Sub bass issues

Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
sana48
Posts: 417
Joined: Sun Mar 01, 2015 12:16 am

Re: Sub bass issues

Post by sana48 » Thu Dec 17, 2015 3:27 am

JCMO132 wrote:hello i need some serious help!! Just got Ableton live 9 suite edition. Ive been really dedicated to make my own music and never got a studio program for a long time till now! I am currently learning how to use it now and kinda starting to get the hang of it one thing i need to know is, how can i get all my work that i have done, to be put together? im really dorry to say but im really bad at explaining but i'll try. when you get live 9, it first shows you a demo and it shows all the loops and the synths already put into one joined with the chords and drums. Now that ive deleted that, now i want to get to that point. How can i get it like that? if what i said kinda made sense, please tell me, if not, i can try to explain more. Again im like new to the whole Studio program using thing but i really want to make my own stuff so the help would be really much appreciated!
You will have better responses if you start your own thread in the forum. Try to explain it better and post a new topic.

miekwave
Posts: 755
Joined: Fri Aug 03, 2012 8:49 pm
Location: Austin, TX
Contact:

Re: Sub bass issues

Post by miekwave » Thu Dec 17, 2015 4:24 am

Go to AskVideo.com - subscribe to the Ableton tutorial series. Answers 100% of what you're looking for.
JCMO132 wrote:hello i need some serious help!! Just got Ableton live 9 suite edition. Ive been really dedicated to make my own music and never got a studio program for a long time till now! I am currently learning how to use it now and kinda starting to get the hang of it one thing i need to know is, how can i get all my work that i have done, to be put together? im really dorry to say but im really bad at explaining but i'll try. when you get live 9, it first shows you a demo and it shows all the loops and the synths already put into one joined with the chords and drums. Now that ive deleted that, now i want to get to that point. How can i get it like that? if what i said kinda made sense, please tell me, if not, i can try to explain more. Again im like new to the whole Studio program using thing but i really want to make my own stuff so the help would be really much appreciated!

iSpiritus
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2015 11:33 pm

Re: Sub bass issues

Post by iSpiritus » Thu Dec 24, 2015 4:35 am

Sorry for the late response everyone! I'm a college student so I had to focus on my finals. I was able to take some of the advice given and apply it to my track. I was able to successfully get a sound I was satisfied with. I had originally had my filtering for my sub bass at 100 hz. The problem was that too many high frequencies were poking out and were clashing with the other sounds. I ended up adjusting some of the saturation so it wasn't as heavy and eq'd at 80hz instead of 100. This immediately cleaned up my sound. It isn't too terrible present but you can know it's there by feeling it. It's not quite perfect but it works decently enough with my track. I'm still learning so I think I will move on to a new track now and try some of the other tips you all provided to possibly getting me closer to that perfect sound. I have a question about note ranges for sub bass though. What are your opinions on the ranges that sub bass should be sitting at such as f0-f2 etc. I've read in a few places that certain ranges produce low frequencies that can't be picked up on most systems. From what I've seen a lot of people agree on the g1-g2 range. I've also noticed this when working with my sub bass. The notes in that range tend to be more powerful than the notes below that range which produce mainly 40-60hz tones. What do you think? A bunch of bologna or legit topic? Not sure if that made sense, I can explain in better detail if needed.

iSpiritus
Posts: 16
Joined: Thu Sep 17, 2015 11:33 pm

Re: Sub bass issues

Post by iSpiritus » Thu Dec 24, 2015 4:56 am

jestermgee wrote:
sana48 wrote:Import the song you are comparing yours with into ableton and add an eq 8 to the track. Study the frequencies and see where the differences are between yours and it.
That will get you a little way along for sure but then if you find that your frequencies are lacking in certain places there is a Lot more than just chucking an EQ and boosting them. You'll then find it mucks something else up and before you know it every channel is pushing harder than it needs and it still sounds flat.
I wish more people were realistic like this, it would save everyone so much worry :) Every once in awhile I get clients who come to me for mastering, and they can't understand why their master will never sound like say Dr Dre, or whoever they worship. There's times I wish I could just say "well this is your first song ever, and you're comparing it to something done by someone with 10-20 years of daily experience and team of pros helping them, so they're a lot better than you are". :lol:
I'd have to say it's more an experience thing that helps one to figure out that they will never be able to know it all. I started in production when I was 16 after doing "DJ Gigs" from the age of 11 with a home made mixer built from the game paddles of an atari and a heap of old bits (mono mixer into the mic of any stereo I could find with an attenuator plug from an old phono player). I believed I would "know it all" in a few years... Skip forward 18 years and what I do know is without that all important training (not to mention having the correct setup, tools and room treatment) you have to admit defeat somewhere.

The thing that I find funny is the "quality/level" or whatever you call it in todays music is far more advanced than say the 90s. Check out the dance tracks from the early-mid 90s and you probably find many beginners are on-par with that level of sound and quality or better straight out of the tin. I would have KILLED to have my fasttracker music projects sound anywhere that good back in the day. Now without even trying it far surpasses that sound quality. That's 95% of what anyone needs. The last 5% is the hardest to master, takes the longest amount of hours and is suited to about that percent of the producer community. If it sounds pretty good, be happy you could get that far on your little home computer. If you want it to sound "professional", hand it to an actual professional or simply enjoy the next few decades of the learning curve. [/2c]
This is in response to all of the comments mentioned about quality. I agree 100% with it as well. I accepted very early on that I would not be coming close to anything that the bigger producers have simply because I lack the resources. I never like to give up before I try all of my options. This was my last resort after weeks of research. But then again how will we know what we aren't capable of if we don't attempt first? Isn't part of the learning curve figuring out what is possible and what isn't? I think that's the fun of it though is trying new things and figuring out what works and what doesn't. Personally I've enjoyed the learning process because it's challenged me to be creative which to me is a huge part of making music.

JCMO132
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Dec 17, 2015 3:05 am

Re: Sub bass issues

Post by JCMO132 » Fri Dec 25, 2015 3:14 am

sana48 wrote:
JCMO132 wrote:hello i need some serious help!! Just got Ableton live 9 suite edition. Ive been really dedicated to make my own music and never got a studio program for a long time till now! I am currently learning how to use it now and kinda starting to get the hang of it one thing i need to know is, how can i get all my work that i have done, to be put together? im really dorry to say but im really bad at explaining but i'll try. when you get live 9, it first shows you a demo and it shows all the loops and the synths already put into one joined with the chords and drums. Now that ive deleted that, now i want to get to that point. How can i get it like that? if what i said kinda made sense, please tell me, if not, i can try to explain more. Again im like new to the whole Studio program using thing but i really want to make my own stuff so the help would be really much appreciated!
You will have better responses if you start your own thread in the forum. Try to explain it better and post a new topic.
HA!!! thanks for the help!

Stromkraft
Posts: 7033
Joined: Wed Jun 25, 2014 11:34 am

Re: Sub bass issues

Post by Stromkraft » Fri Dec 25, 2015 8:31 am

jestermgee wrote: The thing that I find funny is the "quality/level" or whatever you call it in todays music is far more advanced than say the 90s. Check out the dance tracks from the early-mid 90s and you probably find many beginners are on-par with that level of sound and quality or better straight out of the tin. I would have KILLED to have my fasttracker music projects sound anywhere that good back in the day. Now without even trying it far surpasses that sound quality. That's 95% of what anyone needs. The last 5% is the hardest to master, takes the longest amount of hours and is suited to about that percent of the producer community. If it sounds pretty good, be happy you could get that far on your little home computer.

If you want it to sound "professional", hand it to an actual professional or simply enjoy the next few decades of the learning curve. [/2c]
While I agree on the last part, you leave out that one of the reasons some of these suboptimal tracks from the nighties still can kill is they are great tracks built with great musical ideas. Communicative well implemented musical ideas are more important than both perfect execution and "Pro sound". If you can have it all, that's great of course.

Mostly where you lose your sound is when you make things too complicated without really knowing what the problem was you were trying to solve or what you were trying to say with the track in the first place. Great sound can be very boring if you're not doing anything interesting with it. I still think experimentation is what leads to great compositions and tracks and this goes for sub bass too.

Being a bass lover I've had my share of sub bass issues and I focus on my monitoring environment. Experimenting with EQ, phase (!) and compression has been a great help as is focusing on the sound sources themselves and what they play and the timing of it all.
Make some music!

Post Reply