FET COMPRESSION

Apart from the obvious notion of EQ’ing our new bass sound, it’s worth mentioning compression in this context. There are many compressors that will do a very fine job on a sound like this. In line with most bass sounds, a degree of compression will perform wonders to tame your sound and help it to sit against the drums in your track.

We’d also mention FET (Field Effect

Transistor) compressors; this relates to a style of now-vintage compressor which used transistors instead of valves. The most infamous of these is the hardware 1176, but you’ll find FET-based simulations available in many DAWs or for purchase as third-party plugins. They are particularly good for sounds such as this, as they have a sonic nature which promotes the bottom end. The 1176 also offers a snappy attack, making it great for catching the bite at the front of our sound, and reacting to it quickly.

We suggest backing off the attack on the compressor a bit, while also driving the compressor to yield its own overdrive. The more compression you apply to an incoming signal, the more colouration you are likely to hear. Plugins based on more modern non-FET compressors are often clean in sound, and may not provide the saturation you want, so do experiment with different compressor types.