Issue with bass sounds.

Sajan

Hi all.. I just wanted to get some ideas throwing back and forth. I am having serious trouble with my bass sounds in most of my projects. I just find that they lack warmth and don't sit nice in the mix. I have been using massive and have had some success but I dunno. They just don't sit nice in my tunes. It could be a matter of trying to do too much notation wise in the tune.. Is there any 'Rules' in a sense that I should be following. I am fairly new to the production side of things and I realise it takes time but I think a few hints and tips will inspire me again.. Just as a reference point I am kinda heading down the Mount Kimbie kind of route. I'm trying to avoid wobbles and stuff but just want to do something that fits nice.. I have heard some really lovely bass sounds of late and it's frustrating. The Gold Panda album is full of lovely bass noises as is Scuba's Trinagulation. I don't wanna rip these off but I just wanted to use these as reference.

seannash

Sajan wrote: »

I have been using massive

Thats (imo) is your problem.
Massive is one of the most sterile synths out there.Its ice cold
(personally i hate it)

When people talk about warmth they generally talk about analogue synths of old so you may want to try an emanulation of an old hardware synths.

Sajan

Hey Sean.. Thanks for the reply.. I should have specified that it's not only massive that I use. I do use other synths but I think it is a technique issue more than anything else. I'll keep plugging away.

Anima

Why don't you post an example of your stuff and an example of a track you'd like to sound like?

Very hard to help otherwise.

jtsuited

Sajan wrote: »

Hi all.. I just wanted to get some ideas throwing back and forth. I am having serious trouble with my bass sounds in most of my projects. I just find that they lack warmth and don't sit nice in the mix. I have been using massive and have had some success but I dunno. They just don't sit nice in my tunes. It could be a matter of trying to do too much notation wise in the tune.. Is there any 'Rules' in a sense that I should be following. I am fairly new to the production side of things and I realise it takes time but I think a few hints and tips will inspire me again.. Just as a reference point I am kinda heading down the Mount Kimbie kind of route. I'm trying to avoid wobbles and stuff but just want to do something that fits nice.. I have heard some really lovely bass sounds of late and it's frustrating. The Gold Panda album is full of lovely bass noises as is Scuba's Trinagulation. I don't wanna rip these off but I just wanted to use these as reference.

most of scuba and mount kimbie's bass sounds are just simple subs. sine wave into open filter. done.

gsparx

seannash wrote: »

Thats (imo) is your problem.
Massive is one of the most sterile synths out there.Its ice cold
(personally i hate it)

When people talk about warmth they generally talk about analogue synths of old so you may want to try an emanulation of an old hardware synths.

I'm no expert on Massive but I have used it a bit and I think it's useful for certain things. (Never used it for bass)
But if you are using a synth like that you're never going to get it to sit in the mix with all the sh*t contained in a Massive preset.
You need to start with a basic wave, (like JT was saying) and most importantly, turn off all effects.
The other common thing people tend to do is have the bass too loud, then it sticks out too much and can sound weird and affect the groove.
Put it low in the mix to start with so that you almost just feel it and work around that. If you're comparing it to commercial tracks, chances are the mastering stage pumped up the low end so it feels like the bass is high in the mix.

hubiedubie

Some tips:
1. Try and get your bass and kick to occupy separate frequency ranges. Or if not try to time the melody of the bass so that it's not hitting at exactly the same time as a kick. You can use sample delay in your DAW for this if you just want milliseconds.
2. For sub bass, try using 808 kick and 808 tom samples (modify the attack, sample start in your sampler so you don't hear the click)
3. You're right about the choice of tool - it's the technique that is the most important.
4. For warmth add an overdrive plugin, this will add some higher frequencies / distortion.
5. If you're using a softsynth, try playing with the resonance, and drive parameters on the filter.
6. This maybe overly technical but I think it's worthwhile, but have a look at the frequencies your bass is occupying in an frequency analyser (most daw's have one). See if you can identify some rogue frequencies. You may just require some simple EQ. I know massive can create huge basses which sound great in isolation but quite difficult to put in a mix.

I'll have a listen to the acts you mentioned tonight and see if I can identify anything.

Logical Fallacy

The problem you are having is Massive doesn't have any pure sine wav.

Basically get any VST that can generate a pure Sine wave ( I would suggest Predator as a great all round versatile VST ) and you will be far closer to your goal.