Through note changes in the drop of a track what is the cause of the perceived difference in loudness and how is it fixed?? Is the sound selection not correct or is compression required to tame the lows and highs of the sound??
Choosing real good quality samples can fix the issue but using a Sub bass from a Synth seems to be more tricky for some reason. Curious on what works??
Heres a funny thing… for years i was trying to figure out the answer to this question. I tried all sorts of ways, Compression, Multiband compression… having individual notes on individual tracks etc.
Nothing worked particularly well. Until…
I got my room properly treated with giant bass traps and did a speaker calibration. Then suddenly the subs where even.
So if you are hearing the subs being uneven in with certain notes its most likely your listening environment rather than the sounds.
try listening in a few different places and take note of what notes are more prominent on different systems… If you still have one note thats sticking out you should be able to eq it out.
I just asked a question in the 2019 James Dymond tutorial about this.
I prefer using multi-samples for any basses that sit below 150-250hz. With samples its easier to use the sustain or hold envelope parameters to cut the bass down to a precise length at the same volume.
Depending on the samples, whether pitch shifted or multi-samples, the volumes between the notes may differ. The only way I’ve addressed this is using a sampler like Battery where I can gain-stage all of the notes the bassline will be playing to 0VU. They might have different peak volumes on a dbfs meter, but loudness wise they will sound at the same level.
The only trick is EQing or using a subfilter for a multi-note bassline. If using an EQ to boost, cut and rolloff…those settings will have to be specific for each note to stay at the same loudness. Which was the question I asked in the tutorial. Automation is too much of a hassle, and duplicating channels for different EQ/ different notes feels unnecessary. Maybe an auto gain might be a solution. I’ll see what the replies will be.
–
Additional TL;DR
When using a hold function on a sampler, this page has a helpful chart for knowing how many milliseconds a given note is at the projects tempo: Tuneform - Bold Your Music – Say if 140BPM, a 16th note would be 107ms exactly. I might set it at 104ms to have the right amount of space between the notes. – I prefer this to the sustain, because adjusting midi notes smaller than 16ths can be tricky without turning snap on and off.
Hey
Firstly, I am not a great musician by any means, but I have a lot of experience with playing around and I have always wondered why do all tutorials out there only show you how to EQ a bass, for instance, only when there is one note playing (e.g. trance rolling sub bass) and on that specific frequency, when in reality, if you change the sub to play with the chord progression those notes will change, and the frequencies you need to EQ will change as well? Have you found an answer about how to deal with this issue, bass changing notes EQ/volume?
Secondly, one tip I picked up, to make sure you have enough space between notes and see if they “bleed” into each other, is to use the LFO tool’s waveform (I picked this one up from MYR’s YT). Really cool trick, which can help you adjust the synth’s release/sustain to what you are looking for. Beside that, if you use it on the Master you can make the kick and sub work better together.
1 Like
Notes length and how they are spaced is definitely important when changing pitch notes in a bass line.
Trying not to interfere with the Kick or other low end sounds in your tracks ( so placement of the notes on the grid ) is a way to avoid problems as well.
Then keeping your bass to mono can help with phase issue and getting a more sturdy bass line.
Then Side Chain compression or using a volume envelope shaper ( LFO Tools, Duck, Trackspacer, Shaper Box to name a few of the most known plugins ) will help as well.
I know all these tips. They are in every YT tutorial. What annoys me though is the lack of depth, in those tutorials, for very nuanced tips. And this might be something that could be hidden in the courses on this website.
The first thing I would want to know is how to keep the bass consistent, when the notes change. Example, I was working on a SUB, for a progression, that was hitting notes between 55 - 65 Hz. After reading the above comment, I went on to do a bit more research and it seems the only way to make sure it is consistent, is to EQ every single different note ( or pattern) separately. Is there no other way to do it, though? An easier and smarter way?
And the second thing I found, while looking for an answer to the above issue, is that a steeper slope on a hi pass for a SUB (e.g. at 30-40 Hz) will change the phase on that BASS. No wonder many times some elements sound good and then they kind of get lost and the whole mix sounds muddy. And that’s one of the most repeated “advice” out there.
Bruh here wants me to throw with the greens.
Thanks for the link. Still contemplating whether to go subscription or download.
Are there any good courses on frequency masking (e.g. for layering leads/plucks for EDM, more for trance/progressive) that go in depth like the kick and bass one you gave me?
I want to be able to make an informed decision regarding the purchase options.
Well, keeping up with Protoculture ( who’s IMHO is a very knowledgeable producer and tutor ) you will find a lot of courses about Progressive Trance in which he’s going in depth about crafting this genre of music, and he’s usually going in depth with advanced technical tips in his courses.
You can use filter as well as keywords to refine your courses search from the All Courses Page.
You can’t go wrong with a monthly subscription to see if it worth it or not, it’s very affordable, you can cancel at any time from your account if you think it’s not for you and it gives you access to all online courses, there’s no difference for the resources you can access between a monthly or yearly plan 
Design your own Subs in Spire/Sylenth. I prefer Sylenth personally. I never seem to have any issues with consistency when I do this. Samples can work well also but designing them yourself is pretty straight forward and in my experience removes the issue. Hope this helps.
The Mixing Kick and Bass with Protoculture is awesome also. Take the time to sit down and practice what he teaches in the tutorial. Worth every minute.
1 Like
Spire/Sylenth??..You have spelt ANA 2 wrongly there!!
1 Like
Yep, had the same thoughts reading the post ! 
1 Like
I’m sure ANA 2 will do just fine
1 Like