really struggling to make new kinds of basses

[titchbit]

Been in a serious slump since completing my last tune. Driving me crazy....!!!!!!!

I've come up with some nice basslines (like, the MIDI), but I feel like I've hit a brick wall in terms of actual bass patches. My standard bass patch is basically this, in either sylenth (mostly), massive (occasionally), or FM8 (recently):

sine wave
volume LFO
light distortion
lowpass filter
automate distortion amount, LFO rate, and filter cutoff

You can hear this formula in both tunes in my sig.

This is getting really old for me and I feel very restricted by not just the dubstep culture that hates midrange but my own personal taste in what a good bass should sound like. I don't want to make midrangey basses, but I don't know other good options besides sine wave to turn to in order to mix it up a little bit.


Here are some bass sounds that I would like to make. They don't sound like my formula. They sound like they've got some funky effects or other types of waves besides sines or something, I dunno. PLZ HAPL!!





(specifically the parts of shattered that are lighter and have a more "liquidy" feel and less of a dirty/gritty feel, like at 2:00)

Also, am I wrong in thinking that if two patches have, theoretically speaking, the exact same frequency distribution, they should sound exactly the same? Like, I recently learned that foldback distortion literally pushes down the top & bottom of a wave. So when I put fb distortion on my sine wave, I'm pretty much turning it into a square wave. If I, again, theoretically, use the right amount to turn it into a perfect square wave, it would have the exact same frequency distribution as an actual square wave right? Each harmonic should be just as strong (and in the same spot)?

If so, then how do you get different timbres for bass sounds when you have limited options at lower frequencies? I mean, you can't really use things like reverb, delay, etc to spice up your sound, so if two patches are occupying the same frequencies at the same volumes, how are they sounding different?

[GregoryTJ]

I will figure out these basses in the morning and get back to you, for now I would like to inform you about FB distortion. It folds the wave back on itself like so

To make a sine a square you would need clipping distortion and a lot of gain.

And yes if sounds are the same they are the same as that is basically what you were asking.

Also, with different timbres played at the same frequency, they are not occupying the same frequencies

I like sending a triangle through a waveshaper and setting the waveshaper how I want the wave to look, it is almost like drawing a waveform, you can get lots of unique timbres this way.

The timbres you have access to by playing low notes actually have more potential resolution than anywhere else in the spectrum above them.

[titchbit]

I will figure out these basses in the morning and get back to you

that would be nice

for now I would like to inform you about FB distortion. It folds the wave back on itself like so

To make a sine a square you would need clipping distortion and a lot of gain.

that was more of a rhetorical point to get to my actual question...

And yes if sounds are the same they are the same as that is basically what you were asking.

Also, with different timbres played at the same frequency, they are not occupying the same frequencies

.....aaaand this was my actual question. Thanks for clearing that up!

The timbres you have access to by playing low notes actually have more potential resolution than anywhere else in the spectrum above them.

interesting....

[GregoryTJ]

The last video, the bass at 2:00 seems like a triangle with a lowpass and maybe volume automation.
Also, some eqing on it to compensate for the lower harmonics being too loud and making it gritty/loud sounding.

[Mork-E]

I had the same problem in massive, when I switched to fm8 a couple of days ago my sound quality improved big time. And the weird part is I don't really use that much sines. I always have a subbass that is a sine but other than that its just experimenting.

Like in my latest tune:

Operator F - Formant 4
Operator C - Formant 4
modulator B - Soft Tristate
modulator D - Short Tristate
Operator A & B - Sine

Modulator B & D are assigned to Op F & C

after that I just play around with the enveloppe's, Effects and Pitch

Also try adding some modulated vibrato or tremolo to your basses. I was shocked by the results it gave

[R3b_Official]

I had the same problem in massive, when I switched to fm8 a couple of days ago my sound quality improved big time. And the weird part is I don't really use that much sines. I always have a subbass that is a sine but other than that its just experimenting.

Like in my latest tune:

Operator F - Formant 4
Operator C - Formant 4
modulator B - Soft Tristate
modulator D - Short Tristate
Operator A & B - Sine

Modulator B & D are assigned to Op F & C

after that I just play around with the enveloppe's, Effects and Pitch

Also try adding some modulated vibrato or tremolo to your basses. I was shocked by the results it gave

Dude big ups man , been trying forever to get this sound! Thought it was hopeless since badklatt and p0gman both use reason

I guess it can be done in fm8, could you explain a bit more on how you made the sound with the envelopes, and what the modulators are? Not sure quite what you ment by modulator B/D Short & Soft tristate.

The track is your sig is awesome also, very top notch stuff.

Ive been trying to get this sound all in massive with tons of long resampling chain and got some bad results. Havent tried in fm8 yet since im still a working on it and i use it for my growls at the moment.

This will literally make my week, its been a month of hours of working trying to get this nice bass and then you come in here like its child's play.

Thanks again m8
Also try adding some modulated vibrato or tremolo to your basses. I was shocked by the results it gave

[Mork-E]

Okay if you want the sound that i use in my sig here is the lay out on fm8

Send B,D and F directly to ur output.

Send A to B, C to D and E to F. Level for all 40

Send 30 from B to itself (so dragging the empty box just above B in the FM matrix)

To the same for D and F

Next pan D all the way to the left and F all the way to the right

Here are the osc settings:

A - ratio 0.7500 no offset sine
B - ratio 0.0625 no offset square
C - same as A
D - same as B
E - same as A
F - same as B

Link all the enveloppes to F

In the enveloppe F but temposync on and set the attack on 1/8 and the sustain should drop down in a nice curve

Then ur all set

Rootnote is C6

If you want to make them wobble faster just set the attack on the enveloppe to 1/16

Hope this helps

[Mork-E]

Oh yeah in effects add a reverb and play around with the settings. This will give the bass a more wonky feeling

[R3b_Official]

Okay if you want the sound that i use in my sig here is the lay out on fm8

Send B,D and F directly to ur output.

Send A to B, C to D and E to F. Level for all 40

Send 30 from B to itself (so dragging the empty box just above B in the FM matrix)

To the same for D and F

Next pan D all the way to the left and F all the way to the right

Here are the osc settings:

A - ratio 0.7500 no offset sine
B - ratio 0.0625 no offset square
C - same as A
D - same as B
E - same as A
F - same as B

Link all the enveloppes to F

In the enveloppe F but temposync on and set the attack on 1/8 and the sustain should drop down in a nice curve

Then ur all set

Rootnote is C6

If you want to make them wobble faster just set the attack on the enveloppe to 1/16

Hope this helps

Awesome man will try this out tomorrow. Ill do what you said and put my own twist on it. Resample and what not. Thanks for clearing it up, greatly appreciate it!

[R3b_Official]

Ok so i took your patch and this is what i got. The first couple hits was your patch and the rest was other junk i messed around with. Im getting there, but still not getting swing right.

Soundcloud

[titchbit]

how did this become a neurogrowl thread?

[GregoryTJ]

how did this become a neurogrowl thread?

Magik.

[R3b_Official]

how did this become a neurogrowl thread?

Never herd of that one before

[titchbit]

yo GregoryTJ - any thoughts on the rutten or the take back the scene basses? TBTS was probably made in reason cause that's Coki's DAW, but I'd like to make something like that in massive/fm8 or in a perfect world, Sylenth (Sylenth is my preferred synth for wobble because it's easier for me to automate the LFO rate).

also I was thinking rutten might have some amp envelope thing going on... not sure. what are your thoughts?