How do I make my bass fatter?

N

nTehl

New member
Firstly, I am happy to be a new addition to this community.
I am trying to give my sub bass a big/fat stereo sound to it.
Share your methods.
 
Chorus works well sometimes. The only issue with that is the modulation tends to go back and forth, leaving the bassline a little random. You can make your own type of effect as well by simply copying the track, and delay one of them with milliseconds (5-30) and pan them in opposite direction and level it out so that it doesn't sound like it's coming out more on one side than the other.

Subtle room reverb might work too, with a really really short decay and just a hint of pre-delay (wherever it sounds best really)

If you're talking about a sub bass as just a very low bassline under 50hz or so, it's really common practice to keep that thing in mono, and better to add a stereo wide layer on top of it to keep it clean.

These are just some ideas, they may or may not do the job for you but since you didn't provide any audio to go with your question, that's all I've got at the moment.
 
expanding on what wallengard said

sub bass in mono
add 1 octave above saw bass or triangle bass and apply any of the stereo widening techniques available

or sub bass mono
add sine one octave above and add a saturation plugin to that line only then apply any of the stereo widening techniques available
 
Significant improvement! This made my overall mix sound cleaner.
Both of you are full of experience that I truly admire. Thank you, again.
 
Try this.

Send your bass to 2 other aux/group channels. Insert saturation, distortion and/or bitcrushing on each aux/group channel. Pan 1 hard left and the other hard right. Now put a highpass filter on each aux/group channel (not the source channel) with corner frequencies set in the 300-500Hz range. Presto! Now you have a superwide bass.

This technique fools the listener into thinking the bass is across the entire stereo field. In fact, all the bass/sub frequencies are still in the center. Hope this helps.
 
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UncleDutch said:
Try this.

Send your bass to 2 other aux/group channels. Insert saturation, distortion and/or bitcrushing on each aux/group channel. Pan 1 hard left and the other hard right. Now put a highpass filter on each aux/group channel (not the source channel) with corner frequencies set in the 300-500Hz range. Presto! Now you have a superwide bass.

This technique fools the listener into thinking the bass is across the entire stereo field. In fact, all the bass/sub frequencies are still in the center. Hope this helps.
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Only problem with his technique is that if there's no distinguishable difference between your 2 aux channels, i.e you have identical setups on both, then all it does is raise the amplitude of the signal when it's combined.

Being panned center means there's equally much of the signal coming from the left and right speaker. 2 identical signals panned hard left and right equals same amount of signal coming from the left and right speaker.

It is the difference between the left and right side we perceive as "stereo"

Without the difference, you will get the exact same results by simply having one aux track with the volume raised not panned in either direction.
 
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Wallengard said:
Only problem with his technique is that if there's no distinguishable difference between your 2 aux channels, i.e you have identical setups on both, then all it does is raise the amplitude of the signal when it's combined.

You will get the exact same results by simply having one aux track with the volume raised not panned in either direction.
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Yep, this is true. Good catch Wallengard. Forgot to add that you have to delay each channel a little different from each other. There again you my have phase issues to deal with, but if you are surgical with your delay times it will work.
 
Good tips above! One more thing I often try is to send the signal to a bus and tweak it there with some saturation or other plugins that boost the upper harmonics.
Obviously you have to do this very subtle.
A very good plugin for your sub is Scheps bij Waves!
 
I thought people always said to keep your bass panned to center? Because I've been trying to get that forever elusive wide, thick and tight bass as well, but sometimes it just doesn't pop out and sound and tight as it should, even after compression/saturation/eq. The best example I can give of the type of bass I'm talking about is "Virus" by Martin garrix and Moti. It's just incredibly wide and powerful.
 
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Coleman1 said:
I thought people always said to keep your bass panned to center? Because I've been trying to get that forever elusive wide, thick and tight bass as well, but sometimes it just doesn't pop out and sound and tight as it should, even after compression/saturation/eq.
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I try to keep everything under 150/200hz in mono. Rest is your decision whatever sounds good. Just see it as an orchestral, everything that is in the mid will be more present and more in your face, everything thats is wide or on the left/right wont be. So if you want your bass to dominate, keep it mono and layer the higher sound and make them wide. Its not this simple, but thats where to start.
 
To be honest, I need ALL the mixing tips with bass I can possibly get since I'm making Progressive House. Just like Vicetone and Avicii, Galantis etc, you can just hear how well it all works with it. So you think a slight delay and having the bass panned a little bit can make it sound wider?
 
Coleman1 said:
I thought people always said to keep your bass panned to center? Because I've been trying to get that forever elusive wide, thick and tight bass as well, but sometimes it just doesn't pop out and sound and tight as it should, even after compression/saturation/eq. The best example I can give of the type of bass I'm talking about is "Virus" by Martin garrix and Moti. It's just incredibly wide and powerful.
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People do say this. However, what they mean is to keep bass frequencies in the center. There are harmonics and overtones of the bass that we do not focus on when listening. These are the frequencies that can be spread out to give the bass a cohesive wide sound.

Unfortunately, I am at work and cannot hear the bass in question or I might be able to give you a more definite answer. I would love to hear some other thoughts on this as well. Never stop learning! Hope this helps.
 
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Ahh I see. I notice that a lot, I feel like the 350-500hz mark is where it really comes out and sounds amazing when it's spread out wide along with thick bass layered underneath it. I didn't know why I never thought of that. They must be highpassing their leads quite a bit though, because how else would the beater of the bass really pop out if the leads are playing down there as well. I'm finding that I'm getting better results when I don't lowpass it as much.
 
Coleman1 said:
Ahh I see. I notice that a lot, I feel like the 350-500hz mark is where it really comes out and sounds amazing when it's spread out wide along with thick bass layered underneath it. I didn't know why I never thought of that. They must be highpassing their leads quite a bit though, because how else would the beater of the bass really pop out if the leads are playing down there as well. I'm finding that I'm getting better results when I don't lowpass it as much.
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Sweet! It all about experimentation, trail and error and findings your preferences and tastes.
 
In popular music, people like to keep bass center and any basses with high frequency information, like some bright saw layered on top, can get widened like previously mentioned. The problem is we are just saying "Keep bass center" and everybody has their own definition of bass. Some people are taking the literal frequency range, some people think of a super bright bass with rich harmonics across the spectrum.

Generally, it's not even true that bass should be panned dead center. This is art. You can pan it a little left or right and you can make space for other things. You can even pan it noticeably one way or the other. It really doesn't sound weird, lots of indie artists do it. It's not as welcome in pop, but it works. I love listening to folk music that has everything creatively panned, and I just zone out with my headphones.
 
to expand on crimsons statements above; if you are presented with a live recording of a band and are asked to mix it you would never blindly put anything in the center or anywhere else for that matter

Why?

because with every open microphone on the stage there are cues as to the location of each and every instrument being played on the stage either as phase differences for lf signals or time differences for hf signals: this is why "spill is king" in live recordings; even if you gate out low level signals reaching each mic, when the gates open everything hitting that mic is present if somewhat masked by each other....
 
well...firstly you need to determine "phat" in what way. I like to use reFuse - Low:Ender if it needs more sub-bass content because the plug-in allows you to extend subs via a cool distortion.

you could also play with something like RBass or MaxxBass from wavs...which help deal with some of the upper bass harmonics and can help with thickening things up in the *perceived loudness* of the bass.

you could also play with various types of saturation via either Tube, Tape, or general AMP distortion plugins.....and i mean...there's EQ too
 
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