Bassline - which note / frequency is the best? Is there a best?
- Author:
- SubConsciousMind
- Hits:
- 3048
Answer
Lets first have a look at the frequencies of the notes that are mostly used for bass.
D1 36.71 Hz
D#1 38.89 Hz
E1 41.20 Hz
F1 43.65 Hz
F#1 46.25 Hz
G1 49.00 Hz
G#1 51.91 Hz
A1 55.00 Hz
A#1 58.27 Hz
B1 61.74 Hz
C2 65.41 Hz
C#2 69.30 Hz
D2 73.42 Hz
D#2 77.78 Hz
E2 82.41 Hz
F2 87.31 Hz
F#2 92.50 Hz
G2 98.00 Hz
G#2 103.83 Hz
Depending on the bass sound / instrument the perception of those frequencies can vary. If you listen to the sine waves of those notes you may get a better idea which note range still is nice for a fat and vibrating bass.
I cut my bass bellow 45Hz with a very steep filter, since I realized that everything bellow 50Hz is only causing speakers (also PAs) to distort. I prefer a really low and full bass so I try not to go over 70Hz. So depending on your taste a reasonable range for bass could be F1-D2.
You have to realize that if you want to make a bassline on "E" you either have to go down to 41Hz or up to 82Hz, if you make your bass on E1 it means that on most speakers you will not hear the 41Hz of the bass but mainly the first harmonic which is 82Hz. Even subwoofers have trouble with 40Hz basslines, they need a lot of energy to transmit it and it's likely that the run into their limits. Also really big ones. It may sound fat at low volumes but if you turn the volume up it will overload the speaker and amp far sooner and therefore in many cases you end up with having a nice fat bassline but noone can listen to it really loud because it simply takes too much from the speakers.
On the other hand, if you make the bass on E2 - 82Hz - you will lack the vibrating lowend. You might get the low end by using a subharmonic bass enhancer that adds the 41Hz, or simply by adding an E1 sinewave bassline to it. But E really can be hard to get working for a bassline. It's possible, but more work then for example "A" or "F".
A trick that is being done very often to overcome that is to use a fat and low kick which is very long. Almost 3/4. So most of the deep and fat bass comes from the kick. the bassline then can be on any scale that fits the kick more or less. Full-On PsyTrance often has such bass. Really low and long kick that makes the WOOM and very audible bassline that is not creating a lot of the vibration and such. I don't like that and that's why my answer is of course only for my taste of bass. People with different preferences will have different opinions.