How To Get A Good Bass Sound

when i'm makin a track i find that my basslines are always lackin. i use the mpc 2000xl. some of the times i find that my bass sounds out of place or interfers with the bass drums. i don't know what to try next. i've heard u gotta try and match the key of ur sample with the bass key. if this is true and can anyone tell me how this is done and if anyone has any other tips on bass related issues.

thanks

peace

use your ears to find a bass sound that suits the sample. rock it w/ 16 levels. it seems easy but my basslines are kinda hurtin right now... i might have to take a day off of beatmakin my tracks are getting a lil wierd..

yes I need help aswell,

A loooong Time ago there was this great thread on how most hip hop producers made there basslines with there mpc in the 90's 90-96 like old wu-tang black moon and such and I can't find it now anybody remember what I'm talking about??? I need to find that thread!

Bass lines interfering with bass drums....... That is because if they are at the same low frequency & they can cancel each other out when played at the same time.

One solution is careful EQ'ing. This is why a lot of jungle / drum & bass producers don't use really bass heavy kick drums if they are using those deep, subby bass drones. If house producers are using solid, punchy kicks they roll a lot of the bottom off the bass line, so it is more of a mid-range sound.

Another solution is to syncopate the two patterns so they dont ever fall on the same note.

The other thing is to reverse the phasing of one of the sounds, but you either need a digital mixer or be mixing on a computer to do this easily. I don't think there is a simple phase switching hardware box that you plug into like an effect.

featherboy wrote:Bass lines interfering with bass drums....... That is because if they are at the same low frequency & they can cancel each other out when played at the same time.

One solution is careful EQ'ing...

true...
when mixing the bass drums with your bass try soloing the two and eq. ...try to seperate the frequency range of the kick and the bass...or layer it so that they are in tune nicely with each other...then unsolo and listen to the whole mix...then adjust accordingly

That is defintley the key. You myst EQ. In the Low Bass freq ranges, there is some mud that does not contribute to the the thunder of the bass, but muddies up everything else. I can't remember what the ranges are, because I have an eq preset to do this for me, but I will check. Get rid of the mud and you will be better off. If you find separate bands for both the BD's and the lines, you will be fine.

i read this a while ago but it sounded legit and like a good idea...

add some attack time to a nice thick kick so it dosnt necessarily -kick- but so it thumps....

filter that with your bass sound and mess around with it until it sounds good. but it should give you a nice punch at the begin of your bass and it should make it sound nice and thick...i havent tried this yet, but it sounded like a good idea