The Cargo Cult’s new Subquake is a powerful tool, for shaping the bass in the content you create. In this article Damian Kearns explains what it is and how this plugin can sculpt your bottom end and get your speakers bouncing.

What Is Subquake?

The Cargo Cult’s Subquake is a creative software tool designed specifically to shape, enhance and design low frequency audio content. It supports sample rates from 44.1 kHz up to 192 kHz and is available in AAX, AU, VST3 and AudioSuite. It works inside the following channel widths and offers mono foldown from stereo upwards:

• Mono, Stereo, LCR, Quad

• 5.0, 5.1, 5.0.2, 5.1.2, 5.0.4, 5.1.4

• 7.0, 7.1, 7.0.2, 7.1.2, 7.0.4, 7.1.4, 7.0.6, 7.1.6 9.0.4, 9.1.4, 9.0.6, 9.1.6, ambi1 thru ambi7

Through its five modules Input, Noise, Tone 1, Tone 2 and Output- and various other controls, this plugin allows the user to mix, generate, trigger and sculpt bass content into the kinds of boom and rumble effects that might otherwise take several tools and a lot of time consuming experimentation to muster. Its user interface takes only a little time to master and to this end, The Cargo Cult has provided the 3 minute video above as a general introduction and the 11 minute video below as an in-depth walkthrough.

The Cargo Cult describes Subquake as:

“Subquake is a sub harmonic generator with applications in post-production sound mixing, sound design, and music. It can be used as a traditional “sub” processor, adding subtle or extreme low-end to sound FX in a mixing setting, as a creative tool for generating colourful new low frequency effects, or as a bass-extender for adding weight and tonal elements to kick drums.

The basic idea is that you feed it some signal and it generates fresh new bottom end. It can follow the amplitude shape of your input signal or trigger a specific shape using a user defined envelope. It responds to any input signal, including high frequencies.”

The Noise module is a generator or noise source and high pass and low pass filter set that can produce constantly varying bottom end. The noise filters here decide the frequency range for which noise reaches the output stage. There are three different slopes per filter. When Subquake is fed multichannel audio it creates de-correlated noise per output channel. The small buttons on the bottom right switch between Mono mode and Multi mode to allow the user the option of centering the noise or going wider.  

Beyond the high and low pass filters and noise, Subquake also supplies two distinct modules for tonal generation using different oscillator shapes: Sine, Square, Triangle and Sawtooth; shapes which can be fully automated to switch between each other over time for maximum flexibility inside your DAW. Through manipulation of the Input module’s gate and trigger functions it is possible to target elements within a complex source sound to add thump without muddying everything else.

How Do I Use It?

Even though I’ve been designing with it for a few weeks and have thoroughly read the manual, I still found the walkthrough video to be educational. The Cargo Cult has a way of explaining things from a software developer's point of view that really helps users like me understand how to make the most out of Subquake.

Armed with my beta version of the plugin, in the picture below, I began with one of Subquake’s presets, ‘PowerfulEnergyHum’. You can see I worked inside Soundminer using the DSP Rack, starting off with a slightly thin sounding lightning strike. Using the listen function (the little ear at the bottom right of Module 1) to hone my settings, I set the Input Module’s trigger and gate to help focus Subquake’s attention on the loudest parts of the sound. I also played around with the high and low pass filters in the Noise module until things started sounding organic. Then, I dialled in and sped up the sine wave generator in the Tone 1 module to modulate the rumble a little. In the Output Module, I pushed the low frequency content delay to crest nearly a second later than the original, peak limited the rumble to -2, opened up my output filters to 12 Hz and 500 Hz respectively and mixed wet and dry until I created a much heavier, more interesting lightning strike and thunder roll. The result is audio that looks only about 1dB louder than the original on my LKFS meter but comes off as more intense and dynamic, with a rumble that feels organically added, rather than digitally manipulated.

Pro Tip: The Output Module only applies to the layers Subquake generates, not the input signal.

For Soundminer V6 users, I can say I’ve tested Subquake in both VST3 and AU in the DSP Rack. The VST3 had a bit of an issue in V6 which has been addressed in V6.1 so make sure you’re on the latest version if you use VST3 in your Soundminer processing chains.

What About Using Subquake As A Real Time Plugin?

In my DAW, Subquake is fully automatable and this is where its full potential is harnessed. Not only that, all the parameters are there in my Avid Dock hardware so I can use a touchscreen or the Dock’s hardware to automate all of Subquake’s parameters. This visceral control is something that makes designing complex bass elements a lot more intuitive.

Using the same Roland Drum Machine loop from the video above, I also beefed up the sound simply by using one of Subquake’s user presets and tweaking it slightly. If I had wanted to refine further, there are enough tweaks and mods available inside this program to satisfy any discerning EDM creator looking for more bass in their music.

In this example, I managed to get my subwoofer pounding in about 2 seconds so Subquake can be quick to use or it can take some time, depending on the user’s needs and time constraints. The plugin’s potential for lower spectrum sound manipulation is fathomless.

What Do I Think?

Full disclosure: I own other software by The Cargo Cult (Matchbox, Envy 2, Slapper 2) so when Justin Webster invited me to join the final stage of the beta test for this product, I immediately signed on. I’m already a customer and experienced user so I was curious about this product. Looking at the incredibly talented, diverse group of experienced industry professionals assembled to test and refine Subquake, I saw there wasn’t just a desire to bring it into being: there was real need to do it and to get it right.

As sound creators, we didn’t have an all-in-one tool like Subquake before; certainly not something that can appeal to post audio and music makers alike. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed trying it out on my recent tv, web and music projects. From heartbeats to drumbeats to whooshes and impacts, I’ve been able to conjure some new sounds to add depth of character in places where I might have felt things were feeling a little one dimensional.

As I always say, check out the trial version; read the manual; watch the videos. In these times when we’re being bombarded with ads by dozens of companies essentially selling us knockoffs of each other’s products, it’s great to see something new and useful come out that will give our collective creativity a tectonic shift away from the same old sounds. My sense is this is a fantastic groundbreaking tool that in a very short period of time, will be making its presence felt everywhere.