Compression on Sub basses

Guys can you help me with this? I have a very rudimentary compression fx in Beatmaker 2 on the Ipad but want to know what settings are key to getting a bass to sound nice and beefy and even leveled using a compressor. Thanks.

There are barely any dynamics with sub basses so comp will not do anything unless you want to use it as a sidechained effect.

It depends how much movement there is in the sub bass.  If it goes from low to significantly lower, that can cause some problematic low-end spikes, in which case compression may be useful in keeping it contained.  Though multiband compression where you can set the threshold for isolated frequecies are better for this.  If you can find a decent multiband compressor, that may help achieve what you're going for.

  On 10/23/2017 at 11:02 PM, Chesney said:

There are barely any dynamics with sub basses so comp will not do anything unless you want to use it as a sidechained effect.

This man is correct

apart from distortion which can be a good thing

so for effect...like a noisey tail which the comp can bring up when that main sub is done

but id always bounce that so i had more control after

also subs might have some pitched effects on the beginning (say in trap music)....so dynamics arent always flatlining...

long subs can often do with slight level slopes after the initial blaow...leaving room for other stuff...

there are certainly tricks to be used (multiband compression, sidechain w/ compression or lfo)

but, sub-bass is really straight-forward. keep it centered and keep it relatively even. sub frequencies have an important influence on the energy of a song but, when you think of a "super fat crazy awesome" bass sound, you are more than likely thinking low-mids or mids. 

you can split out your bass sound into separate eq bands and process the low-mids - mids with some width and excitement but, keep the subs clean. fx outside of compression and eq are likely to muddy things without audible results in the mix.

as far as compressor settings go for subs, 0-12ms attack, 100ms release, 3:1-5:1 setting....don't try to rely too much on any prescribed setting. use your ears and study up on compression theory.