Electronic Producers: best way to make floor shaking bass?

Shayper · 12 Apr 2012 at 19:48

Hi guys

This one is for the fellow producers

I have a set at the O2 Arena (well, proud2) coming up, and want to get a new track sorted for then. I have ideas, but I'm not sure of the best way to get floor shaking bass, that won't cut over the drums and synths. For a heavy dubstep track. I can't seem to get it right on Reason, but I'm not sure if that's due to the speaker system I'm using. So, any help would be appreciated.

Thanks guys

Xordium · 12 Apr 2012 at 20:04

Eurofighters.

Shayper · 12 Apr 2012 at 20:06

Made that joke

Just thought of something else. There are a fair few tracks that when played on normal speakers seem to have minimal bass, but in clubs tear your face off... But I want mine to sound rumbly on both

Zero Pope · 12 Apr 2012 at 20:13

Have you rewired Reason? The sound engine isn't the best so using something else might be an idea?

Shayper · 12 Apr 2012 at 20:14

Rewire it through what? It's the only sound program I own, and never had a problem with it

Xordium · 12 Apr 2012 at 20:18

Probably no use to you whatsoever but when I was messing around the other day making some effects for my game I was using this tutorial - took me a bit to find out where I had bookmarked it though - 'twas in my C# folder.

Shayper · 12 Apr 2012 at 20:26

Thanks, I'll take a look later

cm1179 · 12 Apr 2012 at 20:26

is this at the same venue where matter used to be?

the system in there was way too bass heavy one 2 of the 3 occassions i went

Shayper · 12 Apr 2012 at 20:38

Yeah. Hence why I want to have floor shaking bass, can't let that power go to waste

XeNoN89 · 12 Apr 2012 at 21:17

cm1179 said:
is this at the same venue where matter used to be?

the system in there was way too bass heavy one 2 of the 3 occassions i went

Since being reopened as Proud2 they ripped the old system out and put in a different one which, IMO didn't sound as good. I used to love standing in matter and feeling my chest vibrating with the bass

Shayper · 12 Apr 2012 at 21:32

XeNoN89 said:
Since being reopened as Proud2 they ripped the old system out and put in a different one which, IMO didn't sound as good. I used to love standing in matter and feeling my chest vibrating with the bass

Have you been to fabric and Cable? That's the sound I'm going for

XeNoN89 · 12 Apr 2012 at 21:46

Shayper said:
Have you been to fabric and Cable? That's the sound I'm going for

Not been to Cable, I'm always in Fabric though. Infact i am going again on Saturday

. Love the fabric sound system, everything is so clear and perfectly balanced in there

Also, im not really into dubstep so haven't heard that in there, but last time in fabric they played this:

All i can say is WOW

twist3d0n3 · 12 Apr 2012 at 22:49

unless you have access to decent monitors and valve hardware (i'm talking valve compressors/eq's by tlaudio etc) you've got no chance, especially on reason.

save up about 5 k and get a basic logic studio with valve hardware, and you might get close

e: i send my bass channels (i use 3 in tandem mostly) to paralell compressors/eq's then a unifying bus, containing the PSP mixsaturator 2 (using tape saturation), psp neon eq, then psp vintage warmer to give it a rough, fuzzy, warm valve sound, then out to a tlaudio classic c1 compressor (during mixdown).

this'll give you really REALLY warm bass

Shayper · 13 Apr 2012 at 00:33

Ok, seeing as I won't have 5k anytime soon

what's the best way to do it in reason?

Frozennova · 13 Apr 2012 at 15:21

I can test some floor shaking bass and see how hard it rattles my car if you want a second opinion, can't help with Reason though only ever used cubase and its been a couple of years

Janesy B · 13 Apr 2012 at 16:08

Proud2 is nowhere near as good as Matter was.

twist3d0n3 · 13 Apr 2012 at 16:23

Shayper said:
Ok, seeing as I won't have 5k anytime soon what's the best way to do it in reason?

your best bet would probably be to record the bass track out to a .wav file, and see if you can find some software valve emulator to process it, then stick it back into reason in the nn-19/xt.

Shayper · 13 Apr 2012 at 17:36

Fair enough.

Thanks

twist3d0n3 · 15 Apr 2012 at 00:08

thinking about it, when is it you need it done by? if you wanted (depending on your version of reason - i have r4) send the finished mix and i'll try and master it for you?

visibleman · 15 Apr 2012 at 01:38

twist3d0n3 said:
unless you have access to decent monitors and valve hardware.....

Granted tube gear is great and sounds lovely, not sure TL gear would be my first choice though, it is by no means a must-have to create decent tracks or 'floor shaking bass'.

Shayper - However a decent set of nearfields is a must! Do realise most nearfields start running out of puff when you get down to the 100-70Hz region, so you'll still struggle if you're mixing/mastering at home. Extending the bottom end with a sub is one solution (although you won't have the power a club system does) but you start running into room acoustic issues very quickly doing this, which is obviously costly to correct properly.

You're best bet is to get a decent mix going on your monitors and the usual array (car stereos, HiFi's, portable players etc) of systems that are available to you, then spend a bit of cash and send it off to get a club mix mastered.