How to Add Sub Bass with the Submarine Plugin

May 13, 2019 | 105,079 Views

Submarine is a two-octave subharmonic generator that lets you add deep subs to your tracks in seconds, to make sure they hit hard with a massive low end on large sound systems. Watch this tutorial to learn how to use Submarine on your kicks, basslines and entire drum loops.

  • 0:00 Introduction
  • 0:12 A/B – Kick drum
  • 0:32 A/B – Bassline
  • 0:49 A/B – Hip Hop drum loop
  • 1:03 A/B – House drum loop
  • 1:18 Knob tour
  • 4:00 Submarine’s Organic ReSynthesis engine explained
  • 4:25 How to use Submarine on the kick
  • 5:29 How to use Submarine on a busy drum loop
  • 7:07 How to use Submarine on a bassline

Submarine is easy to use, and the interface is very intuitive. The two large sub generator knobs create sub harmonics that are -1 and -2 octaves below the frequency range that you selected.

By default, both generators are on when you open Submarine. Rotate these knobs to change their level and get a good balance. The switches above each generator turn the generators off and on. Using two generators isn't necessarily more effective than using just one. Turn each generator on and off, listen to the difference, and find the setting that best complements your source.

On the left of the plugin is your input meter. Make sure you leave some headroom for processing, as you don't want to overload the input with a sound that's coming from your DAW. Adding sub frequencies is likely to add energy to the output, so you can just adjust the Output gain to set the signal at an acceptable level and avoid any clipping.

On the bottom right, you have the Mix knob where you can control the output mix between the dry input signal and the wet sub signal. At the bottom middle section, you have the frequency range selector. It determines which frequencies of the input signal will be used for the sub generators to create that sub action. Use these pointers to select the frequency range you'd like to focus on. This is most easily done by first dialing up the Mix knob to 100% wet. That way you will hear only the subs you're generating.

It is important to accurately define the Min and Max settings. If your Max is set too low, the fundamental is going to be outside the range, and it won't be generating any subs. If the Max is set too high, then the range is going to add unwanted higher harmonic information, which can result in incoherent less focus subs. Lower Min settings send more low frequencies to the sub generators. Higher Min settings effectively limit the frequency of a generated.

Finally, on the top right we have got the effects section. Drive adds a small amount of harmonic distortion to the sub signal. These even harmonics help the generated sub stick to the original sound. Start at the default setting of 0 and slowly increase the Drive until you hear the subs get a little warmer and more glued to the other elements in your mix. We recommend you set the sub generators first, before you adjust the Drive, because the Drive is only going to affect the generated sub signal.

The Dynamics knob applies compression to the generated subs. It can control how short or how thumping and sustained the subs feel. The Dynamics control affects only the generated subs and not the original signal. The button below the Drive and Dynamics knobs lets you select between mono and stereo subs. This button is visible only when you use the plug-in on a stereo track.

Submarine is powered by waves innovative Organic ReSynthesis engine. In a nutshell, Organic ReSynthesis is a process that strips the signal down to its core elements (carrier, formant, pitch, envelope), processes them individually, and then reconstructs the signal to create new sub frequencies that retain the pitch and timing of the source you feed into Submarine. The result is deep sub harmonic content that is clean, musical and naturally blends to your source.

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