Should you/How would you add movement/interest to your bass?

Once you make a bass sound thats big/warm/round, sounds good and your happy with it, should this part then stay solid? Is there any need to add interest to your main bass sound? Because I’m guessing applying effects will just make it sound weak. I mean things that would give it movement (not compression/EQ etc). I’m just wondering if this is the one thing you shouldn’t add interest to, or if anyone has any techniques for making it sound less stagnant without sacrificing how powerful it sounds

Depending on the type of bass, i would do different things. I sometimes add a little bit of reverb/delay, sometimes i add a similar bass over the top of it and take out the bottom end as that allows you to add more movement/effects without taking away from the low end impact

I suppose that’s like the parallel processing thing Phil done in one of the tut’s then, send it out to busses, filter out the low and process from there. So I think it’s pretty much a case of leaving the very low end untouched and experiment with the rest. I only ask because when I listen to Pro Producers, they really know what they are doing and it sounds like everything is moving in some way or another. Even the bass, but as you say it will just be a layered similar sounding bass, or a parallel processed one.

It all depends on what kind of music you’re making.

Low end should be kept centered. But you can easily route the top/mid part to something that wides it.

And as has been said before, layering is another great trick. I usually layer the bass. One low end for the rhythm and the support for the kick. The other one for supporting the melody.

But when layering you should really check out the spectrums and EQ what is needed and not needed.

you could automate the mid and high bass to a filter to give it some movement. if it’s a sub i would leave it and make sure that it flows through the chords nicely :slight_smile:

id say it depends on the genre

ive just done a techno track (soundcloud link in my sig;)) and used a kickdrum for the bass i started with a simple one note bass as an intro/outro bass then layered another slightly offset of the other to add more drive for the drops/when the track is in its busiest its only only a simple variation but i think it works



id deffo say it depends on the track imo:)