Stuck on creating punchy bass in Reason !

[the crackhouse]

Hi all,
I've been beat-programming in Reason for a year , and I'm now trying to get into the bass creation, which have been a real problem to me since I bought the program.

My bass always sounds tired, with no punch, no relief, too atmospheric, sub-bass style >>> I can't get it to sound powerful, with a bubble form (starting high and being round).

What would you advise for this problem, as I tried to couple Maelstrom and Subtractor with Scream and the others compressors, but can't get anything good.
I imagine this has to do with the wave form and the attack, delay, ratio things but I don't understand anything to these.

I don't need advice for melodies, as I got them already. I just can't find the sound.

If you need more explanations, I will try to clarify the sound I'm looking for.

Thanks in advance fr your inputs !

[jordash]

Originally posted by the crackhouse:
Hi all,
I've been beat-programming in Reason for a year , and I'm now trying to get into the bass creation, which have been a real problem to me since I bought the program.

My bass always sounds tired, with no punch, no relief, too atmospheric, sub-bass style >>> I can't get it to sound powerful, with a bubble form (starting high and being round).

What would you advise for this problem, as I tried to couple Maelstrom and Subtractor with Scream and the others compressors, but can't get anything good.
I imagine this has to do with the wave form and the attack, delay, ratio things but I don't understand anything to these.

I don't need advice for melodies, as I got them already. I just can't find the sound.

If you need more explanations, I will try to clarify the sound I'm looking for.

Thanks in advance fr your inputs !

Hi there,

I dont exactly understand what you are aiming for, AND I have no reason experience, but I would suggest you try layering your subbass with an additional short attack sound one or two octaves higher than the sub.
squash the lower of the two bass sounds seperately with a compressor and then give a lighter compression to both of them together. (send them both to the same bus after you compress/eq them separately)
hope this helps, good luck...
....
and maybe add a lil' gated/slapback reverb to the higher of the two bass sounds to give the attack some 'room', and like I said send them together to a compressor.

peace,j

p.s. just fyi...my advice is always to spend a couple hundred euros on an outboard compressor... my experience with software compressors/eqs isnt very positive. a pumped tube does the job...

[Free Russell]

Some thoughts:

-Agree with the above suggestions on blending dispirate sounds. Spend time to really learn programming.

-Get the sound right without a compressor. In fact, forget the compressor, it's complicating the equation. Get the sound right without a compressor, which should be used to enhance an already good signal rather than to compensate for what's lacking.

-If all else fails use a hardware synth or blend one with what you have, or try other software.

[ November 12, 2006, 10:12 AM: Message edited by: Free Russell ]

[joshco808]

hello,
i would say its not necessary to have tracks like bass or drums extremely punchy. in most cases the sound is much better without hard compression and disortion, if the whole mix fits together
the entire sound and also the bass will smash.

maybe on your monitors the bass sounds weak and in a club it will smack the subbs...

there are also real basses available for reason, its callaed "basslegends" very usefull abd kickin basses...

[DiscoDaddy]

A lot of people seem to comment on the lack of bass on reason,Like its hard to find that bass `sweet spot` that you hear on tracks like Kerri Chandler`s etc.
A shame as the rest of the programme is really user friendly.

[Free Russell]

The bass on today's records isn't great to begin with, it's not that important actually. Get an inexpensive hardware synth to use if you really think it makes a difference.

[hairyarmbutcher]

Originally posted by the crackhouse:
Hi all,
I've been beat-programming in Reason for a year , and I'm now trying to get into the bass creation, which have been a real problem to me since I bought the program.

My bass always sounds tired, with no punch, no relief, too atmospheric, sub-bass style >>> I can't get it to sound powerful, with a bubble form (starting high and being round).

What would you advise for this problem, as I tried to couple Maelstrom and Subtractor with Scream and the others compressors, but can't get anything good.
I imagine this has to do with the wave form and the attack, delay, ratio things but I don't understand anything to these.

I don't need advice for melodies, as I got them already. I just can't find the sound.

If you need more explanations, I will try to clarify the sound I'm looking for.

Thanks in advance fr your inputs !

i think you need to go back to basics- forget what ever studio softw you are using- ADSR attack, delay, sustain,& release- ( i think thats it, haha) for punchyness set it a=0, d=10, s=3ish, r=3ish- somthing like that should give you some puchyness. Experiment, layering sounds- like suggested by som1 else above. Making nice sounds can take time or come by accident. As far as reason having no bass, its got plenty of the deep stuff if you use the right sounds.

if you can get some bass sound samples from a old dx keyboard- they had what i would term punch- edit them a little in that sampler in reason- play with the filter and res a bit too.

[lvdphse]

You must be joking, and I dont mean that in a bad way! Opened up reason for 1st time last night and while it took a hour (who needs the book?! my ass needs the book!) Just to get a beat going, the one thing I did manage was to get "punchy bass". I played around with the reverbs/delays/ echos in diffrent halls and rooms at certain levels of wet to dry and get sound I was looking for. As posted also get good monitor or headphones. It only took a second to learn the "upgraded" speakers on my comp. wouldnt cut it. The headphones gave me the best sound. My problem is all I got is one nice single ass beat, cant find a snare to save my life,and when I do find something close, it gets layered on to the first beat (wich helped get that sound btw) I cant get that next beat running after the first like boom bap! boom bap! I only tried a couple hours though and took the I'll just keep clicking till I get a sound approach before picking up the book. Melodies/rhythms- fugedaboutit I have no keyboard exp. and when I tried to add some it came in like a train wreck. How long should I expect before getting a handle on this? Should I read more or keep clicking? I must admit I must read the instructions a couple times before I get it. So if you already have experience in this area factor this in. I feel like a 90 yr old lady in a loaded 07 BMW

[GROOVE VICTIM]

This is just a case of, not tweaking your sounds properly.

The key to punchy kick drums is in the Pitch, not the bass.


Now bass, as in basslines, that's another thead.


Study


Peace

[Free Russell]

The key to punchy kick drums is in the Pitch, not the bass.


Now bass, as in basslines, that's another thead.

He's been talking strictly basslines from the beginning. [img]icon_rofl.gif[/img]

[Free Russell]

Just realized what this guy's problem is-he doesn't even understand ADSR. Dude if you're unwilling to learn something basic like that what do you expect? [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

[GROOVE VICTIM]

Originally posted by Free Russell:
Just realized what this guy's problem is-he doesn't even understand ADSR. Dude if you're unwilling to learn something basic like that what do you expect? [img]graemlins/rofl.gif[/img]

Man I wasn't sure if he was talking about beats or basslines, thats why I replied with those comments. I mean a punchy bassline, if you cant tweek the sounds to make the bass sound more "verbal" especially with Maelstrom, then I don't know. I would understand trying to accomplish this task when working with drum patterns but with such a huge library of sounds that come with Reason 3, there should be no excuse not finding something.

Peace

[dj kev foushee]

the key to reasons as with anyothere daw is the refills and learning the program ethir by reading the book or sit with some one that knows the program . i use reason alot but i just got ableton live and i got to learn it the same way i had to learn reasons . i got this to rewire togethere and also to do some r&b remixes . but as far as the bassline there alot of great refills you can get for free off the internet. [img]graemlins/respekt.gif[/img]

[simon b]

I had the same problem with Reason. I recently switched to Abelton and I am sampling jazz records with open bass lines and chopping and tweaking with good results.

Also I'm looking in to purchasing a synth module for it that has all those ill chunky 80's style synth basses. My friend has those and he's getting these sick D-Train type sounds.

[ January 26, 2007, 01:47 PM: Message edited by: simon b ]

[Robe Flax]

try sidechain compression. put the bass into the m-class compression "ins" and "outs" then have the bass drum hooked into "sidechain". this should make it so you can pump the bass up without killing the bassdrum frequencies.. that usually gives me nice punch.
also try some notch filter(if you're using nnxt) or a little "tape" distortion.

hope this helps.

[mark_h_elektrasoul]

google for test tones. sine/triangle/square waves.