Im making a dance track that uses a bassline with most of the notes being in D and the highest note is in F ( all within the same octave ) and im wondering where is it best to place the sub bass? I dont have a great setup so cant really monitor the very low end which is why im asking.
Going with the note D, is it best to use D1 @ 36hz or D2 @ 73hz ? At D1 i can barely hear/feel a sub and at D2 i can hear it well but it seems a bit too high in the spectrum for sub bass imo.
What would others do? and whats the highest and lowest frequency you would use sub bass?
What octave to place sub bass
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thecontrolcentre thecontrolcentre https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=76240 - KVRAF
- 35175 posts since 27 Jul, 2005 from the wilds of wanny
Without proper monitoring its pretty much guesswork, and setting levels will be difficult. If it sounds too high then drop it by an octave, but without a sub monitor it may become inaudible. My advice is get a sub and/or some good headphones.
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- KVRAF
- 11001 posts since 15 Apr, 2019 from Nowhere
Agreed. If you can’t hear it you can’t mix it, so it might sound like crap - it will be guesswork without being able to hear.
Good headphones would be a good investment.
Good headphones would be a good investment.
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- addled muppet weed
- 105857 posts since 26 Jan, 2003 from through the looking glass
what they said. you wouldn't try mixing without any monitors at all, why try mixing things you cant hear?
sort out the monitoring, sub or phones :l
sort out the monitoring, sub or phones :l
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- KVRAF
- 4590 posts since 7 Jun, 2012 from Warsaw
I wouldn't go below 40 Hz to be honest, it sounds just wrong. If you play in key D at 73 Hz, you might want to mix in some fundamental at 2/3 frequency just to keep the bottom end low and fat.
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Tricky-Loops wrote: (...)someone like Armin van Buuren who claims to make a track in half an hour and all his songs sound somewhat boring(...)
Tricky-Loops wrote: (...)someone like Armin van Buuren who claims to make a track in half an hour and all his songs sound somewhat boring(...)
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- KVRAF
- 2989 posts since 5 Nov, 2014
Why not post that kick&bass combo so we can judge it better, sometimes your kick have enough sub frequencies so your bass could just fill in occasionally, in your case maybe having that F kicking in at 43hz as lowest bass note occasionally isn't bad idea at all, than having kick at G/G#, that rest of the bass at higher spectrum, if you kick have longer tail, you can't fit much anyways.
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- KVRAF
- 15273 posts since 8 Mar, 2005 from Utrecht, Holland
For reference, lowest note on a base guitar is an E at 41.2 Hz. It's being used all the time, although not always just as a pure sine like usual for sub bass. You can try to use a patch with a bit of higher harmonics on top of the fundamental sine. For example use a triangular waveform and close the filter somewhat.
Minor third higher is the G at 49 Hz. For Europeans quite close to 50Hz mains hum. American 60 Hz mains hum is right inbetween Bb and B.
Your D just below the E should be 36.7 Hz. Pretty normal, but quite low. You could try transposing the whole song to D# or E, just see whether that clears up stuff a bit.
I would never go below the C of 32 Hz.
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- KVRian
- 712 posts since 26 Jul, 2018 from Germany
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- KVRist
- Topic Starter
- 82 posts since 27 Jun, 2019
thanks for the replies
finally got around to testing it on a few systems and 36hz is much better than 73hz for this track, 73 was too high, 36 is great when you can hear/feel it
finally got around to testing it on a few systems and 36hz is much better than 73hz for this track, 73 was too high, 36 is great when you can hear/feel it
