Reverb / delay on bass?

Electronic Music Production // Dark Arts
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dubdub
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Reverb / delay on bass?

Post by dubdub »

I'm not talking about 303 kinda basslines that site quite high, obviously you can put heaps of delay and reverb on those. I mean stuff that has some real energy in the lows. Is putting delay and reverb on that kind of bass a no-no? I have this bassline right now, it's got a lot of meat around 60-120 hz but also a good amount harmonics up to 500hz. I put a bit of delay on it, which I usually don't, because the delays will fuck with the kick, right? But I kinda like the way it alters the groove. And then I thought about about giving it some reverb but putting verb on sub 150hz frequencies seems a bit silly, no? Ideally I'd put reverb only of the stuff above 300hz. I guess the best way to do that would be to send it to a return track and then EQ that beforehand? Is that stupid?

Sorry, i'm just rambling here. My bassline usually are very subby I never really thought about this stuff :)

td3l
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Re: Reverb / delay on bass?

Post by td3l »

Putting an EQ before a reverb on a send channel is absolutely not stupid. It's done all the time.

In general, putting lower freqs <250 Hz through reverb is going to take up a lot of mix space real fast. In techno this is generally going to sound bad since there will be other elements competing for that space. EQ is your friend.

Edit: same generally applies to delay.

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Lost to the Void
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Re: Reverb / delay on bass?

Post by Lost to the Void »

Well sure you can put reverb or\and delay on the bass.
You can do anything.
Problems you will induce are stereo image, solved by sticking the bass mono processing late or last in the chain.
Muddyness, solved by EQ and possibly a little sidechain if you get problems with your kick.
Possible phase problems with delay too, solved by phase correction or monoing.

Essentially you are adding "more bass" in simplified terms, and that needs to be balanced, and of course you need to have the room in the mix for it.

I've been making basslines by using some complex pattern delays on really big subby kicks, and I'm getting it to work. It's hard work though.

EQ is your friend and saviour.
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dubdub
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Re: Reverb / delay on bass?

Post by dubdub »

Lost to the Void wrote: You can do anything.
I should get that on my wall as some kind of inspirational quite, lol :)

Alright thanks, i'll give it a shot and mak some tracks with heavy reverb and delay on bass.

innovine
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Re: Reverb / delay on bass?

Post by innovine »

Just what we need. More rumbly reverb bass. Definitely haven't heard enough of that yet, oh no.

Alume
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Re: Reverb / delay on bass?

Post by Alume »

Whatever floats your goat my friend.

dubdub
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Re: Reverb / delay on bass?

Post by dubdub »

innovine wrote:Just what we need. More rumbly reverb bass. Definitely haven't heard enough of that yet, oh no.
I wasn't referring to reverb-rumble, just reverb on a normal bassline.

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Re: Reverb / delay on bass?

Post by Southpaw »

I like it sometimes, I'm always a bit OCD about it though for obvious reasons like delayed notes running into regular notes and creating unwanted 'chords' or phased duplicate notes etc. Def needs control and thought, I like reverb too just because I don't think sounds seem natural against a silent backdrop. On such things I don't even want to hear the reverb, I just feel better that it' not sitting on a bed of silence for some reason.
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kertikristof
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Re: Reverb / delay on bass?

Post by kertikristof »

When I am making the conclusion, that I will go with a reverb/delay on my basses, I usually make it on a return channel, to have more control. Or layering/resampling the actual bass, and with filtering, eq'ing giving space for both the reverbed/delayed sound and also the cleaner sub heavy bass. Delaying a bass which does not play one note only or isn't a constant rumbling sound may result in cool ghost notes. It's sexy
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