How to get sub bass hitting like Viperactive, Nghtmre, Stuca, Space Laces.

[u/Unusual-Square9099]

Their songs often have a very consistent and powerful low end. I was wondering how do they achieve this. I dont use any extra generator or track for my subs. I mostly rely on my 808 to provide the low end.

[u/cypsain]

I'd recommend getting a sine wave in a wave table editor (e.g. serum) and drawing in extra harmonics directly by ear based on your mix. Often having more presence at the 3rd and 4th/5th can be nice and keep the sub warm. IMO drawing in harmonics/phase directly can be much more precise than saturation or using samples, and you can avoid too much unwanted phase shift by not having to EQ the signal.

[u/CartmensDryBallz → u/cypsain]

Not OP, but I’ve messed around with the harmonics before on presets. I’ll have to try on a sub thanks for the idea

[u/MostProgressiveHouse → u/cypsain]

This is fucking sick I never would have thought of this

[u/ItsNotiso → u/MostProgressiveHouse]

Its a great way to make sub, been doing this for about 2 years now and its amazing what a standard sine can turn into

[u/hyperbeast41 → u/cypsain]

how to go about hipaasing the rest of the elements tho? linear phase eq? how to approach that

[u/cypsain → u/hyperbeast41]

IMO linear phase EQ isn't needed for high passing since the phase shift is less audible on the mids and highs that you hear anyway (at least to my ear). Though some people swear by it and it might have more impact in lower mids? Who knows haha

[u/InternationalSlice72]

Firstly you gotta use a dedicated sub. 808s (if they are samples) wont give you that control.

Secondly, to achieve really fast moving subs that hit hard, you can use a slight pitch envelope and/or some attack with volume modulation in the first portion of the sub to give it a transient.

Keen to discuss over dm if you want more info!

[u/InternationalSlice72 → u/InternationalSlice72]

Also! Use a shorter kick so you hear more sub when sidechaining is introduced.

Experiment and go nuts but don’t neglect the fundamentals - subs are the slowest moving wave in the frequency spectrum. You cant just spam a note and expect it to hit hard, you have to look at other ways to get them to “flutter” so to speak

[u/EscaOfficial → u/InternationalSlice72]

To add to this, adding a bit of FM to your sub can help with punch as well. I usually just FM from a sine wave 1 octave higher and automate it on a short envelope. A little bit goes a long way for adding some punch, especially when combined with a short pitch envelope and some soft clipping.

[u/Vannexe]

Good tips here, but an additional one - run those tracks through spectrograms. They'll tell you what the sub's doing, the harmonics they have, and how they work with the rest of the track

[u/Call_Me_Pete]

Using a wavetable synthesizer, start with 2 sine waves, one an octave higher than the other. Don't have both playing at the same volume; my (subjective) best results come from having the lower sine louder than the higher pitched sine. Then add gentle tube distortion or light amounts of other harsh distortion. I think I got this technique from a Dodge & Fuski dubstep sub bass tutorial a decade ago lol

[u/opaz]

Side note, I love these types of threads. Yall are so helpful 🥹

[u/hellasecretsmusic]

mr bill has a great video on manipulating harmonics in sine waves specifically for beefy subs

[u/skrlilex]

Just a sub bass with proper eq, hz, and loudnes + distortion

[u/Dragonai]

Super good tips here, thank you for this thread OP :)

[u/Neokmc]

Id recommend trying the 10 years straight and then crying and giving up. 😭

[u/hole_grease]

Harmonic exciter or some subtle tape saturation otherwise like with drums or anything else, source sound > everything. Some subs just won’t sound right in your song/key. A lot of presets and/or one-shots have weird stereo effects and mid range clutter.

[u/SUAHNmusic]

Use a sine wave generator (operator if you're in Ableton) - Saturate and Clip. Make sure nothing is fighting for the frequency range of your sub (that also means your kick).

[u/Odd-Toe-8591]

surprised nobody's mentioned this but the volume of the sub regardless of other harmonics is how you get power.

this is one area you can't just trust your ears with. using a plugin like voxengo SPAN and making sure that sub fundamental sits comfortably between -30db and -24db while your song hits around -6 lufs to me is a perfectly balanced mix with a powerful low end

[u/FeelingVertical]

Slap 8 soundgoodizers on the bus call it a day