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Article 003 Taming a Bassline (Novice)
Not happy with that bassline? This tutorial was design to follow on from the “Taming a Bassline (Beginner)” tutorial. As such you may get unpredictable results if you have skipped the “beginner” tutorial. This time around we are going to enhance our bassline sound a little further and look at some other tricks to help your bassline rock!!
Getting started I have tried my best to make this tutorial applicable to as many users as possible and as such I have provided some files you might need (right click and Save As). This archive includes: 1 MIDI file containing the bassline, synth and drum pattern. 1 Closed Hat Sample (wav) 1 Opened Hat Sample (wav) That is all that I have provided because we don't want to over complicate things and this way anyone with a sequencer and a sampler can join in! Please feel free to contact me for the original Cubase SX projects or the exact patches used if you have the same plugins installed. Once you have gathered all the parts you might like to set up your sequencer by importing the midi file and then set up your sampler with the samples provided*, it is important to note here that the drum pattern is set up on the General Midi notes. This means that any GM compatible drum kit will work fine. *You will need the Kick Drum and Snare Drum samples from the first tutorial
Preparation Before you begin there are a few minor tweaks to do. First you must assign the modwheel to modulate the filter cutoff frequency so that increasing the modwheel value opens the filter. Next we need to make some changes to the surrounding elements and prepare the mixer. I have routed the Kick Drum and Snare Drum to separate channels and left some spare channels from my sampler (in this case Battery 3) in case we add more drums. You can also see below that at present all the levels are at 0dB. This will become a problem and it is important to identify this early in a production, as it will leave headroom later on in a mix.
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Note – the only channels from Battery 3 are hidden using the inbuilt hide channels filter. As a side note, the names of the “spare” channels are not the default names. In this case the suffix “M” indicates the Master output, “St” indicates a stereo output and “Mono” indicates a mono output. The initial setup of the mixer has been done which makes it possible to begin changing some of the few elements that are present. Start with the Kick Drum as it requires a little attention. It sounds weak and doesn’t carrying enough “weight” in the bottom end. It needs to be fattened out slightly and lose some of the high pitched click sound. This is a point where genres of production can vary greatly, however in the case we want the Kick Drum and bassline to work together and drive the track forwards. The obvious tool to reach for here is an EQ, there are many to choose from. I decided on using a URS N Mix EQ plugin and made the following settings;
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Settings: HP Filter 45Hz LP Filter 6Khz +6dB @ 80Hz with a slightly wide Q setting -2.5dB @ 1.4Khz with a middle Q setting
Refining the bassline The first step to refining the bassline in this instance is to simplify the pattern. We had some quick notes in the original bassline for this section we have removed these 1/16 notes and replaced them with some slower 1/8 notes. If you listen to the bassline now you will notice that it has an unusual tone and not at all what would be desired. This is mostly due to the filter envelope affecting the longer notes, at this stage a lot of people will reach for the compression and EQ they already have in place and try to tweak things again. I want to show you a different way to deal with this problem and help deliver more unique results! I have also added a little automation to the bassline by using the modwheel and you can see the exact pattern to use below. The procedure for assigning automation varies for different sequencers so please check your documentation for advice.
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You can also see the slower riff that is being played this time. The reasons for making the riff slower will become apparent later in this tutorial, for now listen to the changes that have been made. This modulation of the filter cutoff frequency helps recapture some of the original bassline before we decided to slow the riff down and extend the note length. The movement stops the sound from being static and drawing a listeners attention to one problem frequency, instead it shifts the emphasis around a bit more thanks to the resonant peak from the filter. To further show how reliable this technique is I extended the part to 16 bars and varied the modulation, you can see the full picture in the screenshot below.
You can clearly see the discrete changes in modulation, this kind of movement can sometimes prove difficult at later stages, however listening now you can easily identify that the extra movement has proven beneficial to our slower bassline. At the same time we have introduced more midrange and top end frequencies into the sonic character, this may be ok for some basslines but in this instance it is an unwanted side effect to a certain degree. After all we spend some time in the first tutorial trying to remove these frequencies. The modulation does help this from becoming very annoying but over a period of time it will sound begin to sound stale and somewhat boring. Time need to get dirty!
Dirty bass This has to be one of the easiest tricks around for getting that finished bassline sound, most modern music tends to stay away from the clean tones for the basslines. The dirtier sound gives more edge and power to your bassline but it can also fill up space in the mix quickly. I decided on placing a FM Crusher plugin after the compressor an EQ on the bassline to help complete the sound, the settings I made can be seen below. The sound produced by a distortion unit will vary greatly across different plugins and for this tutorial it is essential to try and use the FM Crusher.
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Settings Distortion: Tube 100%, Mech 0% Filter: Cutoff 350Hz, Resonance 0% Master: Volume 0dB, Mix 95%
LP Filter? I am sure you are questioning the use of a low pass filter at such low settings after we have already compressed and EQ’ed the bassline. The obvious assumption here is that we are removing all those higher frequencies generated by the modulation of the filter, however that would be wrong. Using the mix control we can adjust the amount of high frequencies which pass through to the output signal. Play around with this and you will see that the decision is ultimately a stylistic one. In this case we wanted a low deep throbbing bassline, and with the 95% mix will only get a small amount of the higher harmonics coming through leaving more room later in the mix. The bassline will now sound completely different and has more of a “driving” feel behind it and sits better with the kick drum and snare drum also. This is due to the distortion provided by the FM Crusher which has given the bassline more of an edgy sound. That concludes the adjustments that are to be made to the bassline. I will cover a few other aspects below to outline how effective this method of distortion, filtering, compression and EQ actually is at keeping your synth basslines under control.
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Speeding things up The adjustments made to the bassline in this tutorial have all been carried out on the slower variation of the bassline. You should repeat the modwheel automation process for the faster variation. You will notice that although it still sounds acceptable, the slower variation seems to be tighter and has more dynamic punch within the mix. This doesn’t mean you have to lose the faster section as it will come in very useful for another trick. Move this 16 bar pattern containing the faster riff and modwheel automation to a new track. This will provide the basis for a new element which will help restore the original faster bassline and at the same time reinforce the bassline will have already. To ensure that the new synth part doesn’t interfere with our existing bassline in the mix transpose the part 1 octave. I have chosen to use the Vanguard synth for this part and have made the following settings.
You can try to recreate this patch on other synths, but Vanguard contains some unique features that may be hard to duplicate. Settings: Osc 1: Saw Waveform, 70% Volume Osc 2: Saw Waveform, +1 Octave, 48% Volume Osc 3: SquareWaveform, 48% Volume Unsion Voices – 3vcs, Fat 5% Filter: 24dB Low Pass, Cutoff 30%, Resonance 45%, A.Env1, F.Env1, P.Env1(negative): Attack 0, Decay 0%, Sustain 100%, Release 55%ResEnv1, F.Env2: Attack 0, Decay 50, Sustain 0, release 100% Filter Vl.trk 75% Filter Kbd.trk 55% Amp Vl.trk 50% Amp Drive 7% Delay – Stereo, 1/8d sync, 50% feedback, 45% damping, 33% mix LFO 2 – pwm +50% This creates a somewhat trance music sounding sequence. It follows the bassline and at times the two sounds become layered although the new synth sound never interferes with the true bassline. This gives us a sense of depth in the mix without using up all the limited space available and the delay on the synth part helps to separate it rhythmically from the solid Page 6of 9
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bassline underneath. To complete the new synth part reduce the modwheel automation to a maximum of 50% peaks, instead of the full range sweeps in place initially.
Completion For the sake of completion I have added some hi-hats to the drum pattern using the sampler, and assigned them to a new channel within my mixer. Also the hi-hats have been panned as follows using the sampler. Closed Hi-Hat 12L Open Hi-Hat 18L To complement the mixing process I have set up a send effect reverb for any drums that may be used in this production.
The Stereo Room 2016 Reverb plugin gives a tight, almost gated reverb which is ideal for the drums. I set effect return values of -25dB for both the snare channel and hi-hat channel in the mixer. Adding reverb to the hi-hats and snare helps the drum groove come together and sound less lifeless. While on the topic of reverb I set up a second send effect with a different plugin, another reverb. This time I used Arts Acoustic Reverb, it is a very flexible reverb plugin which can provide a nice lush sound while not crowding the mix. In this instance the important thing to adjust was the EQ, we don’t want any reverb going down into the bottom end of the mix as this can prove very troublesome. The settings made are shown below
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It is important to note here that not all reverbs will be capable of this level of sound shaping and in my opinion it is essential to use a more advanced reverb for things that may be sitting around the midrange or bottom end of a mix, the extra control offered is very useful in terms of mixing. I set a return value of -10dB for our new synth part in the mixer. Before finishing the tutorial there is one final thing which may need pointed out, with the adjustment of all these things it is very likely that you will have exceeded 0dB on your master output. After adding the send effects to my project I reduced the levels of all normal channels by -6dB and the final mixer view is shown below. Cubase Only: You can select all your channels and link them user the inbuilt mixer, once linked you can adjust the volume of one channel and the rest will follow, this allows you to lower the bus levels without affecting the overall balance of your mix. Remember to unlink the channels and deselect them before making any further changes. Upon reducing the levels by -6dB I was left with a peak value of -5.3dB. This is an ideal starting point for the rest of the track, allowing lots of headroom for anything else you might want to add to the mix!
Final Test This completes the tutorial and although the second half may not have much to do with basslines directly I hope you understand that many other elements can make your life harder. I recommend that you experiment with turning the bassline effects off and on to get a really good idea of just how much the bassline has been “tamed”. The bassline provides both the power and edge required without filling up the mix or overwhelming the other elements. In particular the balance between the kick and bassline is an important one, but in my experience Page 8of 9
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other factors such as reverbs, synths which sit around the same register and many other things can have as much an effect on your perception of the bassline.
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