Hi folks, I'm Mike and I love music since...

Boring!!! Let me interrupt my whole life story ;)

So I have some to learn and I want to get that warm low end / bass found in many Hiphop-orientated music.

The example I recently chose is:

1. How do I achieve this warm bass?
a) what bass sound would you recommend me (VST; Library, etc)
b) what FX would you recommend to apply as inserts (and sends maybe)
c) Does mixing / Mastering (on high budget equipment) have a significant impact on this bass being so warm? Please confirm, if so

2. Can anybody tell me what's going on down there in that song? Is there a seperate kick from bassline or is it just the bassline, with a "kicky" attack?

Can someone please reveal the magic?

Many thanks in advance!

Mike

 

Grab some 808 pack, plenty on sister site

 

Thanks McRoi, I appreciate your reply. I have many 808s to start this trip off with. Most of them are 808 sample one-shots, tuned to create a "melody". Also I have some 808 true programs (consisting of 1 sample for each note) MPC / Kontakt. I imagine the right 808 has been utilized in the example.

Still I can not get a warm bass like "that". Not even soloing the bass.

I noticed this: Some notes from the bass are pretty close to a good start point for that warmth, but some others are definetely not. How can I achieve to have the bass sitting on point / being warm as the one from the youtube video above regardless of the note its playing / regardless of the individual bass sound character. Because to me it seems, that no matter what "they" use, be it a clean 808, an acoustic bass, pre-amped bass, fretfull-like 808, or else, the bass is always on point, full and warm.

Does anyone know a guide/tutorial that could help me?

 

And what is this kick like? Is it
a) only an 808 and NO kick (!!! no kick? what?)
b) 808 and kick but fusioned to a unity by "what method"??? This doesn't seem like simple sidechain-compression, right?

I have to crack this nut.

 

hi mike. i believe they use a minimal approach on the 808, cutting ff the highs to make it round (removing any click) and leaving just the thud. one thing i noticed with 808s there are certain sweet spots in when you filter it.. the sweet spot depends on the key of the song, with this sweet spot you then increase the resonance to make it beep, if that beep is in the key of the song you got it, bring it down so you can only just hear the resonance, just a little bit. in one beat i made i used hamonic maximizer by audiority.. played around with the prsense, mids, drive and push.. it's useful to use a distortion plugin with dry/wet knob. cause it's just touch

btw, some people use serum presets, which i ran across today actually, they're pretty good start

i uploaded a beat, it has less distortion, not as loud like the yosemite, but i think it's warm

abletons soft shaper thingy is pretty good for suble saturation, in my opinion

here:https://we.tl/t-Ot2VQFuQNj

 

https://audiosex.pro/threads/getting-clean-sub-and-bass-that-moves-with-drums.45337/

 

Thanks guys, I will work with your input. Yes, Baxter, I found that one, too and considered it of most interest to me ;) If there is an example of that clean sub moving with drums, I would appreciate that (do you consider that yosemite clean moving?). Because it's easier to form the puzzle when having a clue of the whole picture.

MrGuywick, I'll listen to your file at home. Looking forward to it.

 

heavy compressed 808 to sutain the sound and maybe light distortion to bring high harmonics ..

 

I would personally just start with a really good emulation synth like Diva or Repro, filter (since repro only has a triangle instead of sine), pitch envelope, compress the holy shit out of it and add a few harmonics with a good quality saturation plugin or something like Waves Rbass

Obviously not a viable option for everyone, but I bet something like UAD Fatso could get you there. Of course you could get similar results with simpler plugins, it'd just take more work

 

Last edited: Aug 12, 2019

I've never found compressing a sinewave to be my thing, as it's pretty undynamic. I guess we all do things differently. I'd rather parallel saturate a sine (to bring out harmonics) and then sculpt the saturated channel with filters and EQ to my liking. There are different distortions and waveshapers that yield different results in terms of harmonics.
FM is also very underestimated. You can do a lot with simple FM alone, without the need of adding saturation and filters. My workhorse is Surge, which is free. I can re-create this quite quickly as it's a pretty simple sound.

 

My thoughts exactly, Baxter. Bass usually doesn't need to be compressed, but it sure needs some harmonic exication.

 

To throw a couple more cents in, normally with compression I try for a 'less compression to preserve dynamics' idea also. On bass however I thought it was mandatory. Oddly I've only recently started messing with comps and haven't ventured past the lower 1:5, 2:1 ratios much but I think I like the way it can enhance definition and be used as a shaper.

In this example I thought maybe something similar could have been done. The 808 sound has a hip hop kick with fast release which sets the attack of the sound, small lower mid boost, and sub freq's cut off to help cut through the simultaniously layered bass 808 which has some stereo width touches like a StereoSavage and a longer decay to help the 808 ring out, just a tiny bit of saturation from Decapitator at the beginning of the chain and a good mastering job to lock all of the i's and t's in place.

I might be wrong about the compression thing though, if Spy told me I was hitting it too hard I'd abandon the concept for sure. I'll post a couple new tracks here in a bit so hopefully ya'll can help OP and I iron it out.

Cool thread and I'll be sure to keep checking back on this

 

Idk if I ever really thought about this much. I rarely use just a sine as a bass, and hadn't considered how it changes things. Ordinarily I just slap a compressor with a really high ratio on the bass so I don't have to think too much about it when the sub fundamental gets up around that 128Hz C note and beyond. I just tested it out though and you guys are right, compressing a sine wave does virtually nothing unless the time variables are so fast that you're waveshaping it. I didn't really notice any difference in loudness even.

edit - I kind of feel like one of those ancient astronomers who could like calculate the mass of the earth but thought the sun revolved around our planet

 

Last edited: Aug 13, 2019

My approach to imitate this would be to found similar boomy 808 sample and put RBass on it or Warmifier maybe, then compress the low end to control the sub volume. EQ and saturation to taste. Maybe I'm just naive and this wouldn't work :D

 

Guys, you are awesome! I am glad that my question did trigger all this. (I think I need at least a Saturday to try all this out)
@Baxter , "parallel saturate a sine" -> do you mean routing to a bus, there filtering down to a sine-like sound and saturate.... OR adding a sine via new instrument to fatten things up...? (I keep in mind that it is easy for you to recreate that sound, good to know! Thanks, Surge will be tested!)

@KungPaoFist Thanks! very detailed description to go along.

@McRoi , would you try it and share your experience?

Thanks @Misterguywick for your input. That method you describe will be tested. Do you mean XFER Serum Factory Presets or expansions? Just checked your track. I like the idea. We should crack that nut together to get that bass thing work in any ear via any speaker to warm up the heart. When I try that Yosemite to listen on laptop speaker at very low volume, the bass / sub is "THERE". When I tried this with your track, I could not even tell that there is a bass line / sub-bass line. Any ideas?

I'm undecided whether to recreate the whole melody of Yosemite for the sake of comparability or doing some fresh stuff where I usually lean to.

If any other cents come in or you guys have new thoughts, always much appreciated.

 

ah yeah gotcha bro. the presets are 3rd party called
Echo Sound Works 808 Day V2
I don't have a laptop to test my bass on how's this though? this is one of the presets.. crushed compressed hard for some growl with the cla 76. try tell me if you can hear it
i'm keen to know the tricks too dude

btw, i expect you to hear the high the notes but the low ones, let me know

 

Nexus and Sausage Fattener.

 

@Blue Finally somebody dropped the N-Bomb ;)
Thanks for your advice, Sausage Fattener will be tested. Regarding N*xus, am I correct that 2.2 Air was the last "easy accessible" and that the expansions of the last 7 years don't work on that?

You seem to be on top of things. Can you confirm, that the expansions for N from sister site work with the officially bought product? What exact Preset from Nexus do you have in mind for that bass by the way?

@Misterguywick checked your new file. No and yes. No as it is barely noticable on lower volume. But after turning it up and back down again, knowing what I was looking for, I could tell it is there. In my opinion the bass was a mixture of clean and broomy, but not really warm.

 

Last edited: Aug 14, 2019

Parallel as in parallel saturation (plugin with mix knob or sending to a bus with a saturation plugin loaded).
This way you can keep the fundamental intact and blend in the parallel harmonics. Then you can shape the harmonics to your liking (with waveshaper, EQ, filters, etc).

 

interesting, when I read this en listen to the song on my phone I would've thought it was full fledged 808 sub bass,
how does this 808 amount to beeing warm? do u guys have sub low?