Baby Audio has announced the release of SubCulture, a bass enhancement plugin that tracks the pitch of incoming audio and locks its processing to each note, generating tuned subharmonics that stay in key with the source material.
Where many bass enhancers rely on static frequency-boosting or basic pitch-shifting, Baby Audio says, SubCulture is built around what the company is calling a “fully adaptive architecture”: its whole processing chain aligns to its pitch detection engine and its subharmonics are derived from the input signal, helping to avoid the frequency clashes and phase issues that can often arise with synthesized sub layers.
The plugin combines three individual bass enhancement engines: Sub Layer blends in a pitch-shifted version of the input signal at up to two octaves below or above the original, Root Boost is a pitch-tracking EQ band that can cut or boost by up to 18dB at the fundamental frequency of each incoming note, and Resonance is a parallel filter network inspired by analogue hardware that adds “warmth and resonant energy” at the tracked pitch.
SubCulture is also equipped with an analogue-modelled saturation section which offers five clipping types (Tube, Tape, Diode, Vintage and Crystal) and a multi-mode compressor for dynamic control. A basic three-band master EQ tweaks the sub, low and high content of the enhanced signal and is joined by a global high-pass filter and a mono control that sums low frequencies below a chosen point.
SubCulture is designed for monophonic sources like basslines and vocals, but the plugin’s MIDI mode lets you control the pitch of its engines manually, which Baby Audio recommends for polyphonic sources.
As well as bass enhancement, Baby Audio suggests a few alternative use cases for SubCulture: beefing up synths and guitars, thickening vocals with an extra sub-octave, or spicing up drum patterns with experimental self-oscillating effects.
The plugin comes with 177 presets from producers and sound designers including Craig Bauer, Dacota G and Eryck Bry.
In a press release for Baby Audio, mixing and mastering engineer Dacota G said: "Just when I thought my toolbox was set you came through with one of the most essential plugins. SubCulture is 1000% going on every single mix going forward.
"This is exactly what I’ve been missing. I almost want to go back and use it on some of the mixes where I wish I had something like this."
SubCulture is available now for macOS and Windows in VST/VST3/AU/AAX formats, priced at an introductory discount of $79 before it goes up to the full price of $129. There's also a free trial available if you want to give it a try.
