Sub bass and generally making a track "club environment friendly"

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Hi,

Referring to EDM and getting my track played in a club environment,
Is it always needed to an a sub bass to play along with the base drum?
At what frequency should it peak to be the most effective?
I notice most of my kicks already have sub frequencies peaking at around 40Hz, so maybe I don't need to add any sub bass sine?
What other tips can you give me regarding club-compatibility, especially at the low end?
I will welcome any other general tips also, not only as for the sub frequencies :)

Thanks a lot guys,
Erez

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Do you have an example/reference of a similar sound you are aiming for?

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No, you dont always meed a sub bass.

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John Askew and Indecent Noise are extremely club-friendly and they don't use sub bass as far as I can tell. But it depends on style you aim at and, of course, the technique. What in fact really matters is dynamic range and subs tend to eat a lot of it.
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Tricky-Loops wrote: (...)someone like Armin van Buuren who claims to make a track in half an hour and all his songs sound somewhat boring(...)

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I'm refering to Electro House. I have some track i'm working on right now, in which the verse is mostly made out of simplistic beat and a lot of different bass sounds coming and going through it. So basically that brings me to another question, should i high pass the bass synths to some extent and let the kick "rule"?
I already side-chained the basses gain levels to the kick....should i also side-chain a high pass filter?
I just want it to sound clear, tight on the low end, and i'm not sure how much "rumble" on the low end of the song is acceptable.

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did you high-pass every other tracks of the song? often, the source of the problem is somewhere else.... is the rest of the mix acceptable?


if so, sidechaining the bassline-kick should be sufficient. i low-cut the kick around 60hz tho... if it has too much sub, it can lose its impact. if the kick is in the same tuning as the bassline, then your bassline will provide the necessary sub.
It's not what you use, it's how you use it...

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You mean side-chaining the gain only, should be sufficient? The question now is by how much gain should the bass be brought down - do you usually pump it down to infinity or just a push its gain down a few dB?
Yes i usually make groups (chords, synths, leads, drums etc.) and high pass each group at around 200Hz with a steep filter.

And regarding the subs, if i prefer my kick to be accompanied with a sub, it means to high pass the other basses right?


Thanks for your patience guys, i know some questions might look trivial to you, but you are my fastest and most reliable source of information (iv'e been reading a lot of articles, but there's nothing more efficient than KVR) 8)

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how much gain? use your ears...
don't group everything the way you do... you gonna weed out the overal mix if you do so. use your ears!!!!!
low cut things individualy. start low on each pracks, then bring up the freq until you can actually ear some change. then back a tiny little bit for safety. there is no general rules as far as what frequency it should be. every sound is different and you have to treat them accordingly. USE YOUR EARS!!!
for the type of music you do, the bass should really provide the sub, unless you want to thin out your bassline, which would make it less powerful, obviously.
did you get my point about the tuning of the kick?
a mistake you might be making (and that most people are making actually) is associating low freqs in the kick as more power in the kick. this is not the case. you want your kick to have balls, right? well subs are not the snappiest frequencies. tune your kick with your bassline, so when they hit together, they ''gel'' into that heavy sound you are after. working on the overall dynamic of the kick vs the bassline might be another issue there...
It's not what you use, it's how you use it...

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