All About Sub Bass

According to Wikipedia ……

“Sub–bass sounds are the deep, low- register pitched pitches approximately below 60 Hz and extending downward to include the lowest frequency humans can hear, assumed at about 20 Hz … Sounds below sub–bass are called infrasound.”

Sub Bass is prevalent in modern styles of music, however, as I found out by trying to listen to a composition that contained sub bass on my car stereo system… not all speakers can handle it.

How low can your system go ? Find out with this on-line sub woofer test.

It is interesting to note that a piano can go down to A1 (28Hz), a standard Bass Guitar can get down to E1 (41Hz), and a custom 5 string Bass is commonly tuned down to B1 (31Hz).

So if a person wanted to setup a sub bass collection for composing and recording purposes, here are the available notes. In theory C0 to D#0 are below the official range, but I am going to leave them in for now.

Here is an Interesting article on getting the most out of sub bass for your composition. I particularly like the idea of layering your sub bass by adding more audible tones above your bass frequencies. I think this would keep the character of the composition on sound systems that may not respond to sub bass, while having the sound for systems with more capabilities…. Worth some experimentation.

For Bandlab users, a quick and easy way to get lower bass tones is to add the SUB FILTER effect preset to bass line track. For a layering technique, duplicate your bass track, then apply the effect to the duplicated track and mix the effect track with the original bass track for the desired result.