What sorta bass is nice 4 ambience?

[Box-Killa]

Just wondering what would make a nice bass instrument for an ambient tune.

[DJ-Rube]

We talking an actual instrument or something digital?
If you're talking about digital I'd recommenced Nexus. Very nice ambient basses in there.

[Box-Killa]

Anything electronica, yeah nexus is nice, but I was looking for something a little more specific. Perhaps like a Sub with some sort of effects, or something, :D I have nexus and the expansions, they are brilliant.

[EasilyEmbarrassed]

Albino 3 has great basses as well, you can tweak the sound in the finest details. Great VST for all kind of syntheziser sounds.

[liljim]

Try Trilogy / Trillian:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvmY-50Lx 5E
http://www.spectrasonics.net/instruments /trilogy/demos.html

[Box-Killa]

Trillian looks awesome :D Thanks

[HNI]

At 9/29/09 09:39 AM, Box-Killa wrote: Just wondering what would make a nice bass instrument for an ambient tune.

A nice smooth sub-bass would be quite nice for a background pad bass, but if you are talking about a melodic bass make it a little higher, sharper and slightly more distorted, but still very lowpassed

Seriously guys, Albino? Nexus? For an uber-rich pad or supersaw maybe, but for a simple bass they are bit overkill. I would just use Sytrus or 3xOsc for something like that. For an ambient bass the work is 30% in the synth, and the rest is in the mixer.

But i would like to clarify: is it a melodic bass or a background bass? Or something else?

[Box-Killa]

background :D I thought the idea of a sub bass with some effects would be nice :D Thanks

[HNI]

Ok,
Are you looking for an angry sound, epic sound, soft sound, or what?

[nal1200]

At 9/29/09 09:39 AM, Box-Killa wrote: Just wondering what would make a nice bass instrument for an ambient tune.

I think a nice, simple sine wave bass works well. Just EQ it and compress and use in moderation.

[Box-Killa]

ambient, sorta soft, but a nice deep tone

[5cyp43r]

Anything that's nicely cutoffed. FX's goes to your taste, but I sugest you to put chorus and stopped phaser efect oh this kind of bassline.

[HellThrasher]

Why don't you learn to play a real instrument and go from there?

[HNI]

At 10/2/09 01:26 AM, HellThrasher wrote: Why don't you learn to play a real instrument and go from there?

Now that's just obnoxious.

[Box-Killa]

I can play guitar, but I dont really feel like spending 1000 g's on recording gear anyway.

[HNI]

You can make a good bass using full-wave rectification on a very low/deep sine wave. As a starting point anyway.

[InvisibleObserver]

Try a bass instrument; sample, synthetic, or SF.

I hear they play bass tones well.

[Box-Killa]

So get a sine wave and then chuck wave shaper on it and turn it into that funny shape, gotcha :D

[HNI]

you may want to be careful though, because haveing the wave offset to the top like that can make other things stuffup, so you might want to play around a bit, or turn on the Centre option on the waveshaper

[Bjra]

At 9/29/09 12:51 PM, liljim wrote: Try Trilogy / Trillian:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TvmY-50Lx 5E
http://www.spectrasonics.net/instruments /trilogy/demos.html

too bad the steam engine is so damn buggy and resource heavy

[h0rza]

i found Z3TA+ to be the best synth for ambiance if your just after the presets that come with the vst.

Briliant synth

[DJRAV3N]

just a typical sub bass with some reverb.

[Box-Killa]

I HATE ZETA SO BAD LOOL. It is so un organised, its just like AHHHH. And all the synths sound wierd as.

[Box-Killa]

I like the sub with reverb but it needs a little bit of mid range, it just doesn't have enough impact, if you know what I mean.

[HNI]

At 10/5/09 03:08 PM, Box-Killa wrote: I like the sub with reverb but it needs a little bit of mid range, it just doesn't have enough impact, if you know what I mean.

Use EQ?

[SBB]

At 10/5/09 03:08 PM, Box-Killa wrote: I like the sub with reverb but it needs a little bit of mid range, it just doesn't have enough impact, if you know what I mean.

Wait why are you adding reverb to a sub bass? Or anything with bass frequencies, really. Unless your goal is to completely drown yourself in mud, don't do that. Please.

Here's a solution for you mid range/punch needs: 1) Scratch the reverb! 2) Add something to it
That something could be another synth one or two octaves above it, that way you have some more high frequency content and you can make the bass riff/melody more clear and pronounced. Leave the sub as clean as absolutely possible, then you can take the synth you just added, and add all you need of reverb/modulation/distortion/condoms to that. Depending on what plugins and program you're using, may need to use two channels/synths/tracks, one for the sub and one for the other.

[Box-Killa]

Alright, So don't add reverb to the sub, layer something higher into the sub, add effects to the extra layer, good :D Thanks!!

[DJRAV3N]

mudd? I never said how much reverb to add to it. also if you EQ the bass you dont have to worry about mudd.

[HNI]

also, sometimes when i have a deep kick running through the sub bass, i side-chain the sub bass to the kick, so they don't disrupt each other.
So, whenever the kick is makeing noise, the sub bass is not, if you get what i mean