Hot Since 82 Deep Tech House Subbass - Filtered/"Underwater" Sound

[nardozee]

Looking for some insight on subbass sound design.

Very curious to hear some thoughts on how to really achieve that "underwater" filtered subbass sound, particularly what Hot Since 82 does.

Here are some examples:

- https://youtu.be/tapxo62i1yw (at 1:30)

- https://youtu.be/CJL6uHqLyfU (also 1:30)

It sound likes its really pulsing underwater, almost like it also has reverb under the filter with the subbass. I also think that there could be a fifth note in there. These 2 tracks are in A and A#, which is a factor to the underwater sound as well.

Also love how it cuts through even on an iphone speaker. You can actually hear the bassline groove right through the phone which is so amazing. Obviously this isn't a simple answer, but curious to hear if anyone has any ideas. New to sound design on the moog.

[perpetual3]

Good playback on all devices and in all circumstances is IMHO a function of good sound design, mix, and mastering.

If you haven’t already checkout the Mix Engineer’a Handbook. It helped me so much I no longer need to ask many questions about mixing.

Mastering is of course a different skill, one that I haven’t put enough time to. That said, for my needs I get decent results using Newfangled Audio Elevate. Attack Magazine has a good tutorial on how to use it.

If you’re really set on emulating Hot Since 82 sound (and I don’t blame you. Sounds excellent), perhaps a reference plugin like Metric AB, Magic AB, etc will help you. Personally, I don’t tend to do that, but I make music for myself, not clients. If I had clients, I most likely would use such a plugin.

As far as the design of the bass, I actually think that quite a bit of the low end has been cut. It does not particularly sound like it’s a reverb to me, but it could be. I’ve designed bass similar to that using Plogue PortaFM, which causes lots of alisasing, followed by a filter to get that think low/low mid sound, and recently with Repro-1/5 using the distortion and/or tape saturation, followed by the EQ. In that case, sometimes I do use some reverb or very short delay before the EQ. I’m concerned with the shape of the base, so I make sure to route an envelope to the amp prevent the bass getting carried away. No matter the case, what I do with bass like this is the cut the lowest frequencies until the bass cuts through, and if needed emphasize depending on the mix (to play well with the kick). This is described very well in the book I mentioned above.

[CHOOS]

OK I nailed it! hahahahaha. Well I came pretty close

So in techno there's a lot of background noises and "feel" type of sounds made with white noise.

Listen to the mp3 in the zip and you'll hear the first part is from the original and the 2nd part is mine.
There's a screenshot of what I used which I'll put in this post too

I band-passed the original and mine with the same settings:
Narrow Q at around 135Hz which is between a C and a C#

So to make the sound you need white noise with a high resonance band-pass but not 100%. Once you get close to the sound go back a few percentages until it fills up more instead of sounding like a sine wave.

So the order in which I had the plugins is:
1 Reverb
2 EQ with narrow Q
3 distortion (to compress it and get some extra harmonics

You need to play with the room size till it has the right feel. sometimes 1 or 2 % makes a big difference.

and try different reverbs and other effects to make it fit in your track when you do something like this.

also the 3rd noise is louder than the first 2 so to create movement you can automate volume.

But Im sure the original was bounced to audio and he picked a few pieces he liked and put them in the track.

Bass noise.zip

Bass noise.PNG

[nardozee]

Good playback on all devices and in all circumstances is IMHO a function of good sound design, mix, and mastering.

If you haven’t already checkout the Mix Engineer’a Handbook. It helped me so much I no longer need to ask many questions about mixing.

Mastering is of course a different skill, one that I haven’t put enough time to. That said, for my needs I get decent results using Newfangled Audio Elevate. Attack Magazine has a good tutorial on how to use it.

If you’re really set on emulating Hot Since 82 sound (and I don’t blame you. Sounds excellent), perhaps a reference plugin like Metric AB, Magic AB, etc will help you. Personally, I don’t tend to do that, but I make music for myself, not clients. If I had clients, I most likely would use such a plugin.

As far as the design of the bass, I actually think that quite a bit of the low end has been cut. It does not particularly sound like it’s a reverb to me, but it could be. I’ve designed bass similar to that using Plogue PortaFM, which causes lots of alisasing, followed by a filter to get that think low/low mid sound, and recently with Repro-1/5 using the distortion and/or tape saturation, followed by the EQ. In that case, sometimes I do use some reverb or very short delay before the EQ. I’m concerned with the shape of the base, so I make sure to route an envelope to the amp prevent the bass getting carried away. No matter the case, what I do with bass like this is the cut the lowest frequencies until the bass cuts through, and if needed emphasize depending on the mix (to play well with the kick). This is described very well in the book I mentioned above.

Thanks for the reply and turning me onto Plogue - PortaFM and their other tools are amazing.

I do like the Metric AB quite a bit and have been using it.

[nardozee]

OK I nailed it! hahahahaha. Well I came pretty close

So in techno there's a lot of background noises and "feel" type of sounds made with white noise.

Listen to the mp3 in the zip and you'll hear the first part is from the original and the 2nd part is mine.
There's a screenshot of what I used which I'll put in this post too

I band-passed the original and mine with the same settings:
Narrow Q at around 135Hz which is between a C and a C#

So to make the sound you need white noise with a high resonance band-pass but not 100%. Once you get close to the sound go back a few percentages until it fills up more instead of sounding like a sine wave.

So the order in which I had the plugins is:
1 Reverb
2 EQ with narrow Q
3 distortion (to compress it and get some extra harmonics

You need to play with the room size till it has the right feel. sometimes 1 or 2 % makes a big difference.

and try different reverbs and other effects to make it fit in your track when you do something like this.

also the 3rd noise is louder than the first 2 so to create movement you can automate volume.

But Im sure the original was bounced to audio and he picked a few pieces he liked and put them in the track.

Bass noise.zip

Bass noise.PNG

Hey man thanks for the tip! Ill have to play around with some white noise forsure I think youre onto it. it is tricky

[OllyAudio]

You can omit the frequency for the second oscillator FM before the characteristic vibration. I showed in the photo.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=136iJm ... vmzFwa6aNC


You can also add distortion and an equalizer to the sound for a deep, but readable Sub-bass.
I made an example of audio to show the principle - first - half of Overdrive,, and in the second - clean.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=1upewY ... NQ5j5xelRU_