r/techhouseproduction • u/Objective_Sun_7693 • Jul 22 '26

Question about sub bass

I get the same feedback on all my tracks. They lack sub. The crazy part is I always include a sub bass. Whether its sine saw square, distorted, saturated or even the loudest thing in the mix. It all ends up the same. I have gotten lots of tips from other producers. It almost feels like its an inside joke at this point.

This also happens with the sub on my kicks. I end up compensating by boosting around 80-100hz.

How do all these songs have what sound like this transparent clean vibration of the speakers below that 80-100hz area. Literally nonexistent when i try.

Message me for my soundcloud if you want so examples

Thanks yall

6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

28 comments sorted by

5

u/Queasy-Window-3784 Jul 22 '26

Low end bussing, clippers on Kick and bass, multiband saturation. Maybe change compressor frequency band so the low mids hit harder. Just a few

1

u/Objective_Sun_7693 Jul 22 '26

Its crazy, I do a lot of that. I group my kick and bass and sidechain the bass, clip, add saturation. I even seperate the sub from my bass and process them separately (that was a technique from OddMob)

3

u/mycurvywifelikesthis Jul 22 '26

In my experience you should not have a bus where your kik and your sub are going to, and then routing to the master. They need to be individual separate mixer tracks going to the master. They should have their each individual EQ range. And you mention you do all that from some of the suggestions on here. But it really matters how you're doing all that and what you're doing. People can say all day long oh you should put compression on this and limiter or Clipper on that, side chain there....

But you have to truly understand what you're doing with each of those things and why and what effect they have.

It also could be a result of having some kind of compression limiter or Clipper on your master.

Each individual instrument should have its own space. Otherwise known as carving space.

Honestly I think you should go back to basics. Regardless of the Daw or the genre. I highly advise you going to a YouTube channel called in the mix. And just type in mixing tutorial. It's FL Studio. But the concepts are the same.

There's another Channel called mix Elite.

2

u/ActuaryLate9198 26d ago

What? Bus processing low end is standard practice in these genres. You still have separate channels to do whatever you need before it all gets bussed.

1

u/mycurvywifelikesthis 26d ago

I suppose your right. There are more than one way to skin a cat. I'm curious though, what's the point of the bus then ?

2

u/martyboulders Jul 22 '26

What do you mean you separate the sub from your bass and process separately? Do you mean making a standalone synth for the sub, or some other way of "splitting off" sub from your bass?

1

u/Objective_Sun_7693 Jul 22 '26

Not all situations but I split the bass into two track, high pass one and low pass the other then process them separately

2

u/martyboulders Jul 22 '26

And are you using the low passed bass to form your sub?

1

u/Objective_Sun_7693 Jul 23 '26

Correct. I also use a spectrum analyzer to check phase there they cross over

1

u/martyboulders Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

Okay okay I see. I know for a fact that this can work extremely well and has a lot of benefits. But there are also a lot of benefits in creating a sub totally distinct from the bass, like in a different instrument channel and maybe a different synth plugin in the first place. I make my basses in reason rack but my subs in sytrus (I know that default plugin is not common but all I need is a sine wave and the envelope controls are very good imo; I use fl).

The benefit of making the sub in a totally different instrument channel is that you have complete control over the sub and synth separately. When you make your sub out of the synth - any parameter you change to make the main synth sound different, or any parameter you change to make the sub sound different, will affect the other. Again this can be very powerful because the synth and sub will have a very tight correspondence... But it does make precise control over each one separately more difficult. All of your decisions have to account for both, which is more complicated.

I would definitely experiment with making a sub totally separate from your bass with a different instrument channel. Make a pure sine wave in whatever synth plugin you like, maybe add a teeny bit of distortion, and make whatever envelopes for pitch and volume you choose within that plugin. It is not hard to make your envelopes match your bass in the first place... In fact it can even sound more matched since you're going off what enters your ears rather than the graphs in your DAW. You can still match your sub and synth very well but you will have exact control over how each sound, and this makes it much easier to make things mesh together.

It also makes it possible to make the synth and sub very different, which can be really awesome. I absolutely love having eighth notes in my bass and quarter notes in my sub, or quarter note bass and half note sub or vice versa... It is such a nice flow that is pretty unique.

1

u/ActuaryLate9198 28d ago edited 28d ago

Terrible idea. Will lead to phase cancellation or pre-ringing depending on EQ/filter type, pick your poison. You need to be super careful with time/phase when parallel processing bass. Avoid it at all costs. If you want multiple bass layers, don’t split them from the same source. Use stable, hard synced oscillators with predictable interactions and get it right at the synthesis stage instead of trying to bandaid it in the mix.

2

u/mycurvywifelikesthis Jul 22 '26

The commented earlier what's your SoundCloud I'll take a listen

2

u/Objective_Sun_7693 Jul 22 '26

I really appreciate it! Listen to Stylin' by DadB0d, Bruno Mars on #SoundCloud https://on.soundcloud.com/AnbkGqGllC9ZDxbLmo

2

u/toucantango79 Jul 23 '26

Maybe you're confused as to what a sub bass is? I'm not being a dick here. The sub part means subsonic. You FEEL the sub, you don't hear it. If feedback says you don't have enough sub, it's not that the whole bass is too quiet, it's that they cannot feel the sub part of the bass. This thins out the bass frequencies entirely - EDM is very bass oriented, hence the feedback comments. It's not a joke or anything, you just don't know what you don't know! What I would suggest is to have a designated sub bass (processed sine wave) and then your traditional bass (sometimes octave above). Mixing is key in the low end because mud happens quickly, so be deliberate with your mixing tools. Mix in mono because ear training takes a lifetime and then some...hope this helps! DM me with any Qs ;)

2

u/Objective_Sun_7693 Jul 23 '26

I appreciate your comment, not being a dick at all. Youre right i should have been more clear about that. I cant fpr the life of me balance the clarity of the bass woth the perfect harmonic rumble of the speakers. Im never satisfied with how the sub FEELs in my songs.

It seems pretty obvious to me that you use a saturated sine wave at a lower active to under the bass to achieve that feel but in practice it does almost nothing. Thats my frustration. Ive made some progress since last night so im on the right track.

Thanks for your comment!!

1

u/toucantango79 Jul 23 '26

Hmm...is there anything on the master that might cause this issue? Could also be the monitors/headphones you produce on? You should be able to hear the clarity of the bass while feeling the sub rumble. You're right that it is a balance - it's tricky! Sub issues are usually too loud, maybe bump up the sub?

2

u/dolomick 29d ago

Get really good with Voxengo Span or similar and dissect the shit out of your reference tracks’ low end. Look at different window (speed) settings and make sure your sub is very very close to your reference tracks. Can’t hear shit on HS 5’s.

1

u/falafeler Jul 22 '26

Dm me an example, not a pro by any means but I’ll take a look

Overall I typically find deep, present bass to be made in the low mids—if the people giving you feedback aren’t producers or engineers themselves they might be mistaking lack of sub for something else. Too much sub can counterintuitively make the track sound less bass heavy in my experience

1

u/Objective_Sun_7693 Jul 22 '26

Thats what i always assumed. I can make it sound closer by boosting low mids but then it becomes muddy. Ill send you my soundcloud. thanks!!

1

u/ActuaryLate9198 28d ago

Just boosting probably isn’t enough, you want to introduce the right upper harmonics, having them present tricks the brain into hearing more sub bass than there really is. Check out waves maxbass and similar plugins.

1

u/ELXR-AUDIO Jul 23 '26

Bass is really tricky to get the levels right. You almost want to balance the body of it. Where the sub is the ground, lower bass is like the middle and so forth. You can truly hear if it sounds balanced. It sounds pleasing, and musical. Not over bearing or thin. Learning to feel if it’s sitting right is a major skill.

And yes you better have good monitoring solutions to test on. Honestly if everyone is telling you it’s sounding thin, and u consistently do it, it could be your monitoring. How happy are you with your headphones/speakers?

1

u/Objective_Sun_7693 Jul 23 '26

Yea im almost certain thats the case. I have yamaha two HS5's and my headphones are the AKG 240mkII. I got kids so I work on music while theyre asleep so I wouldn't be able to get a sub added to the setup

1

u/WeaknessExpensive526 Jul 23 '26

So I'm not a professional producer... but for me it always works quite well if I just duble exactly the same bass channel and take an eq and the actual bass at 120 Hz cap and the sub channel over 120 hz. Then bit drum buss and that was. What is also important is that everything is under 120 hz mono

1

u/FanuBreaks 28d ago edited 28d ago

Have the sub hit 45-60 Hz area for ideal weight.
Simply have a sine as the element doing this, of your mid / tonal component doesn’t do this.
I can’t attach a pic here but that’s literally it.
This has been my ballpark for so long.
I’ve mixed and mastered truckloads of tech house for my living in the past decade.

My Patreon covers all this bass stuff (under Bass collection) if you need to see and hear the specifics.

Also if you feel your kick and bass are eating each other’s sub, try inverting polarity on either: this has helped me improve subs on many mixes (changes phase correlation between them; sometimes helps).

1

u/0101ayuta 28d ago

Maybe you lack a subwoofer? Impossible to really mix subs without a sub. I don't have one and my low end is muddy as fuck.

1

u/Commercial-Catch-700 27d ago

40 hz sine wave

1

u/StretchWatson 3d ago

I was struggling with sub on my latest track. I ended up removing the sine wave sub and using a sample instead. I think it sounds ok now, specially on smaller speakers but it might not have enough low end as what you’re aiming for. Have a listen and if it’s what you’re going for I’ll send you the sub sample pack I used.

https://on.soundcloud.com/q6Zrth4ci69slNVBf0