genre actually, I bet it'll be cool on brostep having a little sub bass rising between the kicks in the snares, try it