negative_zero Posted May 13, 2014 Share Posted May 13, 2014 Hey all. I've been making music for years but I still consider myself pretty amateur in the sense that I don't know too much about production, I just sort of tend to randomly move a few knobs around until I get something that sounds ok. I'm currently working on a soundtrack for a game that I'm developing, I think it is some of the best work I've ever done but... the bass definitely feels off to me: https://soundcloud.com/andrew-nee/sets/untitled-video-game-soundtrack Is it too low in the mix? It's tough for me to tell, to be honest, because A. I'm making this stuff on a system without much bass so I barely hear anything either way and B. Even when I work on it on a system with better bass and try to compare it to other music, I lose context very quickly. Also, it seems that when I pull it much higher it sound of turns the songs a bit muddy. Is that a frequency issue? I have no idea?! I'm sort of beating my head against a wall with the bass issue. I keep trying a variety of different VSTs and such and can't find anything that feels right. The one that I used on the songs above is at least close to the sound I want, just something simple and straightforward, but it still feels off. I know a lot of people say just record your own bass, but I sort of suck at guitar and I don't have the equipment (or money to buy it) to record right now anyway. I'm open to suggestions about everything else too... composition, my other instruments, you name it, but to be honest I have WAY too much to do on the game itself to keep spending so much time on the soundtrack, so I consider the soundtrack "almost done" at the moment. Just want to get it polished up a bit, and the bass is the main thing that sticks out as feeling "off" to me at the moment... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timaeus222 Posted May 16, 2014 Share Posted May 16, 2014 It's too low, but I think it sounds fine in context. Nothing's wrong, the bass volume is just low. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoSoup4you Posted May 22, 2014 Share Posted May 22, 2014 (edited) Two things: The volume of the bass is too low, and I'd personally be bothered by the lack of dynamics in its programming, since you do have it playing alt-picked sort of rhythms. If you want your bass more audible but still sitting well in the mix, compress the hell out of it and EQ out the frequencies that other things are using... Try starting with a scoop at 400hz or something. This is mostly just based off the first couple tracks... Meanwhile, I just got to #4 while typing this, and the bass sounds fine on that one. It's all context sensitive... Edited May 22, 2014 by NoSoup4you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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