What do you guys use for a good sub sound?

 

I use IK multimedia modo bass with lowleveler and lowair and saturation for my 808 sub.
doesn't actually qualify beeing a 808 but they get identified as such and got balls.

reason for using a guitar sim is because I find it easyier to dial in some saturation

 

Any synth do the trick bro, if you know sound design you can do any kind of sub bass in any synth in seconds.

 

I like a nice sine wave sub. I use the Spectrasonics Trillian "Arp 2600 Sine" quite alot. Don't use the "patch browser" in Trillian to find it, use the "soundsource browser" Synth Bass/Arp 2600/Waves - Classic Sine,

Mono, voices set to 1. High cut at around 100-200Hz . Low cut with gentle slope below 40Hz, you still want some of those 20-40Hz, that's the territory where you feel the bass rather than hear it, in a club. If the sub and kick are clashing sidechaining is lazy, use an EQ. Creative sidechaining is fine..do whatever sounds good to you I guess. I usually low cut the kick about 60-70Hz subtle boost around 100Hz if punch is lacking. 40-60Hz is the zone for sub, so E1 to A#1, choose the key of your tune wisely.

I always keep the sub bass pure, no distortion or saturation etc but will blend subtly with a low cut, lower volume 2nd layer (usually 12 or 19 semi tones above the sub) with some saturation/distortion to add any harmonics in the upper frequecies I might want (so the sub is audible on cheap speakers/headphones). If you do want to saturate or distort the sub bass itself, use a multi band fx so you're not messing up the sub frequencies.

 

Last edited: Feb 25, 2018

What kind of subs are we talking about? I generally use any synth with a sine wave and good envelopes. But tools like KICK 2 and others are also useful depending on your use (drone sub, impact sub, etc).

 

The kind that make your trousers flap in the breeze

 

Last edited: Feb 25, 2018

I use samples. Find something unprocessed that sits in the mix well, naturally, then go from there. Sometimes I'll use Saturn or Devastor to add a little touch of saturation and distortion in the 250-500 range. I've also found from personal experience that subs between the keys of (D# up to A) produce the most resonate bassy sounds between 60-200Hz.