Filtering Bass

dacalion

Hands Of FIRE!
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 259
Try the patented "2Good Theory"... raise the 60Hz area and lower the 300Hz area a few decibels on your eq. Its a real good "rule of thumb" for creating a very solid bass sound. There isn't a perfect answer, sometimes music just doesn't align sonically, just give it a try and let us know what happened.
 

UNORTHODOX

Father Timeless
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 44
Music is perception, If the bass is booty no matter what you do to it, then you need to filter frequencies of the other instruments untill the bass SEEMS to have more "weight". you dont need to make the bass better, you need to "lighten" up everything else.
 

Jamal Malik

Member
ill o.g.
Music is perception, If the bass is booty no matter what you do to it, then you need to filter frequencies of the other instruments untill the bass SEEMS to have more "weight". you dont need to make the bass better, you need to "lighten" up everything else.

I've been having trouble with this lately. Maybe you can help Unorthodox??

You know I stay digging in those crates, so most of my beats use samples from vinyl records. I'm using Logic on a Mac, I usually use HPF, LPF, Phase EQ's, and Limiters, Compressors and so on. (I have the Waves collection, feel free to suggest good plug-ins I usually ONLY fuck with the L1, L3, SSL, and R plug-ins, anyways...)

So here's how the process usually unfolds: 1) I find a track I like with some nice robust grooving 2) I chop it up, mess with the pitch if necessary and 3) throw it on a sampler (EXS24+MPD16) and come up with a melody. Since I've been reading and posting here I've come a long way with my mixing skills, but I'm still not there completely.

When I finish the melody, I do what I've heard called "the low end theory"-- basically I have two sampler tracks, on one (using L&HPF's) I cut 315Hz and under and on the other I do the opposite. Then I go back on top of those now filtered tracks with a Linear Phase EQ and get rid of what muddiness I can.

I keep the melody chops track in Stereo, the bass chops track in Mono along with my Kick which is on another track of course. Unfortunately as you all pointed out to me some months ago It's really hard to get the kick out of the original vinyl bassline while maintaining all that thick/fatness of the bassline.

So what are ya'lls tricks if you're cool enough to share them? Obviously different basslines hit at different frequencies but SHIT yo there has GOT to be a way to make this easier...I spend all fucking day messing around filtering these samples and usually I'm not satisfied with the sound. The only tracks I'm truly satisfied with have open bass hits and stuff like that.

I've been fucking around with taking the send on my mono Kick Track, sending it to an auxiliary track and the turning the output off so that the Compressor on my Bassline is the only thing still listening to it (called side-chaining, right?) trying to cut out some of the kick in my bassline but all the videos I have watched have been oriented towards Techno and I'd love some advice on using the technique with Hip-Hop, because the times I have gotten it to work it's like fucking magic getting those kicks out of my vinyl bass. I'm not really conscious of what I'm doing with this-- a lot of it's trial and error and running with that. Anyone got any suggestions?

PS - Tell me this isn't the sickest sampled/filtered vinyl bass ever. This is my goal right here to get my bass this smooth!

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bo-1vd_ElU0"]YouTube- Alchemist Tic Toc instrumental[/ame]
 

UNORTHODOX

Father Timeless
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 44
ok so I'm just now seeing this post so forgive me.

Elevayta Boy Pro will single out ANY frequencies ANY where. (http://www.elevayta.com/product13.htm)

Add that with RBass (Which is crack) NewB, and a bunch of other plugs. EQ etc. You know what, send me a sample and I'll make a vid of me messing with the sample. Lazyness kiked in
 
Try the patented "2Good Theory"... raise the 60Hz area and lower the 300Hz area a few decibels on your eq. Its a real good "rule of thumb" for creating a very solid bass sound. There isn't a perfect answer, sometimes music just doesn't align sonically, just give it a try and let us know what happened.

LMAO.

To remove muddyness of a bass you really have to drop around 300hz. But if the bass is part of the sample then the best bet is filter out the bass completely and try to remake a bassline and add a kick if the sample had a kick. At least then you can add variation to both without affecting the sample. Or variate the sample without affecting the bass.

cut lows all together below 40hz using a high pass filter that may help clear it up.

Yep, or maybe as low as 33hz, but cut completely below that level, it can create distortion that you cannot actually hear, but will fuck up the overall levels when trying to finalise a mix. If you dont cut the low end, then when you try boosting at around 65hz, it will be clipping before it is even perceptably loud enough.
 

UNORTHODOX

Father Timeless
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 44
Update I'm shooting the vid tomorrow. Been swamped with work, great problems tho. lol
 

Shonsteez

Gurpologist
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 33
Now that is a helpful member! :)

@ jamal - I can attest that if the sample itself just doesn't have the frequency content needed for a proper filtered bass theres not much you can do. Even the best EQing isnt going to implant the frequencies needed if their not there.
 

UNORTHODOX

Father Timeless
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 44
lol Thanks Shon! I'm setting up now. Is there anything else anyone wants me to speak on/Show? real quick
 

UNORTHODOX

Father Timeless
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 44
Done, Hopefully I get a chance to edit tomorrow... sleep now
 

UNORTHODOX

Father Timeless
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 44
Done, its rendering now. Uploading tonight. Post tomorrow.
 

UNORTHODOX

Father Timeless
ill o.g.
Battle Points: 44
The videos should be live by now. I started to just talk about sample manipulation but it turned into a whole "beat makin" vid (though its a bit more like Hangin wit Ace/Instructional). Every part of the beat affects every other part so I had to go over alittle bit of everything. From sound selection to Comp, and Eq settings on the master.

My battery was dieing from video taping all day so I had to rush certain parts. If there are any questions feel free to ask.





[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axBf-TH7s1s"]YouTube- Ace- Beat Makin Pt3[/ame]
 

Haze47

THE URBAN ARCHEOLOGIST
ill o.g.
250-300 is where the mud is, but i would cut between 400-500..... i read that back in the day they ALWAYS took a hunk out at 400 on the kicks and low - for BIG deep bass and drums i never positively EQ ever... its all about cutting, especially if you dont have a musical eq.... so for me i would mix it to the level you want, then cut at 60, 250, 400 and 1000 (ish) - then boost the volume back up to where you wanted it before.... buss it with the kick and drums and parallel compress the fuck out of it, then eq that bus almost cutting in the same places in the mid, but boosting the lows (-100) about 8db with a shelving eq, same on the tops (10000 +)

for me, that is bass, you could always do a little sidechaining as well, if you are feeling that type of sound
 
Top