Getting the most bombast from your bass synths can be a bit of a chore. EQ is one way to do it, but the results can be uneven if your bass line covers a range of more than one octave. Sub-harmonic enhancement, either via plug-ins or hardware, is another way, but it can introduce muddy low-end artifacts if a producer isn’t careful.
A few years back, I stumbled upon a trick that’s infinitely more precise than either of the above approaches, and is blissfully simple:
Just add a sine wave.
Ableton users may notice preset instruments that include a macro knob labeled “Body.” This knob mixes in a sine wave either at the fundamental frequency or an octave below. With this approach, we can emphasize only the frequencies present in our bass line, without introducing mud, distortion, or unwanted overtones to the surrounding frequency ranges.
Simply duplicate the entire bass track. On the copied track, replace the original synth with a single sine wave oscillator, then mix copied and original tracks to taste. Most soft synths include sines as a waveform option, but if for some reason none of yours do, a triangle wave will work. Though it’s not quite as clean, adding a lowpass filter to mute the triangle’s harmonics will help it blend better.
Below are three examples using Propellerhead Reason’s Subtractor synth, and the process is really straightforward. Use oscillator 1 as your primary waveform, then use oscillator 2 to slowly add the sine wave.
One note of caution: It’s easy to get carried away with the sine wave approach and add too much low-end to your bass line. When in doubt, compare your mix to a few commercial releases to ensure that you’re bangin’, not boomy. A little goes a long way!
Ex. 1. Here’s the initial patch: a single-oscillator sawtooth (oscillator 2 is turned off) with the filter cutoff about 75 percent open. Click for audio.
Ex.2. Now, we turn on the second oscillator, which is generating a sine wave at the fundamental frequency only. For demonstration purposes, the sine is mixed a tad loud in the audio example so you can hear its effect. Click for audio.
Ex. 3. For even more bottomy goodness, here’s the same patch with the sine wave tuned one octave lower than in Example 2. Again, it’s mixed in strongly for demonstration purposes. Click for audio.