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Bass equalization question
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Falkon303
Started Topics :
9
Posts :
33
Posted : Aug 12, 2013 08:39:20
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First of all, I'd like to say hello to everyone. My name's Ben. I love electronic music, but recently realized that some of my favorite bits of production are in psytrance, and blah blah blah... I had a question regarding equalizing basslines in psy. I've heard it's best to not make any harsh cuts to the bass, but I have also seen a tutorial that says it's good to lowpass the bass around 4 k, while another vid says that bass should only be slightly eqd. I suppose it's relative to the type of sound you are going for, but I am curious if there are some established guidelines/rules in the psy genre. I am also curious if there is a better db filter to be used on the bass - 6/12/24/etc..
Any feedback much appreciated. |
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knocz
Moderator
Started Topics :
40
Posts :
1151
Posted : Aug 12, 2013 16:27
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Hi Ben! My name is Lee 
Well, there is no right and wrong, there are some people who do it in one way and others who do it another way. As long as it sounds good, it's right. Simple.
Now, older psy (lets say, 10Years +) as different of nowadays, as everythng was more cut. Listen to something from 2000, and you'll hear a LP filter on the kick and bass making them very deep.
In contrast, in the last 5 years there has been many artist who take the bass and open it up so much it becomes the main lead (or they might have a lead synth playing the same notes as the bass, with a LP filter that is opened so the bass "transforms" into the lead).
So, two opposites that are both correct and can sound great.
In my personal experience, it always depends. Since a kick is a pitched oscillator, and the pitch envelope does vary from kick to kick, you'll need to apply different EQ's to the bass (and kick, and kick+bass bus) to get different sounds.
Also, try to differ between EQ for sound sculpting and for mixing, as you can obtain very interesting effects in the different situations.
 Super Banana Sauce http://www.soundcloud.com/knocz |
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Fakso
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
12
Posts :
179
Posted : Aug 12, 2013 19:06
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Regarding mud frequencies in a bass sound and thus clean it a little bit I say check the area around 250-350hz with a peak eq and look for hard ringing and unpleaseant sounding sounds while sweeping through this area, when you find something, make a cut to taste I usually go for -2/-3db and inbetween with a more wider Q -> I mean no narrow dips
https://soundcloud.com/noordzee-laborant |
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Soundmagus
IsraTrance Full Member
Started Topics :
67
Posts :
633
Posted : Aug 16, 2013 14:32
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I agree with above, there is no right and wrong but a great bass starts at the basic level, shape the tone properly in the synth using amp and filter envelopes.
If you speak to Mr Cosmosis he will happily tell you that most of the time he doesn't eq or compress his bass, he just spends time creating the perfect tone on the synth itself 
Check out my site for Video tutorials and other tips & Tricks
http://www.music-production-videos.com |
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frisbeehead
IsraTrance Junior Member
Started Topics :
10
Posts :
1352
Posted : Aug 16, 2013 16:43
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Quote:
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On 2013-08-16 14:32, Soundmagus wrote:
I agree with above, there is no right and wrong but a great bass starts at the basic level, shape the tone properly in the synth using amp and filter envelopes.
If you speak to Mr Cosmosis he will happily tell you that most of the time he doesn't eq or compress his bass, he just spends time creating the perfect tone on the synth itself
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yep, it should sound good from the start. it's possible that it finds it's place in the mix straight from the synthesizer. I've done that a couple of times, recently.
it's easy to develop routines and process the sound with the same processing chain every single time. what you need to do is listen carefully and do to the sound only what it really needs and in context with the rest of the song.
for example: subtractive Equalization is of course one good method to spot and control some nasty sounding frequencies. I think that many times those are created with the extra processing, since the oscillator produces a clean sawtooth wave (if that's the case), and the filter should not produce any kind of nasty artifacts either. any form of distortion or saturation changes the waveform in some way. and by doing so, it enhances some of the harmonics, possibly even creates more and some of them we don't want. this is specially true for more extreme use of saturation or distortion.
if you need to use some kind of saturation or distortion, then EQ after it - subtractive like mentioned above kind of EQ.
http://www.voxengo.com/product/glisseq/
take a look at this: if you're worried about keeping things sounding natural, dynamic EQ can be the best solution many times. the description on their website says it all!
so, cut with digital precision EQs. and if you want to boost use the analogue modeling ones.
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Falkon303
Started Topics :
9
Posts :
33
Posted : Aug 17, 2013 02:02
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Quote:
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On 2013-08-16 16:43, frisbeehead wrote:
Quote:
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On 2013-08-16 14:32, Soundmagus wrote:
I agree with above, there is no right and wrong but a great bass starts at the basic level, shape the tone properly in the synth using amp and filter envelopes.
If you speak to Mr Cosmosis he will happily tell you that most of the time he doesn't eq or compress his bass, he just spends time creating the perfect tone on the synth itself
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yep, it should sound good from the start. it's possible that it finds it's place in the mix straight from the synthesizer. I've done that a couple of times, recently.
it's easy to develop routines and process the sound with the same processing chain every single time. what you need to do is listen carefully and do to the sound only what it really needs and in context with the rest of the song.
for example: subtractive Equalization is of course one good method to spot and control some nasty sounding frequencies. I think that many times those are created with the extra processing, since the oscillator produces a clean sawtooth wave (if that's the case), and the filter should not produce any kind of nasty artifacts either. any form of distortion or saturation changes the waveform in some way. and by doing so, it enhances some of the harmonics, possibly even creates more and some of them we don't want. this is specially true for more extreme use of saturation or distortion.
if you need to use some kind of saturation or distortion, then EQ after it - subtractive like mentioned above kind of EQ.
http://www.voxengo.com/product/glisseq/
take a look at this: if you're worried about keeping things sounding natural, dynamic EQ can be the best solution many times. the description on their website says it all!
so, cut with digital precision EQs. and if you want to boost use the analogue modeling ones.
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Ahh, so cool that I own this one. Will try it more on bass, thanks much everyone for the tips! |
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