Thick Basslines?

Share your favorite Ableton Live tips, tricks, and techniques.
dax
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Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2004 3:42 pm
Location: Montreal

Thick Basslines?

Post by dax » Sat Sep 11, 2004 6:20 am

Anyone have any hints on how to design thick basslines for house tracks? Am thinking along the lines of fat, filtered basslines like the kind found on a Subliminal or Defected record. Do i need a VST plugin to get this kind of sound or is there a way to do it natively in Live 4?

island9
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Joined: Sat Sep 11, 2004 6:03 pm

Post by island9 » Sat Sep 11, 2004 6:17 pm

try using the chours effect with a few factor options

montrealbreaks
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Location: Montreal Canada

Post by montrealbreaks » Sat Sep 11, 2004 8:30 pm

island9 wrote:try using the chours effect with a few factor options
Good suggestion - but....

Remember that choruses and other detuning effects can cause phasing problems in the bass. Use sparingly.

I have changed my username; Now posting as:


M. Bréqs

muthafunka
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Location: Tokyo

Post by muthafunka » Sun Sep 12, 2004 12:24 am

Also keep bass mono, stereo bass, esp. at higher levels can cause probs at pressing etc

noisetonepause
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Location: Sticks and stones

Post by noisetonepause » Sun Sep 12, 2004 9:25 am

Get a hardware synth...

-Paws

futureproof
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Location: tOKYO

Post by futureproof » Sun Sep 12, 2004 10:43 am

Get Reaktor or Reaktor Sessions...
"THE biggest differences between Live 3 & 4 are the things that Live 4 have that are missing in Live 3"

-some dude on KVR.

noisetonepause
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Post by noisetonepause » Sun Sep 12, 2004 2:09 pm

Maybe it's just that I don't know how to use it or I'm too picky or it's the Emperors New Clothes, but I can't get a good bass sound out of Reaktor. No punch, no presence, just rumble. What do you use?

-Paws

dax
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jun 29, 2004 3:42 pm
Location: Montreal

which hardware synth?

Post by dax » Sun Sep 12, 2004 4:11 pm

what kind of hardware synth would i want to buy? i'm bass-obsessed, so if thats the only way i would definitely look into it.

still surprised that there's no obvious way to get great thick bass of out of Live 4... :?

rikhyray
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Post by rikhyray » Sun Sep 12, 2004 5:10 pm

I like Nordlead or whatever Clavias. since they are only24/96 hardware, sound creamy and fat to my ears. Lots Jamiroquai basses are NL., like from the movie Gozilla.

futureproof
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Location: tOKYO

Post by futureproof » Sun Sep 12, 2004 8:42 pm

noisetonepause wrote:Maybe it's just that I don't know how to use it or I'm too picky or it's the Emperors New Clothes, but I can't get a good bass sound out of Reaktor. No punch, no presence, just rumble. What do you use?

-Paws


From the ensembles that ship with R4 some of the good bass sounds IMO are:

1. Uranus 4 overbass
2. Green Matrix 18 juice bass ((70's meets 303 sound, dope))
3. Junatik 14 velo bass

If I need acoustic or electric bass, as opposed to electronic, I usually use Plugsound 2 Fretted or borrow a friends bass and play it myself.
"THE biggest differences between Live 3 & 4 are the things that Live 4 have that are missing in Live 3"

-some dude on KVR.

noisetonepause
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Location: Sticks and stones

Post by noisetonepause » Mon Sep 13, 2004 12:40 pm

I don't have the v4 library as I'm a cheap v3 upgrader and couldn't be arsed to pay for it. Anyways, I have a bass guitar, which is mainly what I use as well... thank God for warp markers, know what I mean...

-Paws

elemental
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Post by elemental » Tue Sep 14, 2004 2:52 pm

If u want proper thick bass sound,
go for an analog synth, or use an emu sampler....
IMO software is not great for thick/fat/warm sound.

However, with some tweaking Reaktor is capable of some wicked shit too.

FaX-01
Posts: 1483
Joined: Sat Jun 26, 2004 3:58 am

Post by FaX-01 » Fri Sep 17, 2004 4:21 am

Also sample some VST's etc at root not positions like Low C .
Pop it into a sample editor and make digicyclic (single duty cycle wave forms out of them) .
Import them into Live and use them in the Simpler :D.
Seriously I've got the deepest sub bass yet using this method on a track I'm working on and it sounds MASSIVE .
Of course detunes OSC's ,sub osc's ,compression ,eq etc etc can all help.
My aren't the wings of butterflies beautiful and do they not make wonderful perturbations.....

special ed
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Post by special ed » Sat Sep 18, 2004 9:34 pm

the options i would consider are getting a analog synth, or if using anything digital, to double up the bass lines. have one bassline thats got the really low sub-frequencies, and one thats got the resonance that gives it presence in the mix.

kent_sandvik
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Joined: Mon Oct 06, 2003 6:45 am

Post by kent_sandvik » Mon Sep 20, 2004 7:31 pm

It's also good to eq. the bass so you could hear it in environments where the low frequencies can't be properly heard, such as when listening to the track with an iPod. So general a lot of low end, without muddling the mix, and some presence with eq so the bass melody could be heard. --Kent

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