How to Get Low Midi Bass Note to Sound Good

[Onyx509]

I wrote a baseline that's in-between c1 and c2. C1 is the Lowest note and for the life of me I can't get it to sound good no matter what I do. I think it might be too low for a midi bass to really sound good at all. The only other option I know of is to maybe play it on a live bass. Anyone have an idea?

[des99]

Generally - if the sound you have doesn't work with the notes you have, then either change the sound, or change the notes, until you get something that does work.

[fisherking]

what kind of bass sound? try: eqing out some of the lower midrange, compressing the HELL out of it, maybe a limiter at the end.

i do a lot of deep bass stuff; i used to use the default (!) sine wave in the sampler for this (now, mostly sublab). the above works for me

[ozinga]

Might add saturation to bring up harmonics or double it with an other sound one octave up and blend it in.

C to D# is really troublesome range for Bass

[gacki]

There's really not enough information to work with. It completely depends on the type of sound and the context.

"MIDI bass" is not a sound; it's a way to generate sound.

Is it a sampled bass guitar? If so, which type? Is it a synth? If so, how is the sound programmed?

What's the musical context? Is this something where the bass is up front and should be easily recognizable, or is it something where the bass is more felt than "heard"? Is the arrangement "sparse" with few instruments or is it dense? Is the bass quickly moving or is it more of a drone?

And lastly: "sound good" has a lot of subjectivity to it...

[Onyx509]

Good suggestions. I have been using Arturia Pigments 2 mostly, but I have tried it in multiple other synths (wavetable).

Gacki, I think the question "Is this something where the bass is up front and should be easily recognizable" is definitely applicable, because the bass line is the main element, it drives the song. I would say the arrangement I am going for is sparse, with the bass element being up front and heard.

Ozinga, I will try the doubling technique, that sounds interesting. Pigments also has a harmonics engine, I might give that a try. I did put some saturation on it, but it didn't seem to help. I am not sure my saturation plugin is that great though, and I am actively seeking some other options for saturation, I just haven't found any that l like yet. 

Fisherking, when you say "lower midrange", do you have a specific frequency range you have in mind?

[fisherking]

51 minutes ago, Onyx509 said:

Fisherking, when you say "lower midrange", do you have a specific frequency range you have in mind?

as mentioned above, it depends on the sound. anywhere where the sound seems boomy (vs deep); this works for me, but again, am using very trap-type sounds, so am aiming for depth over clarity.

try things, be bold (ie with compression! still, i think, the best friend for bass parts)...

EDIT: this is specific to the (sublab) sound i'm using, so just an example...

Edited September 24, 2022 by fisherking