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Subblaster

from Flesh by waxcide

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27

This week, we're learning about something I've touched on a bit in previous challenges, but never really explained: sub basses. Subs are used to emphasize the fundamental of a sound (in music pfffft) or to add low-end rumble to a sound (in like actually fun audio stuff). Two uses, two paragraphs:

For tonal sounds, there's basically two paths you can follow depending on what you want: filtering or distorting. Lowpass filtering a harmonically rich sound, like a square wave, down so the cutoff tracks the fundamental gives you a nice round, full bass to work with. Boost the resonance to emphasize the fundamental over the other harmonics. Saturating a sine or triangle, on the other hand, gives you a similarly round, full bass, but with the difference being emphasized even (2nd, more pleasing) or odd (3rd, harsher) harmonics, depending on the saturation used. Most distortions produce both even and odd harmonics, but if you've got a class B amplifier kicking around, you can make a very harsh odd harmonic distortion with enough gain.

For atonal sounds, a sub-bass is typically a low rumble. These are what shake the theatre in Marvel movies (or your seat in 4D seats) and give you a nice tingly feeling when you get orbital laser'd in CoD:AW. Easiest method is to lowpass pink or brown noise to below 20Hz (I prefer 5-10Hz). If your filter is more basic than a girl drinking a PSL wearing Uggs and black leggings browsing IG, you can usually modulate cutoff with a negative CV to push it lower. More advanced methods include detuned LFOs being FM'd and folded, wavetable LFOs, and detuned additive. It can become hard to mix audio with such signals, but that's why a lot of sound designers have SubPacs or similar to feel the bass more than listen for clipping due to low-end offsets.

I want you to destroy my new sub :) Have fun, and I'll have a new challenge next Friday!

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from Flesh, released January 4, 2023

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waxcide Wales, UK

music producer Thomas Wulfe a.k.a Waxcide and dj DNSK - both representing and releasing the material via Waxcide Collective, a new music collective for minds alike in techno, house, acid, etc

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