Plugin similar to the Waves MaxxBass?

[jresende]

I don't have skills in english language but I will try to explain.
I have one big project and will make a presentation to a major record company.
I will travel to another city and I can't take all my monitors.
The bass is very well recorded and sounds very good, but I will have only 2
small speaker and my Macbook to show the project to the executives.
The meeting will be in one hotel. I don't know what I will get there.
When I tried MaxxBass using the speakers I will be using, I can feel the bass.
I copied some info from Waves:
" MaxxBass® uses psycho-acoustics to calculate precise harmonics that are related to the fundamental tones of sound ".
That is the problem. I will be using the plugin inserted on the Bass Channel just for it.
Hard cash to get some money.
I will try the plugins suggested by newrigel and Armageddon. I have few days to decide.
Thanks guys. You are great!
See you

[Armageddon]

I don't have skills in english language but I will try to explain.
I have one big project and will make a presentation to a major record company.
I will travel to another city and I can't take all my monitors.
The bass is very well recorded and sounds very good, but I will have only 2
small speaker and my Macbook to show the project to the executives.
The meeting will be in one hotel. I don't know what I will get there.
When I tried MaxxBass using the speakers I will be using, I can feel the bass.
I copied some info from Waves:
" MaxxBass® uses psycho-acoustics to calculate precise harmonics that are related to the fundamental tones of sound ".
That is the problem. I will be using the plugin inserted on the Bass Channel just for it.
Hard cash to get some money.
I will try the plugins suggested by newrigel and Armageddon. I have few days to decide.
Thanks guys. You are great!
See you

What are you presenting in? iTunes? Before spending any money on plugs, hook up your small speakers to your MacBook, open iTunes, go to the first song on your album, highlight it and select "Get Info". Once the "Get Info" sub-window is open, select the "Options" tab at the top of the window. You'll now be in your "Options" sub-window. Now, select "Equalizer Preset". You'll now have a nice long list of equalizer presets, many of them optimized for bass enhancement and/or compensation for small speakers. You can cycle through all the presets until you find one that does the trick with your setup. You will have to do this for every song in your album list, but doing it this way could save you some money and streamline your presentation at the same time.

[newrigel]

I don't have skills in english language but I will try to explain.
I have one big project and will make a presentation to a major record company.
I will travel to another city and I can't take all my monitors.
The bass is very well recorded and sounds very good, but I will have only 2
small speaker and my Macbook to show the project to the executives.
The meeting will be in one hotel. I don't know what I will get there.
When I tried MaxxBass using the speakers I will be using, I can feel the bass.
I copied some info from Waves:
" MaxxBass® uses psycho-acoustics to calculate precise harmonics that are related to the fundamental tones of sound ".
That is the problem. I will be using the plugin inserted on the Bass Channel just for it.
Hard cash to get some money.
I will try the plugins suggested by newrigel and Armageddon. I have few days to decide.
Thanks guys. You are great!
See you

Well in that case my friend... yeah! But there is some thumping little monitors out there that are pretty portable and coloring your great mix with some psychoacoustic mojo is a hype and I'd just put the $$ into some speakers but you know what you want to do so...
There's some little helper plugs too for iTunes like this: iWOW
It works pretty good!

[Tritonemusic]

Here's some info from WAVES, FWIW:

Waves developed this technology to allow audio engineers to selectively add harmonics which significantly enhance the bass perception by the listener, and most importantly, beyond the range of the speaker's conventional frequency response.

Renaissance Bass takes the MaxxBass algorithm to greater effectiveness and simpler operation. The process has been refined and is even more effective than the original processor. In addition, a simplified user interface helps achieve top-quality sound with quick adjustment, whether in post, mixing mastering, or multimedia.

[Shooshie]

Yes, I'd forgotten about RenBass, which I also use. It's much simpler in interface, and produces at least as good results. Still, it's hard to go wrong with MaxxBass, and if you can get it in a bundle for a reasonable price, that's even a better deal.

shoosh

[Armageddon]

Yes, I'd forgotten about RenBass, which I also use. It's much simpler in interface, and produces at least as good results. Still, it's hard to go wrong with MaxxBass, and if you can get it in a bundle for a reasonable price, that's even a better deal.

I think the last version of Waves I owned was 4, and Renaissance Bass wasn't even around, yet. If it's like the other Renaissance plugs, though, it probably yields better results than its contemporary counterpart. I'm tweaker-shy and I've used Ren Compressor on a lot of tracks with a lot of tweaking; the WYSIWYG real-time controls are awesome.

[toodamnhip]

Jota, I just checked out MaxxBass and LoAir, and I really don't know which one to recommend. You might look into it a little further, or possibly call Waves. LoAir claims to do even more than MaxxBass, and yet it is only $100. MaxxBass is twice the price at $200.

I think MaxxBass is the real thing, though -- the same algorithms they use in their hardware units and technology licensing. That's what they say in their advertisements, but obviously they could be doing something differently for the plugin without telling us all about it. When I use it, it doesn't rock the room the way it does in a movie theater, but it does sound like a subwoofer. I guess I don't start out with any room-rocking bass to begin with. I just use it to bring out the low end of chamber music.

If you can demo Waves plugins, try them both. (and the others that people named here)

Shooshie

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on USING MaxiBass.

My advice is to use it lightly.
Even though I have used it on REAL records, I still listen to all opinions on usage as it is a touchy thing using this.
It can be OVER used so easily.
Every time I use it, I am afraid of over using it.
It starts to sound good and one can lose one's head about things.

[toodamnhip]

Yes, I'd forgotten about RenBass, which I also use. It's much simpler in interface, and produces at least as good results. Still, it's hard to go wrong with MaxxBass, and if you can get it in a bundle for a reasonable price, that's even a better deal.

shoosh

ren Bass is a bit more Frequency oriented, ie, you center the effect around a freq. and, within a certain range, it centers it's sound around that freq.

Max is more setting a freq below which all freqs are effected.
They are quite different actually.

[newrigel]

I just added one of these for the times I need a bit more bass sunfire

[waxman]

RBass is great. It's like a LA2A... 2 knobs and you just can find the sound easily. Izotope has used that concept to add to their plug. A simple slider that does plus - minus. Great concept...

[Shooshie]

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on USING MaxiBass.

My advice is to use it lightly.
Even though I have used it on REAL records, I still listen to all opinions on usage as it is a touchy thing using this.
It can be OVER used so easily.
Every time I use it, I am afraid of over using it.
It starts to sound good and one can lose one's head about things.

I think we're in agreement there. Bass is a Rorsach Test; people start hearing what they want to hear in it, and pretty soon they've got it cranked up so high that nothing can get through below about 500-1000Hz. But I've worked with clients who were the opposite extreme. One wanted a very special bass, so I did my trick with the MaxxBass plus a C4 processor, and had it on an aux parallel to the "real" bass. We could dial in as much as we wanted. He loved it, but then he became like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Well, Mr. Hyde, it seemed, had a bass phobia that brought out his teeth and claws. If he could hear the bass at all, it was too loud. So, we ended up negating all that nice bass and diminishing it to the point that it was virtually inaudible. He was sure it was "doing it's job."

The problem was that we had gone to play it on someone's K-Mart boombox, and it was so distorted that he thought the bass was doing that. No, they had some sort of "MegaBass" switch on that box that manufactured noise down in the bass range, and he didn't understand that. He thought we needed to rip out the bass. I couldn't talk him out of it, so it went to mastering and pressing that way, and when I hear that album to this day, cringe at the lack of bass.

So, bass is like anything else: if you have an open window, stick it in there. When the window starts getting crowded, pull it back. The difference being that you never want bass to assume the prominence of a solo instrument except for those times when it IS the solo instrument.

I've never cranked up MaxxBass to its highest settings. I usually find what I want just about the time that you start becoming aware of the warmth. It's like stepping into a cold shower, and you start turning up the hot water. Just at that moment when you feel the warmth wash over you, that's the right place. That's all I want from MaxxBass -- a little missing warmth.

Shooshie

[toodamnhip]

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on USING MaxiBass.

My advice is to use it lightly.
Even though I have used it on REAL records, I still listen to all opinions on usage as it is a touchy thing using this.
It can be OVER used so easily.
Every time I use it, I am afraid of over using it.
It starts to sound good and one can lose one's head about things.

I think we're in agreement there. Bass is a Rorsach Test; people start hearing what they want to hear in it, and pretty soon they've got it cranked up so high that nothing can get through below about 500-1000Hz. But I've worked with clients who were the opposite extreme. One wanted a very special bass, so I did my trick with the MaxxBass plus a C4 processor, and had it on an aux parallel to the "real" bass. We could dial in as much as we wanted. He loved it, but then he became like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Well, Mr. Hyde, it seemed, had a bass phobia that brought out his teeth and claws. If he could hear the bass at all, it was too loud. So, we ended up negating all that nice bass and diminishing it to the point that it was virtually inaudible. He was sure it was "doing it's job."

The problem was that we had gone to play it on someone's K-Mart boombox, and it was so distorted that he thought the bass was doing that. No, they had some sort of "MegaBass" switch on that box that manufactured noise down in the bass range, and he didn't understand that. He thought we needed to rip out the bass. I couldn't talk him out of it, so it went to mastering and pressing that way, and when I hear that album to this day, cringe at the lack of bass.

So, bass is like anything else: if you have an open window, stick it in there. When the window starts getting crowded, pull it back. The difference being that you never want bass to assume the prominence of a solo instrument except for those times when it IS the solo instrument.

I've never cranked up MaxxBass to its highest settings. I usually find what I want just about the time that you start becoming aware of the warmth. It's like stepping into a cold shower, and you start turning up the hot water. Just at that moment when you feel the warmth wash over you, that's the right place. That's all I want from MaxxBass -- a little missing warmth.

Shooshie

Well thanks Shoosh,
ya got me all warm and soapy now...lol...

By the way, I use those boom boxes a lot.
My studio has one right in front of my face. I have sooffit JBL/s-Adams, Auratones, KRK's, and a Sony Boom box.

And I set it extreme. If I can get a mix that has good bass but can;t be screwed up with the bass boost all the way up, I know I'm there.

I have found that it is slightly acceptable to have the tiniest "over-do" with the bass cranked on a boom box, but if the speaker is flapping around and re-b\doubling on itself, I tone it back

[Armageddon]

One thing I forgot to add in using MaxxBass: make sure to check the meters in your MaxxBass GUI, especially if you're using it on an individual track and not a full mix, after applying the plug. If you notice the clipping indicators going off, and they probably will, more often than not, pull the plug's output faders down until the output remains under 0 dB (Waves's numerical and graphic metering are awesome for this kind of monitoring). I say this because, if you apply MaxxBass to an individual track, you won't see your clipping indicators go off on your DAW's master output, and you certainly won't notice the problem in the context of an unmastered mix, but MaxxBass is pretty unforgiving when it comes to low-end clipping. I'm not sure if it's the added harmonics or the Q, but even in an unhyped mastering situation, where you're not really boosting the bass EQ, the compressed/limited signal picks up some truly ugly distortion coming from your MaxxBass'd instruments if they're clipping post-plug-in, even if that instrument track's mixer volume is low.

[wheever]

Airwindows makes some really interesting plugins that do things you can't find anywhere else. You have to get past the fact that the interfaces are just the generic Apple AU sliders, but after that you realize they are totally amazing!

Along the lines of this thread are two for bass: Bassdrive (http://www.airwindows.com/bassdrive.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;) and Basskit. (http://www.airwindows.com/basskit.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;)

Bassdrive is designed to make bass guitar sound absolutely incredibly thick and full of punch. I use it all the time and I've found nothing that I can afford that touches it. I haven't used basskit, but it has a whole subharmonic generation section. You should check it out and see if it does what you need.

These airwindows plugs are all really unique and do things you can't find anywhere else. Some of them are a little overpriced for a generic interface AU, but if you close your eyes you realize how cheap they really are.

My two other fave airwindows plugs are Leadvox and drumSlam. Leadvox especially does something I've never found another plug to do: cancel out the ugly resonances in a lead vocal track with just a couple of sliders. Including ugly head resonance!

(I have no affiliation with airwindows, I'm just passing this along. I'm actually a little hesitant to it, because I feel like they're my secret weapons! )

[newrigel]

Since I used Trilian there's no problem with the lower octaves. I think artificial bass is just that... Use great samples and you don't need to muddy up the sound with this. If the thump isn't there to begin with then maybe you try something else? I make sure I have more than needed... then I just cut. Easier to cut than add what isn't there to begin with.