Compressing bass

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dubdub
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Compressing bass

Post by dubdub »

I've been using a bit more compression in my tracks recently, mostly for character but with bass, let's say I'm happy with the envelope and it's supposed to be mostly for dynamic range while mostly keeping the character of the original envelope - I'm feeling a bit lost. What am I listening for, what indicates that it's compressed enough? Until now I basically slapped some random sidechain compression on my bass and I'm trying to be a bit more considered but low end energy seems very fickle with dynamics and envelopes, especially when there's not a lot of upper harmonics.

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Re: Compressing bass

Post by Planar »

The first thing I do before adding a compressor to anything is, "why am I doing this", and if I can't answer that convincingly to myself then I don't. Personally I'd use a different processor to get what it sounds like you want (because I'm not 100% sure if I understand what that is), probably some kind of mild saturation or distortion.

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Re: Compressing bass

Post by Lost to the Void »

Righty.
Well, for dance music especially, you generally are always going to want to compress the bass, to some degree, to keep the dynamics (and peaks) consistent.
Techno is bass music, you want guts bursting, eyeballs shaking etc, so lock down your bass.

There are 2 ways of going about this with compression.

Essentially what you want to do is firstly, control your peaks, especially if you are using analog gear to generate your bass, your peaks might be surprisingly unpredictable, so you want to grip them to a consistent level.
Secondly you want to control the overall dynamics, in general, you don`t want huge dynamic bass movement if your bass is heavy or deep, as it will cause inconsistency on a big rig, as well as possibly pumping artefacts in the master.

So the first way is using a super clean compressor, DAW stock comps are usually uber clean, or something like TDR Kotelnikov. No added harmonics or saturation, just pure dynamic control.
In general you want a very fast attack to make sure the compression is getting to maximum gain reduction quickly.
The amount you do it by really depends on the nature of the sound. If you have some big ass rumble going on, you pretty much want it flat and locked, so maybe 4-5 db or GR with a fairly high ratio. If you just want to control peaks then maybe a couple of db GR with a high ratio.
If you have a more punchy/attacky bass sound, then just reduce the attack until enough of the nose of the sound pops through. Modern MU compression can be quite good here, reacting with a higher ratio to a hotter signal.
Release time can be timed with the sound to allow it to be more dynamic, so that it pumps within itself a little, or for big dubby lines, you want more consistent overall dynamic, so a medium to medium-slow release, you don`t want the GR to reduce to zero between notes.

The 2nd method is to use something that adds some higher order harmonics. FET/1176 types are pretty good for this, they are fast and tend to add a lot of harmonics. So if you drive the signal in to the threshold, along with gain reduction you get high order harmonics which give the bass the illusion of more depth (and assist in translation to system that can`t represent full range properly) and punch, so you can slam your bass but not drain it of character.

Sidechaining would be done with a separate compressor, so to control the overall bass sound, for example, I might use an 1176, but then post that I would have a very clean compressor to sidechain to the bass, and the compressor is only acting on the sidechain and doing nothing else to the sound except introducing pump.
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Re: Compressing bass

Post by dubdub »

Thanks, very helpful! Is the second mode on MJUC fast enough for bass? Also, what do you think of LA-2A for bass? I heard it's good for bass and the one-knob interface seems appealing :lol:

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Re: Compressing bass

Post by Lost to the Void »

Really you want LA-3A if you are going for bass. It has a bit more mojo and reacts more efficiently.

These are good for general levelling but they won't lock down tight, you still need something fast some 1176 type dealio.

Distressor.

Native stuff acts quickly and cleanly.

MJUC not really tight enough.

For me, for fast and tight bass comp in software land.
2 plugins that are my go to.

Softube FET

And similar to the above but with more mojo and even faster envelopes
Stillwell Rocket.
Which is just a great all round mojo compressor anyway, it will add insane movement to anything, very creative.
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Re: Compressing bass

Post by dubdub »

Nice, thanks, well check these out!

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Re: Compressing bass

Post by dubdub »

I have a followup question on 1176 type comps (been trying the Softube), once you push the input nicely you end up in crazy 10-15db gain reduction territory really quickly. I like the sound if you use the all button and drive it pretty hard to get cool pumping. Is that fine for single sounds like bass or just too much?

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Re: Compressing bass

Post by msl »

I don't see the point in compressing synth bass, usually the mix bus compression is enough. The dynamic variation is usually not that great or wildly varying to call for it, other than for character, if you want to totally squash it for effect. Bit of side chain is really all thats needed for synth bass in my experience. Less is more and the arrangement plays a big role. However it may be useful to limit the bass so you can peg it at a certain level throughout the whole track. With electric or acoustic bass thats another story, you always need compression.
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Re: Compressing bass

Post by Lost to the Void »

15db of pump is too much for a mix, on a rig you are going to be overworking the subs if the movement is too fast, it'll be a bit weird so tune your attack and release with care.
That amount of compression is also going to spread out the size of the sound. All the harmonics will be at equal level, so you will definitely need to make room in the mix, or sculpt the sound with post comp EQ.
But.
If it works in the mix then it is fine.
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Re: Compressing bass

Post by Mimui »

I usually use a hpf after designing a bass around 100 hz, depending on the rootnote.

Drop a single oscilation of the purest sine I can find (or anything that sounds really good in the sub region really)
in the sampler and press the loop repeat function.
As far as I know it makes every sub region note the same volume.

I low-pass the kick around 200 hz and sidechain the filtered kick to the sub bass.
put the subs in a buss, if it clicks put a filter after the sidechain compressor(but fiddle with atk/rls so its almost gone first).

Grab the top layer of your designed bass sound,
EQ it so it is awesome without sub and do some rms or peak compression if necessary.
buss the top bass with your leads or whatever you see fit.

put a high pass filtered kick on top of the sub kick in the percussion buss.

now everything in the sub region is mixed, and flat as a pancake.

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Re: Compressing bass

Post by Mimui »

I also do it like that bcus I need to produce on headphones to take my tracks to a studio in the neighborhood where
I can mix my tracks afterwards so I usually just need to grab the busses, put the volumes right,
get an extra hpf around 38hz and studio time costs = cheap bcus not alot of time was used that way :)


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