Sub-bass effects?

DJ Life & Community General Discussion
1

Sub-bass effects?

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…

2

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

3

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.

Then again you could just turn up the bass.

4

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…

5

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

6

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.

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 - Maximus

7

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

8

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.

9

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

10

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.

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

11

Thanks for the explanation, Bento. I think I’ll just abandon this idea for the time being…maybe once I’m opening for Crookers I’ll look back into it :stuck_out_tongue:.

12

hmm interesting… but is it really necessary I wonder.. all songs are mixed/engineered so that everything is level. if you added more bass than you’d be fucking up how the rest of the levels sound in the track, which would create an imbalance and possibly distortion when you try to compensate by boosting the mid and hi eqs…

i’m not really sure I believe theres any credibility to this claim. but prove me wrong, i’d like to see if there’s any truth to this story!

13

I’m not talking about just boosting the bass; yeah, that would mess everything up. I’m talking about adding sub-bass. Like another level of bass an octave below the other bass. Just an idea.

14

Take the original track, add a filter so all you have is the low end, and transpose it down an octave. Add a compressor and side chain a kick so it doesn’t distort on the normal kick.

First thing that came to mind as far as how to do it.

15

just to quote an old epic Beasty Boys track: remember - don’t do it at home with your dad`s stereo… -

If youre talking about transposing about an octave down from the lowest bass on the track youde have to divide the frequency by two ie: normally a typical techno track has its bass somewhere around 40 hz, now what youre talking about is cranking up the 20 hz frequency which is WAY beyond what most portable PA speakers will reproduce loud enought to give a faintly audible impression. Actually its quite close to the lowest frequency most ears will notice, hence beyond the range that most cheaper hifi or Pa drivers are constructed for. Typically youde expect the minus 6 db point of an average PA subwoofer with a 15" driver to be between 35 and 40 hz with a sharp decline thereafter. THX subwoofers for movie reproduction go down much deeper but usually sound kinda crappy for music.

Anyway just generate a 20hz sine wave, crank up the volume, whatch the membrane move and think about doing that at an audible level in a cheapo venue and you’ll see (not hear) what I´m trying to get across.

16

this is exactly right. First thing that popped up in my head, too. Easiest way for sure.

Good thinking Nephew :smiley:

17

…only under hip hop supervision. :stuck_out_tongue:

18

Just trying to think how to automate the process now so it can be done live

19

in ableton you could route the main output into a new audio channel. Set up the filter, then have that going into the a octave shift ( down an octave -or two? - obviously) then add that back to the main mix.

I think you would have to be very careful with this, could end sounding very muddy. and the filter might have to be adjusted for each song.

20

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.

For example, playing a WAV of a dubstep tune in a club is going to rattle your insides, but an MP3 won’t. If there was some way of adding extra sub-frequencies from the intact higher frequencies in MP3’s, that could be quite interesting.