The Official Growl Bass Thread

[shim]

Did you make those growls in your song with zebra 2?

thats what i use, but this can easily be done in any big name synth.

[mthrfnk]

Ok I don't wanna sound negative, but that track sounds disjointed, like there's energy but it needs to be more full on, also the seems to be a fair bit of aggresive treble. Technically it sounds good - especially the growls but sometimes they sound kind of out of place as if they don't flow with the track. I'm not pro and suck a growls but yeah... just my 2 cents... impressive track overall though

Also coming in here saying the thread is starting to suck is a bit harsh, some of the stuff posted over the past few pages sounds quite cool... just because people aren't posting pristine growls doesn't mean they aren't trying. Although admittedly you did post a lot of post a lot of good advice

first off your critique was bad, but thats off track. i wasnt posting it for an analysis just for an example of some stuff ive made so im not just some random person saying things. i have a little bit of synthesis knowledge.

i was just saying this thread isnt discussing growls as much as just posting them and looking for praise. it really has become a show off your growls thread. thats lame.

my only goal was to provide advice and i accomplished that, so pretend this this thumb is a middle finger

Heh ok... I thought you might take my post negatively... apologies for my "bad critique" like I said I'm not pro, I just pointed out some thoughts on the track.

[Kit Fysto]

Anyone who has FM8 should try using the termolo it comes with. It sounds nice on some growl sounds. Just thought I's throw that out there cause I started recently using it and was pretty happy with some of the results

[Coolschmid]

I am trying to find out how to add an "R" sound to the front of any yaas or waas to make them raas, like in that far too loud 600 years song posted earlier.

[shinra]

I am trying to find out how to add an "R" sound to the front of any yaas or waas to make them raas, like in that far too loud 600 years song posted earlier.

envelope on the pitch with a short delay and an internal filter on the amp

[Jim-E3]

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62153161/Growly.mp3

so I realize it's not perfect yet (definitely not), but I've been playing around with this technique for a while.

I'll tell everyone exactly how I did it, but I want some guesses first, cause I bet none of y'all will get it.

[mthrfnk]

Trying to get the growl at the end of this say "dance for me"

Any tips?

Soundcloud

[Sure_Fire]

Trying to get the growl at the end of this say "dance for me"

Any tips?

Soundcloud

You're using a vocoder yes?

I'd jus keep playing with it, try linking the moulating vocal to a separate track and run it dry (i.e. not through the vocoder), so you get a bit more of the vocal coming through. Most vocoders can do that internally anyway I think. Also play with the carrier, some carrier synths tend to drown out the actual modulator. I'd also look in to modulating some parameters of the carrier to emphise the vocal.

[Maxxan]

Trying to get the growl at the end of this say "dance for me"

Any tips?

Soundcloud

Yeah I've been experimenting with getting actual TALKING basses a lot and I've found a couple ways to do it. One really effective way that also sounds pretty good is to just layer the growl with the actual vocal, of course pitch it down a bit, add some distortion and then you need some aggressive EQ:ing to make it sounds less natural. Then you automate a sweeping boost in the EQ between maybe 100-400 Hz and try to mimick the accentuation of the vocal. Don't worry about the actual vowels and whatnot, just make sure it has the same phrasing if you get me, and it will usually sound pretty tight. You can also process the vocal as you would a growl and get some pretty decent results. First of pitch it down a bit, try using melodyne if you have it, set it to melodic and fuck with the formant settings till you get good tone, then send it through a vocoder with a few wide bands to make it more robotty, then distort the fuck out of it (use a lot of distortions in a chain with low settings or you'll get a fucking mess), maybe some flanger etc. Sometimes it comes out a bit harsh, if so, put a lowpass filter early in the chain so you just have to lows kinda phasing around. Then after that layer it back in with the original vocals, again maybe pitch it down and get a kind of robocopy thing going with the formants for the mid/top and just have the moving lows from the growl fx chain. Should sound pretty tight.

[Jim-E3]

Lol so since no one responded to it: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/62153161/Growly.mp3

For this I just chopped up some of my own vocals, vocoded, then ran it through a standard distortion chain. y'all know the drill.

I can post a dry if you guys want.

[Delicacy]

i use alot of growls in my tracks if you guys have the time have a listen and let me know if you like them http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=axxS0jaxy5I

[ItsSpire]

I managed to a kind off growling talking bass here, I'm sure i could modulate more things and get it sounding alot better. Im modulating the pitch and one wavetable in massive then im adding an EQ and modulating two bands in that. I then added a compressor. The only distortion is a parabolic shaper inside massive.

Soundcloud

[Crysist]

This is my side project I have just started up aimed at knife party and delta heavy style.
Lots of growls and goodness.
Will explain if people want
http://soundcloud.com/di-trak/lsd

[sunny_b_uk]

Trying to get the growl at the end of this say "dance for me"

Any tips?

Soundcloud

Yeah I've been experimenting with getting actual TALKING basses a lot and I've found a couple ways to do it. One really effective way that also sounds pretty good is to just layer the growl with the actual vocal, of course pitch it down a bit, add some distortion and then you need some aggressive EQ:ing to make it sounds less natural. Then you automate a sweeping boost in the EQ between maybe 100-400 Hz and try to mimick the accentuation of the vocal. Don't worry about the actual vowels and whatnot, just make sure it has the same phrasing if you get me, and it will usually sound pretty tight. You can also process the vocal as you would a growl and get some pretty decent results. First of pitch it down a bit, try using melodyne if you have it, set it to melodic and fuck with the formant settings till you get good tone, then send it through a vocoder with a few wide bands to make it more robotty, then distort the fuck out of it (use a lot of distortions in a chain with low settings or you'll get a fucking mess), maybe some flanger etc. Sometimes it comes out a bit harsh, if so, put a lowpass filter early in the chain so you just have to lows kinda phasing around. Then after that layer it back in with the original vocals, again maybe pitch it down and get a kind of robocopy thing going with the formants for the mid/top and just have the moving lows from the growl fx chain. Should sound pretty tight.

i usually process random vocals along with bass and add in metal hits/scrapes (or other sound recordings).
never thought of format shifting things though, i normally spend more time on distortion etc. you give some good tips.

[Maxxan]

Thanks man, glad I could be of help! I usually have some trouble maintaining the formants without getting too sharp a sound, so a combination of LP-filters and formant tweaking usually does the job for me. Usually though I'm too lazy to set up a separate fx chain for the vocals so I just run them through the same as my bass, so naturally I have too much distortion in the high mids and up. Never gotten any results good enough that I'd wanna use it for my main bassline though but maybe with some resampling it could be done, probably. It would be fun to layer it with a synth but way too tedious to set up the proper automation. I've been thinking about reversed vocoder carrier/modulators though, that might be cool with some tweaking. Think I'll try that out later actually.

[sunny_b_uk]

i use vocoders a lot on basses for character, not much for talking basses.
i dont really find the vocoder approach for growls that easy although vocodex is alright for that.
i always find using heavy distortion in the chain and automating the amount/dry & wet mix gives more vowel sounds (with a hint of EQ automation), particularly foldback distortion. seems to work better when doing this on more basic waveforms though.
i guess there is a lot of methods it just involves experimenting and tbh it usually does come down to layering etc to get a better sound.

[shinra]

think people are overthinking things, 90% of the sound at least should come from the synth. a bad patch with a lot of fx is still a bad patch, but a strong patch touched up with one or two effects sounds amazing.

[shim]

think people are overthinking things, 90% of the sound at least should come from the synth. a bad patch with a lot of fx is still a bad patch, but a strong patch touched up with one or two effects sounds amazing.

this is what ive been trying to say. please listen to this guy

[sunny_b_uk]

think people are overthinking things, 90% of the sound at least should come from the synth. a bad patch with a lot of fx is still a bad patch, but a strong patch touched up with one or two effects sounds amazing.

that is true, i used to use massive religiously for 2 years and mostly used to programme sounds then add eq and saturation not much else.
lately i rely on automating FX + using 3xosc and other basic synths since im trying to discover new sounds by making up unusual methods & chains.
it IS better using a good synth and getting good clean results (and much faster) i agree.
but iv been there before so i decide to rely on FX & im happy with where it has taken me, doing either gives different and pleasing results.
i find being complex works for me since i save a lot of templates and do things to not make it such a long process (for example i dont resample much, that process can go on for eternity)

[mromgwtf]

Soundcloud

Done in massive
#600 post

Here's Hi-Quality Version: https://www.dropbox.com/s/74f05qolpnqvq ... lololo.mp3

@edit
Lol, #600 post posted on 6:00 pm