Sub-bass effects?

[cielomobile]

I've heard that some DJs have effect units that add sub-bass to their mixes, doubling the bass frequencies an octave lower or something. Anyone know anything about this? I think my mixes could benefit from something like this...

[Nephew]

I really don't see the need for that as most systems wouldn't even be able to produce them properly I think

[jasonj]

You could try this stereo enhancer

If you are using Ableton, or routing Traktor through Ableton You Wa Shock is a stereo enhancer that has a low end enhancement.

http://youwashockvst.googlepages.com/

Then again you could just turn up the bass.

[Damien1138]

This could rock for dnb if you were able to control the new subbass with an LFO or something. Could be fun at a rave also....

[midifidler]

I think some dubstep DJ's do this by kinda wobbling the tone arm slightly

[BentoSan]

Well if you were using a program like Ableton is would be super easy to add extra sub bass to your mixes as you would just add in a low shelf filter tuned in at the sub frequency ranged. Basicly it would just appling extra volume to the sub-bass frequencies, no special equipment required.

Maybe you could just us an example of what kind of gear your talking about here.

If you are using Ableton, or routing Traktor through Ableton You Wa Shock is a stereo enhancer that has a low end enhancement.

YouWaShock is actually a compressor - its basicly a highly stripped down free version Maximus by Image Line, you can read more about maximus here if you like - http://flstudio.image-line.com/help/...ns/Maximus.htm

[Nephew]

Wait, is he talking about playing live or just recording a mix at home?

[cielomobile]

I'm talking about playing live. I don't really know what sort of equipment I'm talking about; I've just heard of DJs adding subbass to their mixes with some effect unit, and I was wondering how this could be done. I use Traktor Pro though, not Ableton. Thanks for the suggestions, guys.

[Nephew]

Is there really a need to add more bass now a days? I find this more as a way to cover up that fact that you're playing a 128kbps tune just so it has some low end

[BentoSan]

Well say if your running something like Ableton live you could use a synth with a sine oscillator sitting at a sub-bass frequency then filter out the very very bottom that would never get heard or felt anyway and most\all of the non-sub bass frequencies, then there you have a basic sub bass generator. However if your mixing sub bass with sub bass that is already present in the songs you are playing that is a bad idea because sub frequencies are ment to be clean.

You cant really get as experimental with the sub-bass frequencies as you can with the rest of the material. As a general rule of thumb and very important rule of thumb in both Djing and Production is that the lower in the frequency spectrum that you go the less room you have for mixing multiple channels in together and applying effects. So when you get to your sub-bass frequencies there is not very much room at all to mix channels sub-basses together. You could of course filter out the the sub-bass of a song and on the fly replace it with your own sub bass - getting it to sit with the bass line and kicks of the song is difficult work in the studio and can take hours let alone trying to perform live.

Interesting. I've heard a lot of people say that when playing 320k MP3s, the compression takes away the frequencies that you can hear, but not what you can feel.

Mp3 sub frequencies roll of before a mastering engineer rolls off so you dont lose any sub frequencies - so thats just a myth.