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Tuning bass line perfectly
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golem
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 8, 2011 18:21:29
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Do you have any tips how to tune a bass line so that it sounds to be in perfect tune with melodies?
It should be simple but I find it very hard to do. Even with bassline that has a single note for the whole duration I find myself rotating the tune knob up and down without finding the perfect tune. Even when I find the most perfect sweet spot, it still sounds somehow to be out of tune.
I think this has maybe something to do with low pass filtering, multiple voices, detuning or phase shifting  . When I remove the filter, tuning becomes much easier as you can use the harmonics to do it. It almost sounds like the tuning changes when you low-pass filter it. I have the impression of reading that this might be a psychoacoustic phenomenon. Btw. I am experiencing these problems especially with Sylenth as I use it a lot for bass.
Anyway, how do you get the perfect tuning for your bassline? Is it just theoretically impossible if you use fattening effects like multiple voices, phase modulation or even a normal low-pass filter?
Sometimes it even sounds like that if I have a multiple note bassline, where the difference of uppest and lowest note is octave or more, after tuning one note is in tune but another note is out of tune. So should you separate each note to different track and tune them separately? =D
 
http://www.soundcloud.com/dreaml4nd
http://www.mixcloud.com/aegonox-peter-pan |
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Nectarios
Martian Arts
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Posted : Dec 8, 2011 18:37
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aciduss
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 8, 2011 19:30
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Do you have near field monitors / studio treatment? |
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PoM
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Posted : Dec 8, 2011 19:34
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On 2011-12-08 19:30, aciduss wrote:
Do you have near field monitors / studio treatment?
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to hear if the bass is in tune?
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Equilizyme
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Dec 8, 2011 19:40
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Yeah I have "had" tons of problems with this, then I realized it was just how I was listening to it. It drove me mad for weeks though, I thought I was losing my sense of pitch! Try playing it in your car or in a different place. Or just set the synth to the pitch you know to be correct and move on, after like 10 minutes your ears should adjust.
I usually set the filter so it has no resonance, this can help you too maybe if you haven't set it like that already.
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http://soundcloud.com/equilizyme
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aciduss
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 8, 2011 19:41
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Well, just to hear the bass properly. |
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xoC
Cubic Spline
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Posted : Dec 8, 2011 20:35
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On 2011-12-08 19:34, PoM wrote:
Quote:
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On 2011-12-08 19:30, aciduss wrote:
Do you have near field monitors / studio treatment?
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to hear if the bass is in tune?
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If a note is at a frequency which is close to a room mode, it has a tendency to "slide" to the room mode frequency.
http://www.storm-mastering.com |
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PoM
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 8, 2011 21:47
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yeah but too change the tune of a bass?the problem is not about acutics there, really doube it,with a peak on a harmonic it could happen though.
maybe try a other synths , if you do 2 bassline in G on 2 differents synths and a/b , yu will probably hear they are not pitched the same..still in G though but a little different maybe cause of different harmonics balance,how you eq it influence the pitch too.
retrigering the osc phase can change the pitch,depending where in the waveform you triger the note .
the filter might influence the pitch too.
also some synth might have a drift setting or a slight pitch modulation to mimic some analog synth ...dunno it s just guess
but if you can t repitch it right , it could be something else |
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minddoctorsmakeacid
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 8, 2011 22:13
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Quote:
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On 2011-12-08 21:47, PoM wrote:
yeah but too change the tune of a bass?the problem is not about acutics there, really doube it,with a peak on a harmonic it could happen though.
maybe try a other synths , if you do 2 bassline in G on 2 differents synths and a/b , yu will probably hear they are not pitched the same..still in G though but a little different maybe cause of different harmonics balance.
retrigering the osc phase can change the pitch,depending where in the waveform you triger the note .
the filter might influence the pitch too.
also some synth might have a drift setting or a slight pitch modulation to mimic some analog synth ...dunno it s just guess
but if you can t repitch it right , it could be something else
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+1
I try not to apply any effects to the bass directly, I tend to work more on getting the right kick for the bass and then maybe apply saturation to the kick+bass group channel, this gives you an natural, powerfull and clean bass sound! 
http://www.MindDoctorsMakeAcid.com |
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golem
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 9, 2011 01:27
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golem
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 9, 2011 01:30
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Quote:
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On 2011-12-08 20:35, xoC wrote:
If a note is at a frequency which is close to a room mode, it has a tendency to "slide" to the room mode frequency.
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Hmm... that is very interesting. I think the next thing I will do I try to do the mixing again with headphones, I suppose this should eliminate the effect completely?
Do you have any reference material where I could get more information about this and how common problem it is in (bad) studios...?
http://www.soundcloud.com/dreaml4nd
http://www.mixcloud.com/aegonox-peter-pan |
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golem
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 9, 2011 05:00
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I think I found the problem. The notes in my bassline are so short that a low frequency bass does not get enough cycles for the ear to form an accurate perception of pitch. The problem corrected instantly when I made the notes longer and then it is easy to tune.
Anyway I wonder what you can do about this if you still want the short, snappy and accurate bass notes  . Highpass bassline, then create another bassline with just sine wave and for that bassline the basic proggy half-on-half-off. It just sounds too lazy, I wonder how names like Ace Ventura, Liquid Soul and Ovnimoon produce a bassline with short notes but still the bass line sounds to be in tune.
http://www.soundcloud.com/dreaml4nd
http://www.mixcloud.com/aegonox-peter-pan |
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Kryten
IsraTrance Junior Member
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Posted : Dec 10, 2011 01:01
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For short, snappy bass notes: turn sustain of the amp envelope to 0 and play with the decay. Same goes for the filter envelope if you have a seperate one.
This way you get a nice short and plucky bass.
My first track:
http://soundcloud.com/kryten/ |
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orange
Fat Data
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Posted : Dec 10, 2011 01:31
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minddoctorsmakeacid
IsraTrance Full Member
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Posted : Dec 10, 2011 15:20
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On 2011-12-10 01:31, orange wrote:
if you want it short.. your kick must be longer and in tune with the bass.
the relation between them in terms of note duration and envelope will provide the tune you seek from the bass.
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+1
With this technique you can also use sidechain compression on the kick for everytime the bass plays the kick tail is ducked.
http://www.MindDoctorsMakeAcid.com |
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