Bass Friendly Keys

[Tohtruck]

Hi everyone. I remember hearing at an Ableton Live Production workshop that composing in certain keys work better for certain aspects of bass and especially sub-bass. For example, I've been told before to try to avoid composing in the key of C (whether major or minor) because in some instances it can cause the bass to be muddy or too low for subs. But then I've also read somewhere that a huge majority of dance music is written in A minor (the relative minor of C Major)

Just want to know if there are any rules or guidelines you guys use for picking out a certain key to compose in when you are producing completely original music. I've heard that certain keys tend to work best for very bass'y electronic music.

[madlab]

0_° ???

[re:dream]

C major: Completely pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naivety, children's talk
C minor: Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul lies in this key
Db major: A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at least grimace its crying.--Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key
D major: The key of triumph, of Hallelujahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key
D minor: Melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humors brood
D# minor: Feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depression, of the most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D# minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key
Eb major: The key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God
E major: Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E Major
F major: Complaisance and calm
F minor: Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave
F# major: Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief uttered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has fiercely struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key
F# minor: A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language
G major: Everything rustic, idyllic and lyrical, every calm and satisfied passion, every tender gratitude for true friendship and faithful love,--in a word every gentle and peaceful emotion of the heart is correctly expressed by this key
G minor: Discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme; bad-tempered gnashing of teeth; in a word: resentment and dislike
Ab major: Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius
Ab minor: Grumbler, heart squeezed until it suffocates; wailing lament, difficult struggle; in a word, the color of this key is everything struggling with difficulty
A major: This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one's state of affairs; hope of seeing one's beloved again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God
A minor: Pious womanliness and tenderness of character
Bb major: Cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world
A quaint creature, often dressed in the garment of night. It is somewhat surly and very seldom takes on a pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for suicide sounds in this key
Bb minor: A quaint creature, often dressed in the garment of night. It is somewhat surly and very seldom takes on a pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for suicide sounds in this key.
B major: Strongly colored, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring colors. Anger, rage, jealousy, fury, despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere
B minor: This is as it were the key of patience, of calm awaiting one's fate and of submission to divine dispensation
From Christian Schubart's Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806) translated by Rita Steblin

http://www.gradfree.com/kevin/some_theo ... l_keys.htm

[madlab]

I guess that when you write about key, you mean root note. The only point I can see here is that you have to fall, frequency speaking, above the cutoff frequency of your PA system (E0 is just above 40 Hz for example), and may suffer from room modes (aka standing waves), which really depend on the place you play your sounds in.

[H20nly]

C major: Completely pure. Its character is: innocence, simplicity, naivety, children's talk
C minor: Declaration of love and at the same time the lament of unhappy love. All languishing, longing, sighing of the love-sick soul lies in this key
Db major: A leering key, degenerating into grief and rapture. It cannot laugh, but it can smile; it cannot howl, but it can at least grimace its crying.--Consequently only unusual characters and feelings can be brought out in this key
D major: The key of triumph, of Hallelujahs, of war-cries, of victory-rejoicing. Thus, the inviting symphonies, the marches, holiday songs and heaven-rejoicing choruses are set in this key
D minor: Melancholy womanliness, the spleen and humors brood
D# minor: Feelings of the anxiety of the soul's deepest distress, of brooding despair, of blackest depression, of the most gloomy condition of the soul. Every fear, every hesitation of the shuddering heart, breathes out of horrible D# minor. If ghosts could speak, their speech would approximate this key
Eb major: The key of love, of devotion, of intimate conversation with God
E major: Noisy shouts of joy, laughing pleasure and not yet complete, full delight lies in E Major
F major: Complaisance and calm
F minor: Deep depression, funereal lament, groans of misery and longing for the grave
F# major: Triumph over difficulty, free sigh of relief uttered when hurdles are surmounted; echo of a soul which has fiercely struggled and finally conquered lies in all uses of this key
F# minor: A gloomy key: it tugs at passion as a dog biting a dress. Resentment and discontent are its language
G major: Everything rustic, idyllic and lyrical, every calm and satisfied passion, every tender gratitude for true friendship and faithful love,--in a word every gentle and peaceful emotion of the heart is correctly expressed by this key
G minor: Discontent, uneasiness, worry about a failed scheme; bad-tempered gnashing of teeth; in a word: resentment and dislike
Ab major: Key of the grave. Death, grave, putrefaction, judgment, eternity lie in its radius
Ab minor: Grumbler, heart squeezed until it suffocates; wailing lament, difficult struggle; in a word, the color of this key is everything struggling with difficulty
A major: This key includes declarations of innocent love, satisfaction with one's state of affairs; hope of seeing one's beloved again when parting; youthful cheerfulness and trust in God
A minor: Pious womanliness and tenderness of character
Bb major: Cheerful love, clear conscience, hope aspiration for a better world
A quaint creature, often dressed in the garment of night. It is somewhat surly and very seldom takes on a pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for suicide sounds in this key
Bb minor: A quaint creature, often dressed in the garment of night. It is somewhat surly and very seldom takes on a pleasant countenance. Mocking God and the world; discontented with itself and with everything; preparation for suicide sounds in this key.
B major: Strongly colored, announcing wild passions, composed from the most glaring colors. Anger, rage, jealousy, fury, despair and every burden of the heart lies in its sphere
B minor: This is as it were the key of patience, of calm awaiting one's fate and of submission to divine dispensation
From Christian Schubart's Ideen zu einer Aesthetik der Tonkunst (1806) translated by Rita Steblin

http://www.gradfree.com/kevin/some_theo ... l_keys.htm

please remove the bolded terms from your zealous and highly offensive post. religion, and therefore spirituality, has been banned on the Ableton forum.

music with no soul is acceptable... as long as you don't mention the lack of soul.

/moderation

[Tohtruck]

Yes, what I meant was choosing the root note of whatever scale type or key signature you are planning on writing a song in.

Okay so I was looking through my notebook of random tidbits of info that I pick up from random workshops, events, classes, and innernetz; and apparently the "bass friendly" keys are:

D
E
Eb
F
Gb
G
Ab

I guess it's not a hard and fast rule but more of a generalization. I think this also has more to do with bass music where the sub is a significant presence in the track. I remember more than one producer/instructor mentioning something about this before. Not a strict rule of thumb but more of a guideline or thing to be aware of when choosing a key.

Just wondering if anyone knows anything about this. Because I have also asked other people who are producers/music teachers who have not heard of such a thing.

[re:dream]

My previous post was slightly tongue in cheek.

The notion that certain key signatures have certain characteristics is an old fashioned one and is partly linked (afaik) to the days before equal temperament, when music could not be transposed from key to key without changing the harmonic intervals.

Since the coming of equal temperament all keys are theoretically equivalent so there is no musical basis for saying one key is more bass friendly than another.

As madlab says, the only reason would be acoustic. In addition to standing eaves and frequency roll offs, you are also more likely to get disharmony in the lower registers. The slow 'beating' sounds that occur when two notes are played that are too close to eac other is more likely in the lower registers, and will be more susceptible to small changes

[H20nly]

[H20nly]

@ Tohtruck, try playing around with Live's Scale effect.

you can read about it here:
https://www.ableton.com/en/manual/live- ... nce/#scale
... but i recommend you just try it.

when you are producing completely original music

don't over think it... if you want to make memorable music you should avoid putting too much emphasis on trying to remake stuff that's already been done...