How to maximize your tracks production – Bass
The bass component of many popular music tracks is absolutely vital and should not just be an afterthought. As a producer, you should be aware of the many styles of music that rely on a solid bass sound. Here are a few tips that will help you create some fantastic bass for use in your music, especially if you develop sound patches for virtual instruments.
One very underused method of generating bass tones is to use wind tones and some lead synth patches. Using the lower registers of these instruments and sounds can produce a great bass sound that will lend itself well to many pop and urban styles of music. The result may sound a little raw, but with some processing (i.e. the use of low pass filters), this can be rectified and greatly improve the quality of your results. With a little practice you’ll have professional sounding results.
The use electric guitar patches (and even the acoustic varieties) can be extremely effective for use in the same application. The added advantage with this method is that even in the lower-mid regions, the sound is still plausible as a pure bass sound. Guitars generally have a very warm and welcoming presence that will help the bass sound have a nice presence in a full mix.
For realism it may be necessary to add some fret noise to bass sounds, especially if you are using a wind instrument such as the flute. This can be done organically by adding another track and tapping the side of a guitar near a microphone to the start of every bass note. This is a technique that is becoming more and more popular.
An element that must be avoided in a bass sound is reverb. If a track-wide reverb is used then it is possible to pass it over the bass line but only as long as it’s not heard but just adds some character. Bass frequencies do not sit well with reverb, and using more than a tiny bit will quickly muddy up the track.
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