sub bass

C

cartwheel1984

New member
Should I put sub bass on an off beat?? and then play another bass at a higher frequency and got a bit more rhythm to it as I normally would?
 
Cheers! So does the sub bass still move up n down the notes as a normal bastts line should? Or do I just keep it the same note as its such a low frequency? U use any fx or eq or just as it is?
 
cartwheel1984 said:
Cheers! So does the sub bass still move up n down the notes as a normal bastts line should? Or do I just keep it the same note as its such a low frequency? U use any fx or eq or just as it is?
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Depends on the genre you're working with. On my drum and bass tracks, the sub usually make the same lines as the bass.

As far as fx goes, I normally make a full blown bass sound, and lowpass it to just get the sub frequencies, or I start with a simple sine wave and apply a little bit of saturation to it.
 
Well im trying to make house/ prog/ electroy type genres, how much u normally low pass it 2? U ever use the preset subs sounds in vsts? Or clone yr normal bass n low pass the cloned one?
Sorry for the million n one qs!!!
 
I'll go ddream one better and explain why it is called sub-bass

it is the bass line played an octave lower so it is a sub- (or under) bass

it comes from orchestration and is a term that is so misused that we have now called the region it plays in sub-bass when in fact it is all bass under 256Hz, if shown in the bass clef

so to be blunt, yes your sub-bass should follow the pattern of your actual bass, just as your double bass would normally double the 'Cello line an octave lower
 
I would like to add that there is really no reason why you couldn't have your sub bass play a completely different pattern. When done right you can get really nice grooves. I do it all the time.

 
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if it is playing something different then it is no longer a sub-bass (as in under bass reinforcing the bass line) but an independent line
 
I always thought sub bass was just a really low bass, no matter if it was played under another bass. I won't argue with that, by definition I suppose you are right.
 
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BC is right, however it's a semantic shift type deal on account of people not understanding the abbreviation, like they probably couldn't even tell you if it stood for subharmonic or subsonic let alone what those terms actually mean...so sub bass has come to quite simply mean a really low sine wave to most people.....although the term seems to have been supplanted by semantic shift upon an abbreviation for a drum machine.
 
cartwheel1984 said:
Well im trying to make house/ prog/ electroy type genres, how much u normally low pass it 2? U ever use the preset subs sounds in vsts? Or clone yr normal bass n low pass the cloned one?
Sorry for the million n one qs!!!
Click to expand...

Again, depends on the genre you are doing, man. Using the drum and bass as example (i really never produced any of the genres you cited), I'll go down enough to leave just the tone note and some harmonics. You'll need to trust your ears (and body, because sub bass is more felt than heard).

About the presets, no. I don't use sub presets of any synth. As I said before, I make my subs in two different ways: pick any synth and create a simple sine wave, or make a full bass sound (with all the fx chain) and lowpass it.
 
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