Muddy bass..... - Anyone else got this problem

you can do this with a hicut-filter which cut-off-frequency is controlled by the volume of the signal. the sp12 & sp1200 have such a filter on output 1 & 2. everytime a basstone starts, the filter opens a little bit more and harmonics can pass, so the sound gets clearer. after the attack time the filter closes and you don't have high frequencies any more.
in addition the filter has high resonance so that during the attack the high frequencies are amplified and during the rest of the time it produces some nice bass amplification.

you can emulate this feature with a lot of samplers and other gear. maybe the mpc is capable of it too. i never tried it.

i hope you now what i'm talking about. my english isn't very well and i'm not sure if i've used the correct terminology.

florian[/color]

it will sound muffled unfortunately using the filter alone. the rest is EQing in the desk and often playing a bass synth alongside it. you may get it by turning the cut off to like 20 and putting the resonance up but you'll never have the clarity.
A compressor will really just level the whole thing out because if your bass has a wide range some notes will be effected by resonance more than others. fundamentally you'll never get a clear bass tone using a filter on a bass instrument because what gives the impression of clarity is the higher pitched elements. I'm willing to be proved wrong here.
I've spent a long time on bass and in the end bought a 3 oscillator analiogue synth which helps but still isn't 'there'. My bass has got alot better and rocks the car system but it's still not 'right'

lex[/color]

motorpitch wrote:you can do this with a hicut-filter which cut-off-frequency is controlled by the volume of the signal.
...
you can emulate this feature with a lot of samplers and other gear. maybe the mpc is capable of it too. i never tried it.

i hope you now what i'm talking about. my english isn't very well and i'm not sure if i've used the correct terminology.

florian

go to filter cutoff and press "open window"-button.
Here are the controls for the dynamic filter.
Amount = how much the filter is affected by the envelope.
Decay = how fast the filter will fade from open (i.e letting high's pass) and filter to the level set (i.e cutoff value).[/color]

Try reducing the bass.  A lot of times if you put your cd in a car system and everything sounds like trash, this is the problem.  Everybody knows that the bass needs to be in front of the mix, but it is very easy to go overboard.  You might think youv'e created the perfect basstone by layering and filtering but remember that that sound needs to go into the mix.

Creating a good mix can sometimes mean going back and forth from the cd burner to the car.  And also remember that the major label cd's are mastered and an effect they use is multiband compression.  It's what you get when you mix a compressor with an eq. A device that can control the dynamic range of a particular frequency band.  They use that for the bass frequencies.  But the bottom line is if you are a beginner you need to figure out the right amount of bass that should be in a track.  If it is just muddy a little bit that probably mean that the level is close, so THEN you might want to mess with compression and filters and eq's.[/color]

something i noticed which may or may not help is really listen to your samples . . . if your sampling a record (especially an old dusty one) youre might have a lot of low frequency noise or rumble and of course when you filter that kind of sample its gonna sound muddy as hell with dirt clods in that ish . . . try cleaning you r wax before you sample !!!

LastWord wrote:

motorpitch wrote:you can do this with a hicut-filter which cut-off-frequency is controlled by the volume of the signal.
...
you can emulate this feature with a lot of samplers and other gear. maybe the mpc is capable of it too. i never tried it.

i hope you now what i'm talking about. my english isn't very well and i'm not sure if i've used the correct terminology.

florian

go to filter cutoff and press "open window"-button.
Here are the controls for the dynamic filter.
Amount = how much the filter is affected by the envelope.
Decay = how fast the filter will fade from open (i.e letting high's pass) and filter to the level set (i.e cutoff value).[/color]

thanks for the knowledge. i never even tried pressing open window when freq is highlighted

BMC wrote: they'll use a 4 bar sample, then filter it and use that same sample as the bass line too?

When the Bassline is the same like the Melodyline and from the same Sample ,it is more difficult to highlite the Bass out of it.

Hope you can understand what I mean.

If I understand you right, then you use the same Sample, one original the other filtered. So you have only a doppling-effect in the Bassfrequency.
And this can not come through in the Mix.

first u need to know your monitors. listen to othedr peoples tracks on your monitors.
2. get a good eq
3. learnhow to eq
4. the key to a good bass sound is having it lock in with the kick
5. get the kick where u want it frequency wise.
6. have the kick peak at -6 db on the master fader
7. cut the bass at 60hz preferably with a pultec until it isn't sharing ther same frequency with the kick and the both lock.
8. the bass should peak on the master fader between -12 db and -13 db depending on the track.

i never boost any of the lowend in my tracks for bass and kick i am cutting with a pultec at 60 hz until it sounds like i want it to. my bottom end is always deep but focused. compression helps to, i use the 1176ln for bass and kicks but other people swear by the la-2a

yo sorry to interject here but is this mixing/adjustment of the setting all done inside the box? just wanna no cuz yall dropping knowledge here and i just wanna if i can apply this to da mp1kizzle