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[barryalva]

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[mharris]

Most people would agree on what "fatness" is because it is a fairly well recognised term. But despite this, it is still pretty hard to describe what it means without using other loosely defined adjectives. Generally speaking you want the sound to be fuller so that the sound has more presence.

You can achieve this many ways but try some of the following..

Add the Chorus effect after your synth. This layers up multiple copies of the audio each with a slightly different delay.
If your synth uses multiple oscillators then use the detune control so that each of them are slightly detuned from each other.
Duplicate your synth notes an octave lower and/or higher.

If you try each of these individually and compare the difference before and after you should be able to hear what fattness is. Also, post up your song and people can give some specific pointers.

[barryalva]

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[MacGuffin]

sausage fattener:

http://www.dadalife.com/?p=937

[mharris]

Adding more stereo width would be another way to create a fatter sound. I also think that adding more lower frequencies would be another way to increase the subjective fatness of it.

A term used recently in another thread will be a good fit here.. "There are plenty of ways to skin a cat" and I think to ask if it is more about X than Y somewhat misses the point. These terms "fattness" and "beefyness" (I like this one) describe the end result and not process by which you achieve that result.

Because it is all very subjective, I can only describe what I would consider a fat sound. Something that it layered and pleasing to the ear, with a lot of richness and detail in its texture but still smooth sounding. It should cut through the mix and have a lot of presence. Obviously how you achieve this end result is entirely up to you.

[Tarekith]

In general when someone says they want something fatter, I personally think they mean it should have a bit more fullness in the lower mids.

[Angstrom]

I would also say that the advice of "cut the lows from /instrument/ to get it out of the way of your kick/bass/etc" is annoyingly simplistic, and when followed methodically just leads to thin, lifeless, ugly mixes.

I hear this 'advice' all the time and it reminds me of the old dental technique they used to follow in the 1940s-1950s of removing all healthy teeth in case they caused health issues later in life. This is why so many pensioners had false teeth. They didn't really need to lose them all, but the idea that tooth and gum disease was bad led to this blasted-earth solution of no teeth for anybody, ever.

So, think of those "I always cut all the bass ..." mixes as pensioners teeth mixes.

You don't just do it to everything, you use it when required, while it's required, as a last resort to bad instrumentation.

[Tarekith]

Amen, amen. It's gotten to the point where I can almost spot when people do that instantly. They have sub bass, this huge hole where all the oomph and warmth is, then tons of overly thin sounding midrange. Aside from people arbitrarily low passing tracks (which I STILL don't understand the need for), it's the number one thing I have to tell my clients to go back and remove.

[barryalva]

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[simmerdown]

In general when someone says they want something fatter, I personally think they mean it should have a bit more fullness in the lower mids.

...yeh, that

try

duplicating the track, pan one 30+ left, one 30+ Rt

chorus,maybe...also MultiBand Dynamics plug and Saturator

[Angstrom]

duplicating the track, pan one 30+ left, one 30+ Rt

WAT

all that will do is raise the overall volume, but in a weirdly roundabout way.
You may as well say "put the track fader up 3dB".

[Tone Deft]

duplicating the track, pan one 30+ left, one 30+ Rt

WAT

all that will do is raise the overall volume, but in a weirdly roundabout way.
You may as well say "put the track fader up 3dB".

louder is fatter. he's right, but you're right.

[simmerdown]

i meant you would end end up with three tracks, try it and see if you hear a difference

i almost just wrote , "turn the shyte up some.", LOL