: Question : Dub Basslines: How To?

hans aus dtschl

Right,

Partly to add discussion to the board, and partly cos I'm trying to figure out how to do it myself:

How can you get dub-like sub-bass?

I use something like Ableton's operator, for example, and put in a sine wave, put an overall LP filter on it, with the Q set somewhere below my kicks, like maybe 80 or 90 Hz, put a little bit of reverb (large hall maybe?) on and pick some low notes (C1, or so) (stretched out over a few 1/16ths so the sine has enough time to propagate) and I just can't get it down low enough.

With something like Maurizio's M4 or M5 he can get the bassline to sit under the kicks
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ztzEuNzeHA[/yt]
[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5iXCwilsgqA[/yt]


Do I just need a synth more dedicated to this?

Neurojazz

Try adding a little bit of overdrive to the sound - or a square wave filtered will have a bit more presence low down.

Also use EQ to boost the frequencies of the notes in your line that are weaker and you can even throw on some heavy compression to flatten the notes out a bit.

Any synth can make these sounds pretty much.

Hope that helps!

hans aus dtschl

Thanks Neurojazz, I'll give it a go!

Anima

put in a sine wave, put an overall LP filter on it,

Theres no point filtering a pure sine wave. It's the same thing as adjusting the volume of it. A filter just changes the balance between each harmonic, but if theres only one then theres no point.

Best thing to do is just use a triangle, which gives you more harmonics to work with and give it character but not too bright that it will eat up the space in the mix.

Using a square can be good as well with some careful low pass filtering so that its not too bright. A square and a triangle wave are similar however, they both only have odd harmonics which gives them that hollow sound. A lot of wind instruments produce similar a spectrum. The difference is that a triangle's spectrum falls off faster.

Might have a go at reproducing the sound, I'll report back!

hans aus dtschl

Thanks Anima.

I hadn't considered that the sine might be a pure tone, was filtering to eradicate everything above a certain frequency (my kicks start ~80 or 90 I guess) what you're saying certainly makes sense when I think about it.

Will try the triangle and square and report back!