Create Great Sub Bass Lines using NI Massive

This video tutorial shares a few techniques for creating quick and easy Sub Basses using NI Massive inside a DAW!

In this tutorial, Youtube user SixDeanTutorials shares a simple way to create a Sub Bass line using automation from your main Bass line. By duplicating the Bass Synth and then modifying it slightly, you are able to create a Sub Bass that is tailor made to fit your track. If you plan on using Sub Bass, there are a couple of tricks the SixDeanTutorials shares that can be beneficial to your sound design practice.

Sub Bass is a particularly picky frequency when it comes to producing sound. When producing music or designing sounds, it is important to consider the audiences listening environment. All speakers handle frequencies different, but nowhere in the frequency spectrum is this so easily noticeable as in the Bass and Sub Bass range. This is because of the grand range of speakers one has to design audio for. The smaller the diaphragm of the speaker cone, the less it is capable of reproducing the low range due to it’s inability to move the desired amount of air. But on the other hand, larger diaphragm speakers require more power and a larger magnet to generate sound, and often they cannot move fast enough to reproduce higher frequencies. For these reasons, and a couple others we will not go into here, it is best to simplify the Sub Bass spectrum.

With Sub Bass it is important to cut out all the unnecessary parts and get straight to the point. This means creating a sound wave that is as simple for the speaker to reproduce as possible. With Sub Bass there is no point in having much effects, or any type of wave other than the basics (sine, square, triangle, sawtooth). This is because the majority of speakers cannot reproduce Sub Bass faithfully, and will lead to the mix not sounding right. You can witness this by simply listening to a song on a laptop, and then switching over and listening to the same song on larger speakers such as a home stereo (or car speakers, monitors, loudspeakers). You should be able to notice a change of certain frequencies, more often associated with the low end.