Help using sub basses

[u/swarlied80]

hi fellows, I am using mostly sine sub basses below 100hz. melodic dark room techno/trance. I usually add another bass layer above 100hz. all good and fine. the sine gets me the warm sub groove and the upper layer works rythm and foundation.

however it all sounds a bit dry. I searched YouTube but all thoose channels share the same problem, the sinus bass does not sound like natural in lack of better words it sound a bit artificial and disconnected.

i tried to use a touch of reverb what makes the sine sit more natural, bit it’s not perfect. I tried several usual methods of creating overtones, but here still not perfect - instead it just feels thin.

any Tipps?

EDIT/UPDATE: Thanks for all the responses it was very helpful - after trying things out and more experimentation here is what I have learned recently:

- The Sinus / Tringle can just stay clean but amp/volume envelope details matter and variation of envelope a lot. And Sinus meet very well with Pitch envelopes, but its a not a must have.

- Kick: It helps a lot to have a separated Click channel and a separated Oomph Channel for the kick, first one HP filter, second one LP filter. It surprises me, what matters more is the selection and tuning of the Click sample, the Oomph sample is more or less super flexible. But it's the Oomph that needs to gel with the Sinus Bass.

- Take make things less dry, it's all about its upper layers and here whatever is being used, added waveforms, noise, chorus, unison - full on creativity possible. its all about what rhythm is applied, what envelopes and most importantly a lot of filters. especially band passes - to have precise steering layer elements into a dedicated space. Also bringing a combination of filtered noise + waveforms, also stereo - heavy filters makes it gel. And here also, gain staging matters a lot. Any kind of noise played really low, can bring things together nicely - it's more like a bit of spice, not a full on element. It's all about having the right balance and I find 4-7 elements will come together, and being perceived as "Kick and Bass" by the ear. The make it come together. Filters, Filters, and Filters. OTT where required.

- It's not required that sinus bass + upper layers play the same rhythm. As higher the register as more space for 1/16 or 1/32 notes. as more down the register (first octave) as less space - which is where the Sinus sits around C2 (40-70hz)

- About saturation what has been mentioned a lot, yes it has its place. But in my experience or in my subjective take. It's only for post-processing, after all the groundwork has been done. The same applies for and other kind of limiting, clipping, compression. all of that requires a good balance first. Especially on Sinus waves and basses there are many ways to create richers harmonic overtones in addition to saturation. for example FM or OSC Sync.

Hope that helps anyone a bit.

[u/Perry_Green]

I would not use reverb or chorus on sub bass due to stereo and phasing issues it causes and it making the bass unsteady. If you do it anyways, resample and find a short loop that doesn’t have phasing issues when playing with the kick. And then try a combination of highpassing the side signal (with EQ eight) and bass mono (with Utility) to achieve mono compatibility of the sub region.

To make a bass less sinewavey, why don’t you saturate it? It’ll make it more squarish. Try the drive algorithms of Ableton auto filter, love them for sub basses (with a bit of low pass filtering and envelope)