Hi,
I wonder how some producers manage to make their sub and bass pitch to move along with their drums and percussion which do not necessarily have low end at all. Notice that I am not talking about putting an 808 in sub and sidechaining it with drums hits. From what I have heard the bass content matches the drums hits both pitch-wise and time-wise. I know there exists some plugins which can reproduce low end but haven't been able to get them to punch and hit strong like you hear in professional tracks. Even most monitoring plugins do not provide high resolution when it comes to low end and you cannot spot harmonics in real time, all you see is a bump in a frequency range which makes analysis and removal of bullshit frequencies a pain, not mentioning that you might not have a proper monitoring environment and you gotta mix in a mixing headphone!
I am talking about Hip Hop sub and bass, as you know, it is extremely important to nail it right cause if you fail to do so, track is dead.
Looking forward to hearing something effective and fruitful from you guys!
Thanks

 

Use any subtractive synth. Sine waves are pure fundamental. If you saturate it you get overtones/harmonics. If you parallel saturate and filter/EQ, you have more control over the harmonics yet keep the pure sine intact.
You can also create the "808 bass" with FM to add some grit, and further parallel saturate and filter.

You can duck the bass (with SC compression, dynamic EQ, etc) when the layered kick hits, so that they don't overlap/mask each other. You can also add some amp attack, to duck when the layered kick hits.

There are low-end exciters (which basically are saturation + bandpass most of the time) to add that extra hump in the low-lows.

Edit: To see more specific frequencies, increase the detail of your analyzer. SPAN for example has 2048 black size as default. Go to the settings and increase it to 16384 block size, or even higher. It might be taxing on your CPU but you get a lot more specific data.

 

Last edited: Aug 11, 2019

Do you have to use a separate bus to saturate in parallel or is it a viable option to just use the mix knob in a plugin ?

 

The way you do it is not important! I do care about method! Any idea or recommendation except the one's I have mentioned would be appreciated!

 

Last edited: Aug 12, 2019

Thanks for the question!
You can use the mix knob if the saturation/distortion plugin has it. It's the same thing as parallel processing. But you have more control over the parallel signal if you set up a send bus (to further make it sound good, with filters, ducking, etc).
I use Ohmicide, which is a multiband distortion/saturator/degrader which also has a mix knob. With it I have lots of control over the parallel signal.
Some people use Fabfilter Saturn, which also is a multiband distortion with mix knob.

 

Last edited: Aug 12, 2019

Mate do you have to yell everytime you come on here and ask a question? Your demanding help from us like you're the only one that matters.

Be nice when you ask for help...

 

Stop being lazy and add some sub bass layer to your drums like everyone does !

 

Last edited: Aug 12, 2019

Can you show an example song? I understand what you write but I would love to hear what your ears identified to be "it".

 

Nah man, you're mistaken. Probably the tone of what I wrote was not appropriate but didn't intend to yell! Anyways, could you please help instead of just convicting me!!!!

 

This might not be the best example for my question but you asked for a example song!

 

I have shown an example but it seems you guys can only say things off-topic like why you ask your question like that, why you do this and why you do that and missing the main point which is question which might even help someone else too.

 

 

Last edited: Aug 13, 2019

Just use SoundGoodiser

 

"make their sub and bass pitch to move along with their drums and percussion"
Are you playing melodies with your kicks ?

 

That's because professionals aren't "LOOKING" in regards to removing frequencies and adding harmony. Any good engineer is listening for what needs to be removed or added, rather than "looking". Train your ears, that way when you open a filter (eq) you'll pretty much know where to go from there.

That, and they're mixing in an environment well suited for mixing low end, and mixing in general. Somewhere with no standing waves, reverberation, etc etc. I honestly think most producers take the importance of their listening environment for granted. You can't replicate a professional sound, because you're not hearing all of the nuances that a quality environment provides that a non quality one doesn't.

 

@MaXe Do you have an example that suits your description? Honestly, I am most interested in this topic as some of the answers apply to my topic "warm bass". But having read your description I could not find the "bass pitch move along with drums and percussion" anyhow. I did make "drum pitch move along with bass" in the past in some case, though. As of now, I don't even know what you are LOOKING for. I guess there is a language barrier that doesn't want us to understand each other. What's your native language?

Your example song does fit into my "warm bass" topic actually. Maybe you should come over and take some read off the great input from this forum if you too are seeking that warm low end.

 

Having a sub bass that follows each note of your drums , percussive elements and hi hats will be an absolute mess with your low end , better learn how to deal with sub basses, Enhancers, MaxBass, Saturation, etc
If you use Ableton, Drum Buss native plugin does exactly what you are searching for

 

You don't like iZotope Trash2?
Some people say iZotope sucks but personally I like much this distortion,it has tons of algoritms.

 

I never said I didn't like it. I just said I use/prefer Ohmicide.

 

That was just a question.