How Do I get that Clean Yet Powerful Bass?

[scarboro78]

Hey Guys,

OK, I been doing the home recording thing for about 8 months now and I must say my recordings have improved vastly since my first couple of tries. Of course I'm still learning something new everyday. But now one thing I haven't been able to achieve is that CLEAN Powerful Bass. Now when I say clean I mean the Bass that won't sound messy and rattle your speakers yet have that punch. I'm working on mainly rap music.. if anyone is familiar with Dr. Dre's music for example, his tracks have powerful bass, but as powerful as they are.. they sound clean in any system I've ever listened to them.

I've tried different EQ Techniques, and haven't been able to achieve that sound.. is there some sort of compression maybe that would maybe help clean up the low end? Or am I focusing on the wrong frequencies? Any other suggestions?

Your Input is appreciated!

[Teacher]

first and foremost is the source sound. Does the bass sound you pick sound messy and muddy? If so change it to one that sounds closer to how you envision it. After that I'd suggest doing a few mults(copies) of the track maybe one or too. on the copies put high pass filter on them to remove the muddiness around 100Hz and accentuate the attack by boosting in the mids and low mids then compress the shit out of it Medium Attack, slow release.. High Pass as high as needed if the bass sounds to thin back off, of course.

[scarboro78]

Unfortunately, most of the time I have no say in the sounds being used as the producers provide me with the tracks.. so I have to work with what I have... I'll try doing a high pass around 100hz. I havent done that I figured I didn't want to cut any lows off the bass.. but maybe thats exactly what I need to do.. So as for compression.. what kind of ratio are you talking.. 5:1..? Howbout threshold? I just want to get a general idea of what you mean by compress the shit out of it.. lol

[Teacher]

Originally Posted by scarboro78

Unfortunately, most of the time I have no say in the sounds being used as the producers provide me with the tracks.. so I have to work with what I have... I'll try doing a high pass around 100hz. I havent done that I figured I didn't want to cut any lows off the bass.. but maybe thats exactly what I need to do.. So as for compression.. what kind of ratio are you talking.. 5:1..?

you only roll off the low end on the copies....the original bass stays untouched....play with the ratio 5:1 is a good starting point but your probably gonna have to go higher.

You can always sample replace the bass sounds with your own.

[scarboro78]

Originally Posted by Teacher

you only roll off the low end on the copies....the original bass stays untouched....play with the ratio 5:1 is a good starting point but your probably gonna have to go higher.

You can always sample replace the bass sounds with your own.

Ohh.. so you mean I should keep the original playing simultaneaously? Interesting... so Im guessing I'll keep the original flat right.. unless the bass is messy to begin with. wow.. never thought about doing that.. Can't wait to get home and mess with my base! lol

[chessrock]

Originally Posted by scarboro78

Unfortunately, most of the time I have no say in the sounds being used as the producers provide me with the tracks.. so I have to work with what I have...

I'd recommend telling them to get you better-sounding stuff ... or get better producers. That's their job - not yours.

[Teacher]

Originally Posted by scarboro78

Ohh.. so you mean I should keep the original playing simultaneaously? Interesting... so Im guessing I'll keep the original flat right.. unless the bass is messy to begin with. wow.. never thought about doing that.. Can't wait to get home and mess with my base! lol

yea you want the original to play so not to change the sound so radically so the produce won't be like "wtf did you do to my bass sound". This technique still keeps the producers integrity and hopefully gives a more useable bass sound to mix

[ecktronic]

Your threshold depends on how loud the recording of the bass was tracked obviously. But use a threshold so that it is almost always compressing it. This should give a solid more consistent volume without waves of volume if compressed right.play about with the ratio and attack and release once you have your threshold set. Use too much ratio and the bass could pump or use too little and the volume wont be compressed enough and when mixed the bass might sound out of place in the mix because of the volume changes in the bass.