A bass effect that blends a focused layer of harmonics into the low end, in the range that small speakers can actually play. It includes a small-speaker audition and a harmonics solo, so you can hear exactly what it adds.
The idea
A phone or laptop speaker reproduces little of a deep bass note. Bass Presence Lab takes the low part of the signal, saturates it to create harmonics, keeps the upper-bass and lower-midrange band of the result, and blends that layer under the untouched dry bass.
Controls
- Focus, 80 to 300 Hz, sets how much of the low end feeds the harmonic layer. Low settings use only the sub fundamental; higher settings let more of the bass's own upper partials in, which turns grittier.
- Drive sets how hard that layer is saturated.
- Presence sets how loud the added layer is against the dry bass.
- Output, −18 to 0 dB, is the final level.
- Listen switches between Full, Small speaker, a band-limited view that removes the deep lows and the top, and Harmonics, which solos the added layer.
- Bypass enhancement removes the added layer while keeping Output and Listen as they are, for a fair before and after.
Getting started
The panel offers three built-in phrases: a pure bass phrase, a sub-bass groove and a plucked bass phrase. Start with the pure phrase and Audible upper bass, then compare Full and Small speaker, or switch to Harmonics to hear the added layer alone. Sub bass translation suits 808s and sine subs; Gritty synth bass adds a dense growl to bright synth bass.
The added layer still contains some of the fundamental, so Harmonics is not a pure distortion residual. Small speaker is a filtered comparison, not a model of a particular device: switch back to Full before exporting unless you want that sound. There is no limiter or automatic level matching, so leave headroom when Drive and Presence are both high.
