Logic Sine Wave Help

[JuiceGodBeats]

Is anyone familiar with the best way to use a sine wave with a kick in Logic Pro?

I have been producing for a two months, and I am getting to a point where I have a sound in mind and am not always able to create it. I am very influenced by the production of Lex Luger, and would definitely like to emulate some of his hard hitting basslines in my own music. I have a ton of great samples I have collected from different places on the internet. I do not feel that my drum library is limiting me from making the sounds I desire. Here are a few examples of the sound I am looking for.

Tyga - Orgasm [#BitchImTheShit] - YouTube

French Montana, Juicy J & Project Pat - Is You Kidding Me [Cocaine Mafia Mixtape][New 2011] - YouTube

Juicy J- Drugged Out (prod.by Lex Luger & Juicy J) - YouTube

From the information I have gathered from the rap & hip hop engineering production forum, it seems as though combining a sine wave with a punchy kick is the recipe for creating the bass I desire. I use compression, eq, distortion, and limiter on my kicks now, but I have yet to truly make a bass sound I have been 100% satisfied with.

I do not have any synths. Just an Akai Professional MPK Mini, Logic Pro, and Macbook Pro.

Any advice on what I need to do?

Thanks

[Tnevz]

You can use the exs24 default patch for a basic sine wave. Also the es1, es2 or efm basic synths can work well for this too. Actually some of these can work better because you can add different oscillators, like a triangle wave, to accentuate some of the bass with harmonics.
You'll just need a good monitoring environment, it's paramount. Also using slight distortion on the bass can help or use waves maxxbass or rbass.

Even if someone could tell you exactly how to make a Luger sub patch there's no substitution for experimentation and learning on your own.

I personally like rob pappens subboom bass for bass.
But the stock Logic synths can and do work well. Cut 20hz and below on your master or your bass track/buss.
Might wanna high pass your kick to about 50-60 so it's not interfering with the subbass.

[Tnevz]

To reinforce the importance of a good monitoring environment. I've been in studios, pretty nice ones, that really didn't have nice referencing for bass. You need 8" speakers/monitors or bigger and make sure they go down to at least 40hz. Also sometimes good headphones can make it alot easier to mix and monitor bass.
Always check on multiple sound sources and realize that the real low frequencies may not come thru very well if at all on small speakers.
In this case decisions have to be made as to whether to layer, go an octave up on the bass, let the kick fill the lo lows, or just let it be.
This is something a good hiphop mix engineer should help you with.

[damien907]

the technique your referring to is side chaining, and in your case, someone would usually take a sine tone generator and pitch it until its at sub levels, and side chain a gate to that, then whenever a kick goes above the threshold of the gate it would open up the sine wave generator to give you kick some extra oomph.

i cant remember exactly how to explain it step by step, or where exactly the gate goes in the signal chain, but if you look up sidechain in logic on youtube you can probably find some examples.

people also use this technique to "duck" background tracks over vocals, so, when a vocalist comes in (usually for a commercial or radio station) the music gets softer, and when he/she quits talking, the music loudens back up. so look for ducking also on youtube, its pretty much the same thing, just with different sources.

you can also sidechain your kick drum to your bass so when your kick hits, it ducks the bass so the frequencies dont collide as much.

read it up and try it out.

[bigyo]

Great advice from all the guys above... i'll add a little something.... try adding Logic's Bit Crusher to the bass track,,it adds a little spice

[JoRillo]

Originally Posted by bigyo

Great advice from all the guys above... i'll add a little something.... try adding Logic's Bit Crusher to the bass track,,it adds a little spice

Overdrive (usually cranked to 20k with 75% of the drive meter pushed) is usually my drug of choice.

[JuiceGodBeats]

Thanks for the input everyone. I appreciate it. All of the advice helped.

Do you guys have a preference for what type of kick you use?

[JoRillo]

Originally Posted by JuiceGodBeats

Do you guys have a preference for what type of kick you use?

All of um. lol

[KT1]

Side chain gating a sub on a kick is nice for that sub bottom as long as you dont have an alternative sub bass or if you even want it. The secret with Sine wave manipulation above and beyond how you trigger it is the choice of its harmonic content.

Do you want a plain sine? All good leave it alone.

Do you want harmonic content? then distort it.

Someone mentioned bit crushing - very different effect. Not really mesed with it on sine waves - but i would assume it would simply give the impression of standard down sampling - not sure what value that would have if it has no harmonic content.

Bless