How often do you use R-BASS? Do you find it really useful?

[mementus]

I find that many rock multitracks for mixing lack a solid lowend from 80hz and below.
I understand that it is the nature of the genre and usually don't touch that area. (a part from kick and low bass)
Lately I tried to EQ boost shelf that area (on mixbus) and got positive feedbacks.
But often there isn't much to boost there.
So now I don't know if it's a good idea to use R-BASS maybe on bass to get a solid lowend even in a classic rock mix.

I am confused

What's your story?

[Prototype_human]

Be careful with rbass it is easy to make it very brutal !

[TIMT]

Not super often, but it's the best at what it does when i need it. possibly cause of how it is implemented

[Ikaz7]

I find RBass very useful, but make sure you dial it in only at minimum amounts, otherwise you will create too much boom easily.

[escalona]

When needed (I know, stupid answer) and with care. But it always works and it's easy and super efficient and you don't really need all these other newer "bass enhacement laboratories" with 35 different parameters. Just use with caution.

[LeVzi]

Sometimes when I need a really impactful Bassline I will use it.

[noiseboyuk]

Tangential, but I've found Mastering The Mix's BASSROOM a great tool. It allows adjustment across 5 octave bands with reference to different genres.

Both Lo Air and Submarine also offer subharmonic generation for putting in frequencies that aren't there. I've only used the latter a little, but it seems very good. Lo Air is great, but I think best suited to sound design work more than musical.

I've never tried R-bass - must admit I always thought it was a variant of Maxx Bass which actually affects the upper frequency components, not the lower. Will check it out some time.

[noiseboyuk]

So I did try RBass. Essentially it's a simplified Maxx Bass, which I already have. If you are looking for something to add lower frequencies beyond what is there, it's not the thing to use. You can use it to turn up the original bass - whoop-di-doo - but all it does otherwise is add higher harmonics so the bass will hopefully cut through a little more on small speakers. Which is a good and useful thing, but not I think what the OP was after.

Submarine is great for really adding lower frequencies though. Seems very musical. The -2 octave control is usually overkill and might well do more harm than good, but -1 octave is great.

[Mathematics]

RennBass was awesome until I used MaxxBass. That was then replaced by BassMint from PA. Then that got replaced by RootOne from LeapWingAudio.

First off, what the OP is asking to do, RennBass is NOT a solution. What he needs is a dedicated Subharmonic generator that creates harmonics below the fundamental, like LoAir, Submarine, SubSynth, or RootOne.

[kPere]

RennBass was awesome until I used MaxxBass. That was then replaced by BassMint from PA. Then that got replaced by RootOne from LeapWingAudio.

Doest BassMint actually does similar thing to Rbass?

[Mathematics]

Yes, but RennBass has no harmonics shaping. You could side-chain RB, apply an EQ after it, then mix it back in. I understand that BassMint is not a $29 plugin but if you run the demo and test it out...you might like it better.

[simon.a.billington]

Periodically. I usually have pretty full sounding bass lines. Periodically it can come in handy, as can a tiny amount of Submarine. It's the kicks that can usually benefit more, in my case, so they can compete with the bass a lit better.

You have to be careful though, if its already sounding full you're often better of cutting more than adding.

[fese]

I am no expert in rock music, but I find it hard to believe that “there isn’t much to boost there”, I mean, the kick at least should have something below 80Hz if it isn’t really badly recorded, shouldn’t it? (And if really not, I’d use the old sinewave-with-a-sidechained-gate trick)
And also bass should have something between 40-80Hz, that’s the first octave. I like to shelve a bass at 40Hz or a bell at around 80 and usually have to be careful that I don’t have too much low end

I’ve occasionally tried bx_subsynth for some lower harmonic generation, but rarely liked the result (the resonant hipass on that one can be useful, though)

[Ah_Dziz]

I use it now and again on tracks that need some higher harmonics added to them so that the fundamental frequencies can be turned down a bit. If a track is supposed to be bass heavy but the sounds aren't supporting that, I will use either rBass, MBassader, or loAir depending on the situation. I also will use a simple waveshaper into an eq in some situations.
If you don't have a significant amount of low end (especially on kick mics) from a multitrack recording of some drums, then there was something wrong with the mic setup and you will need to whip up some bass for yourself. Any simple subtractive synth can make this and then you can gate it from the transient of the kick track. If you want to get fancier you can use a sample or have the sample retrigger the phase of your synthetic sound. In most of my experience, the problem isn't that there is not enough super low end information, but too much and what is needed is some complimentary data in the few octaves above the very bottom.
Anyway rBass is a great tool for adding some presence to bass. It's also dirt cheap most of the time.

[MogwaiBoy]

I use ReFuse Lowender for subharmonic generation. Compared against bx_subsynth and Lo Air before purchasing (it's much better in my opinion). Lo Air is quite slow, good for LFE effects but don't go near your drums with it. Haven't tried Waves' Submarine... -2 octaves is complete overkill but the -1 might be OK... but, barf, it's WUP-protected

Also if I have a tonal instrument I want to dig lower into the subs, the cleanest most controllable way is just to double the fundamental with a pure sinewave or a dedicated bass synth patch. Like with a piano for example, if you want to add some real weight and low frequency drama, adding a subharmonic generator reproduces a lot of disharmonic rumble and junk.... but a low level sinewave can be just the ticket to fill in the depth.