Good vst compressor for fattening up basses?

[simon.a.billington]

Waves gave away RBass a while ago. I don't know if you can still get it for free, but it's worth it if you can.

Steve

Yeah Renaissance Bass is very popular amongst many.

Optical compressors are also extremely popular like the bx_opto or the T-Racks Opto-Compressor or the classic LA2A, which comes in or sorts of dev flavours.

The 1176, and dbx 160 are great classics to use as well. There are a few devs that make the 1176, but the ones I know of who make the 160 is UAD, Waves and Native instruments, I think.

Most compressors should do a good job for bass. However a compressor with a sidechain filter would be more helpful, but thats not a huge issue if you are able to setup your own sidechain filter manually. Usually you'd be looking filtering out anything from 80-200Hz, depending on your requirements.

You can also use a multiband like a C4 or C6 to compress frequencies around 250Hz and below. The same type of compressors can be side chained with the kick to make more room for all those sub frequencies every time the kick hits or just place a standard compressor across all the tracks and have it triggered by the kick.

[jens]

Waves gave away RBass a while ago. I don't know if you can still get it for free, but it's worth it if you can.

Steve

Its not a compressor, as OP wished.

But, it does fatten bass, as the OP wished.

So what?

If someone asks for "best sportscar", do you think suggesting a bike is valid & relevant too, "as it brings you from a to B, just like the sportscar does".

What does "fatten up" mean to you then, if you think both a comp and RenBass can do it just the same?

[cryophonik]

Waves gave away RBass a while ago. I don't know if you can still get it for free, but it's worth it if you can.

Steve

Its not a compressor, as OP wished.

But, it does fatten bass, as the OP wished.

So what?

If someone asks for "best sportscar", do you think suggesting a bike is valid & relevant too, "as it brings you from a to B, just like the sportscar does".

What does "fatten up" mean to you then, if you think both a comp and RenBass can do it just the same?

They obviously don't "do it just the same", but "fattening up a bass" can have many different interpretations and thus can be accomplished many different ways. planetearth was just offering a suggestion. I'm sure the OP is a big boy who isn't going to shed any tears over it.

[Tp3]

when will people stop treating a compressor as the bona fide of audio ?

There are SO MANY other tools for phattening bass (and audio as a whole) ...

Many are FREE

Compressor as a tool HAD its days. time to move on...

[focusrite]

The new Acustica Pink 2412. The sidechain filter helps ALOT

[simon.a.billington]

Working with a multiband compressor and processing above 250Hz and below 250Hz, or thereabouts, in a different manner is another approach to bringing out the bass.

Most DAWs have a multiband compressor, otherwise I know IK have one and there is the C4 & C6 by Waves.

[DJbrimLo]

I will play the part of buzz killington on this one. To fatten up the bass My first suggestions:
A.) Start with the sound chosen for bass. And then how does it sit in phase relation with your Kick and/or whatever else you have down there. What is living in those frequencies. Get those guys in phase. That may solve all of your concerns. Auto-Align or InPhase from Waves are my go to tools for that.
B.) Let's say you already fixed that or it never was an issue, my next thing I look at is gain staging of the levels of the mix. Relationship of the bass to the levels of everything else in the mix.
C.) Once all of that comes together, then I agree with the afore mentioned use of optical compressors. The LA2A and/or LA3A has been a favorite for years. If you go with a compressor with Attack Release controls then I say the magic is in the Release knob.
D.) Lastly, Parallel compression/processing can add that last little bit of sweetening. I hope that helps.

*Waves MV2 has been a favorite of mine for Synth Basses and 808 Kicks

[discoDSP]

Hi guys, any recommendations for compressor plugins that are good for bass processing? I made a deep bass in the the moog and am trying to fatten it up a bit.

Thanks

- DC

From a bit biased point of view I can recommend ThrillMe (shareware) and NightShine (free).

http://www.discodsp.com/thrillme/
http://www.discodsp.com/nightshine/

[MogwaiBoy]

Hi guys, any recommendations for compressor plugins that are good for bass processing? I made a deep bass in the the moog and am trying to fatten it up a bit.

Thanks

- DC

From a bit biased point of view I can recommend ThrillMe (shareware) and NightShine (free).

http://www.discodsp.com/thrillme/
http://www.discodsp.com/nightshine/

Thrillme is shareware???

[Locus M]

particulary for basses? I wouldn't know but I guess any comp with a fast attack and possibility of long release will do. What happens when fattening is that the lower freqs are raised to the samme level as the mids. maybe you should try some eq before going that far as sqeezing the bass through a comp can have cons too. However if you want to use it for snappy attacks a comp will do better of course.

[discoDSP]

Hi guys, any recommendations for compressor plugins that are good for bass processing? I made a deep bass in the the moog and am trying to fatten it up a bit.

Thanks

- DC

From a bit biased point of view I can recommend ThrillMe (shareware) and NightShine (free).

http://www.discodsp.com/thrillme/
http://www.discodsp.com/nightshine/

Thrillme is shareware???

Well, it can be purchased for $49 so yes it's shareware/commercial.

[dickiefunk]

Overloud Mark Studio 2

http://www.overloud.com/en/products-11/ ... dio-2.html

[dblock]

I think any half decent saturation plugin would be well suited for fattening up. That's what they're good at doing.

[U-o]

CamelPhat is still good for me. You can also try CamelCrusher if it is still available.

[sin night]

If I were to use a compressor on a Moog bass, I would program the patch so it has a strong attack and the sustain level is not too high (let's say it stays under the compressor threshold), and I'd set the the compressor in order to work only on the attack (so the transient makes it distort/pump). The envelope controls are usually enough to control the volume shape of the sound, so I see very little need for a compressor on a Moog bass; I would rather use saturation/distortion (maybe even in a parallel chain) to enhance it...

Maybe it's just me, but I struggle to find a chain for my Minitaur that doesn't take away something... I usually record it as clean as possible, I may use just a tiny bit of compression to glue things on the mix but usually the Minitaur is something I usually don't process...