Wall of Sound Bass

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redkev
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Wall of Sound Bass

Post by redkev »

Hi everyone,

I'm looking to get that bass sound found on techno labels like Drumcode. Its a real 'wall of sound' - very subby, but a sine wave doesn't quite seem to do it. There is prob a lot of sidechaining, eq and maybe parallel comp but I can never get it quite right. I've posted links below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJwTI58Lhzs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gJgvNamYO4

On the first track the sound is there from the start - on the second its from about a minute in.

Many thanks in advance :D

Kev
dirddey_iddler
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Re: Wall of Sound Bass

Post by dirddey_iddler »

you are on the wrong sub forum

this request should be moved to production

to your request: a sinewave is good start (use a 808 Kick with high attack). you mentioned already the right methods: cut high freqs and compress the bassline and use sidechaining.

maybe use two compressors, one for compression and one for sidechaining. try to use outboard compressors (manley, drawmer, dbx), software wont give you the right sound you want.
redkev
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Re: Wall of Sound Bass

Post by redkev »

Cheers mate - thanks for the info.
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hydrogen
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Re: Wall of Sound Bass

Post by hydrogen »

I would also try adding reverb to your bass and kicks. It will add some harmonic noise in there... put a filter on them if they are too high. You could also sidechain your reverb sounds separately. Lots of stuff to experiment with here.

Try also side chaining different types of patterns... on the first one it sounds like it is not just chained to the kick.

Reminds of of similar effects used in shranz/harder techno... just more subtle and less obvious.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwHvJRGaK7A
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eggnchips
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Re: Wall of Sound Bass

Post by eggnchips »

Hello sir,

Yes this sounds like a classic techno reverb kick set up.
Simply explained, take a nice subby kick drum like the 808 kick and make a 1 bar bass line with it.
Put reverb on the kick bassline at 100% wet and play around with the reverb settings to get the right groove and feel.
Take a low pass filter and filter out everything that's high so you can just feel the low end rumble.
Put a side chain compressor on the channel and have your main kick drum trigger it.
Of course you need to play around with the settings and maybe add some eq and compression to get the feel right but this is the basic ingredient.

Maybe some of the veterans can confirm this but In the older days they would probably have done all this on an outboard mixer, sending the kick drum to an aux through a reverb.

There was a really good instruction on this subject a year or so back by a known producer who gave a long answer to an email from one of us asking how he made his sound. See if I can dig it out.
redkev
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Re: Wall of Sound Bass

Post by redkev »

Hey guys - great answers and some interesting suggestions. I'm currently in the middle of a PB sound design course (and yes I have them on the case too!) :D - but when I finish it I will try out your ideas and feedback on the results. Again, much appreciated, cheers, Kev
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Re: Wall of Sound Bass

Post by steevio »

the drumcode track sounds like just a bass heavy, long decay reverb on a heavily compressed kick. not that much side chaining going on,

(the actually bass in that track is the off beat sound, which sounds like a slightly FM'ed squarewave.)

alot of that style of techno relies on the kick and reverb for the effect of bass, rather than a distinct bass part,
and yes egg and chips is right, in the old days a hardware reverb on an aux brought back to a 2 channels (L&R) on the mixer so it can be eq'd accurately and a hardware compressor on another aux all on a hardware mixer, but no reason why you cant do that in software.
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