{"id":1480,"date":"2013-05-02T20:51:56","date_gmt":"2013-05-02T20:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tcustomz.com\/blog\/?p=1480"},"modified":"2016-01-29T09:39:02","modified_gmt":"2016-01-29T09:39:02","slug":"low-end-theory-how-to-apply-lpf-to-bassline-for-a-sampled-hip-hop-beat-tutorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/low-end-theory-how-to-apply-lpf-to-bassline-for-a-sampled-hip-hop-beat-tutorial\/","title":{"rendered":"Low End Theory &#8211; How To Filter a Bass Line for a Sampled Hip Hop Beat Tutorial"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;ve had some requests come in recently via my <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/tcustomzdotcom\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube channel<\/a> to make a tutorial explaining the idea of <em>Low End Theory<\/em> &#8211; a technique that many sampled-based Hip Hop producers use to create their bass lines and one that&#8217;s been around since the birth of Hip Hop in the early 80s.<br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"400\" frameborder=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/pw-BSgd1KwU\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"http:\/\/tcustomz.com\/hip-hop-bass-sample-pack.html\" target=\"_blank\"><button class=\"btn btn-large btn-primary\" type=\"button\"><i class=\"icon-cloud-download\"><\/i> Download TCustomz Hip Hop BASS SAMPLE PACK &gt;&gt;<\/button><\/a><\/h3>\n<p>I used this technique in a lot of my earlier production &#8211; But I don&#8217;t use it as much in my more recent beats, and later I&#8217;ll discuss some pros and cons to using it.<\/p>\n<h3>What is Low End Theory?<\/h3>\n<p>The idea with Low End Theory is to extract the original bassline from the sample that you&#8217;re using, and then &#8220;tweak&#8221; it in such a way that it is more prominent in your beat.\u00a0 That way if you&#8217;re aren&#8217;t skilled at creating your own bass, this will allow you to &#8220;beef up&#8221; your low end without actually having to compose a bass line.<\/p>\n<h3>What Do I Need to Apply Low End Theory?<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li><em>Low-Pass Filter (LPF)<\/em> or Multiband EQ<\/li>\n<li>Basic <em>Compressor<\/em> (optional, only if needed)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Steps to Apply Low End Theory (as discussed in the video above)<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li>Duplicate your sample track.<\/li>\n<li>Apply a LPF or EQ to filter out the higher frequencies so you are left with the bass only.\u00a0 (Note: Unlike a filter, a multiband EQ will also enable you to emphasize certain lower frequencies if needed)<\/li>\n<li>Rename the track to something like &#8220;Bass&#8221; or &#8220;LPF&#8221; to let you know it is the filtered\/EQed track.<\/li>\n<li>Apply basic compression if the bass line has varied volumes. The compressor will &#8220;smash&#8221; down or &#8220;compress&#8221; the bass to give you a more uniform sound.<\/li>\n<li>Lastly, apply a high-pass filter (HPF) to the <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">original<\/span> sample track.\u00a0 This will <em>remove<\/em> the low frequencies from the main sample, and now all of the bass is in your newly-filtered track!\u00a0 Since your low end is now contained in a separate track, you can do any additional processing (if necessary) to the bass itself without affecting the original sample (adjust volume, distortion, etc).<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>Keep in mind&#8230;<\/h3>\n<p>There&#8217;s no exact science to applying this technique.\u00a0 Depending on the sample you are using and the bass that&#8217;s included in it, you can be somewhat limited.<\/p>\n<h3>Pros to using Low End Theory<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>It&#8217;s a relatively easy and straight forward technique to apply.\u00a0 I recommend trying some of the basic steps discussed above and experimenting with the overall processing on a trial and error basis.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Cons to using Low End Theory<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>It can sometimes &#8220;muddy&#8221; up the mid to low frequencies &#8211; and it may be difficult to get the clarity you are wanting for your overall mix.<\/li>\n<li>You are limited to whatever bass line is being used in the original sample.\u00a0 This is why I highly recommend you <a href=\"http:\/\/tcustomz.com\/blog\/tutorial-bass-line-tips-for-your-sampled-hip-hop-beats\/\" target=\"_blank\">learn how to compose your own bass lines.<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>In Summary<\/h3>\n<p>All in all, this is pretty much the concept behind Low End Theory &#8211;\u00a0 extracting the bassline from your sample, and then tweaking it to your liking.\u00a0 Hopefully this offers some insight.<\/p>\n<h4>\u00a0If you have any questions or have your own bass line tips to share, feel free to drop a COMMENT below.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve had some requests come in recently via my YouTube channel to make a tutorial explaining the idea of <em>Low End Theory<\/em> &#8211; a technique that many sampled-based Hip Hop producers use to create their bass lines and one that&#8217;s\u00a0[&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1502,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1159,1154],"tags":[273,13,271,174,17,128,412,270,127],"class_list":["post-1480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ableton-live-tutorials-2","category-producer-tips-tutorials","tag-ableton-live","tag-hip-hop-beats","tag-how-to","tag-production","tag-sampled-beats","tag-sampling","tag-step-by-step","tag-tips","tag-tutorial","post-1","odd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1480"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7728,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1480\/revisions\/7728"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcustomz.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}