help with the sub bass drops

[KeithRT99]

How do i make that fat sub bass drop out that i hear in so many syl songs? i have samples but i can't get it in the mix without distorting. i want the mix to duck down when the sub bass hits. Is there a way to do it with compression, or automation or something.

here's sort of what im talking about, the first clip is kinda what i'd like although i can't fin the exact example im talking about, this is close. the second part is a song im trying to do it in and haven't been able to get it right.

http://www.soundclick.com/util/getplayer.m3u?id=4427499&q=hi

 

[smy1]

Well, apart from the fact that your mix sounds totally different overall (missing a lot of of upper mids and treble compared to the reference), I'd say your subkicks have too much midrange.

First up, here's an example how I EQ my subkicks in my electro-tracks and they absolutely rumble and shake every dancefloor:

Usually you want the sub to be felt and not heard. In your case you have 2 options:

1) make the subkick sit UNDER the rest of your track by cutting out everything above 100-120hz

2) redo the arrangement so that the subkick or subdrop is mainly on its own with very little other stuff playing when it hits.

Automation would be a third idea, but I prefer #1 because subs are meant to shake your bowels and not to go ZOOSH

Hope this helps a bit.

 

[ThatGuitarGuy]

oh man, I've been wanting to learn how to do this for awhile. Thank you so much.

 

[JeffTD]

Tried making a sine wave hit at around 40-80hz?

 

[Jackal_Strain]

What do you guys use to make the subkicks? A 808 kick or something like that?

 

[Ermz]

I'd assume there's many ways.

You can use an oscillator and rip out some sine waves at low frequencies, you can fuck with an 808, you can use bass enhancement plug-ins on 'standard' kicks. Whatever.

I'd recommend using a side-chain comp with the sub kick so the rest of the mix ducks down when it hits, it makes it appear more powerful that way.

Charlie did a really nice one on a Gift of Ruin track.

 

[STINNETT]

The coolest thing I've found for making the sub bass drops is a program called Stomper Hyperion. It's a stand alone program that lets you create a synthetic drum hit basically. You control the pitch, the decay, length, amplitude, etc, and of course they are all variable so that you can create a bass hit that drops in frequency and all that cool stuff.

The old link I had won't work, this is the only link I could find....

http://masterzap.is-a-geek.com/~zap/stomper/index2.html

Looks like you can still download the software though.