All about bass...

[Re3wind]

I have to say that I have made some REALLY nasty bass lines using Reason 3.0 only. This will work in any program that you like to use. The real trick to any great bass sound is layering!. I have had three differant synths playing the same thing before. I use SUBTRACTIVE EQ'ING and layering to make one really big bass. If you have a really nasty distorted bass and it does not have that BOOM that you want, try this. The tips that I am giving out will also help you clean up a muddy bass track as well.

Step one
Cut it out.
This is the easy part. Saw 16 with two osc should work great for this. Take the bass and High Pass filter it to get out all of the low end (350-250hz and below. Do this before all other effects. ) Now your and distort the bass. The real key is get the low end out and not to over distort your bass. Less is more. Try using fuzz. It gives you a great buzzsaw type of sound. Also try not to use things like digital distortions as they tend to sound really bad for low end sounds. If you play guitar and can route your sound to a guitar or bass fx unit DO IT. The best bass sound that I ever got was with my Digitech RP2000 and an old ensounic (think I spelled that wrong) hardware sampler. (great 24db fliters on it)

Step two
Time to make the mid range of the bass nice and WIDE.
I like to use chorus, unision, reverb, and the stereo imagers to do this.
I don't have a real method to this. I do EQ the reverb again to made sure that I do not have any low end in the reverb trails. This will help you a lot later on. Also this is a great time to make sure that you did a high pass on the drums. You have to make a lot of room in your mix for the BIG BOOM. Spend a lot of time making sure that you have a sound with great stereo image.

Step three
Time for the boom.
I love to use a very simple sine with two osc slightly detuned. Now for the tought part. You get to piss off next door neibor with this one. Same notes as your other bass but make them less legato. Low Pass filter the sub bass(350-250 and above cut.)Also you will need to compress you sub bass at this point. Just try to get all of the punch that you can (short attack and release can help with this but that is a whole other post!)

Step four
The mix
Use your ears and step away from the speakers. I don't care how much you spent on headphones or "near flied" monitors. The truth is that it takes up to six feet before a sub note at 33hz can be heard by most ears.
Make sure that you are getting the most out of your bass track. By using the subtractive method you can make even more room... Does the kick really need the the sub trails like on an 808 kick? Did I clean up my drums good with high pass fliters on EACH track? Does that pad really need any frequencies below 500hz? Did I over do it with the exciter and EQ's on the master track? Get others that you trust to "verify" your mix.


Just remember that music is a canvas of sounds and just becuase you can paint the whole thing red does not mean that you should.

Please let me know if this helped anyone... Or if you think that I am an asshat hit me back as well.

[S. Chadwick]

i dont see the ne3ed to hp my drums in reason just shorten the kick or dont use a sub kick.

[Re3wind]

That is ture as well. There are a lot of differant ways to do the same thing. Anyone got some more tips?

[S. Chadwick]

i split every track into 2 channels... then hard pan left then right.
you can use the redrum for chopped up vocals. Use the pitch or tone knobs to get some wild effects on your vocals.