The Official Growl Bass Thread

[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.

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

I get what your saying about the importance of a good patch, but the 90% from a synth thing can't be true.

Massive has some great filters and FX, but there is nothing wrong with running out a couple dry wavetables into a proper FX chain in your DAW.

exactly there's nothing wrong with relying on FX, i dont use massive anymore but used to make my sounds just within massive only.. and i constantly used massive for over 2 years. so the 90% from a synth can be true but it doesnt have to be that way AT ALL.
i feel im able to achieve way better results with long chains on basic waveforms, every1 is different but you'll honestly have more flexibility using your DAW for more complex things.
trust me on this i didn't just start working with audio yesterday iv actually been doing this for a very long time.
there's no right or wrong answers its the end result that counts.

[Augment]

It's art, no rules apply

[Crysist]

It's art, no rules apply

^^^

Generally, to get a "good" sound like the pros, you will need more distortion, phase, 2 to 3 instances of the synth for different parts of the sound, frequency splitting HEAPS of eq which in my tracks, is at least one or two extra filters alone, per sound.

[J to the Steez]

Don't know if its been said but...

-Granular synthesis has the potential to create some awesome and unique growls... I really like to use Camel Alchemy for this.
-Also, Reason's Malstrom which uses a slightly different form of synthesis called graintable synthesis yields some unique results. (ex: Koan Sound).

[Crysist]

Don't know if its been said but...

-Granular synthesis has the potential to create some awesome and unique growls... I really like to use Camel Alchemy for this.
-Also, Reason's Malstrom which uses a slightly different form of synthesis called graintable synthesis yields some unique results. (ex: Koan Sound).

Good point.
Check my sig it's literally full of granular. The growls too

[J to the Steez]

Crysist,

-Dare is an awesome track... very heavy... i like it a lot...
-If you don't mind me asking, which granular synth do you use?

[Sure_Fire]

If you listen to Scatta you can hear some obvious granular synthesis, not just in the growls but in the higher synths also. Imma do some resampling in fruity granulizer I think. See how I go.

[Crysist]

Crysist,

-Dare is an awesome track... very heavy... i like it a lot...
-If you don't mind me asking, which granular synth do you use?

Me personally, I mainly use s-layer in reaktor but that is as they say, a happy accident generator. In my growls I have used a sample of water going down a drain to give it some grit but it's really subtle.
Another one is fruity loops granulizer. I really like this even if you don't use it for granular, it's a sampler that doesn't speed up or slow down the sample depending on the note you play.
If you can be bothered, dl s-layer, but don't try to just randomize everything like ppl on the net say. If you sit down and work it's functions out properly, you have extremely good control over your samples, and can get really crazy with them

[sketchyderek]

Alchemy is killer for growls/granular synthesis.

Resampled through it to make this:
Soundcloud

[J to the Steez]

Alchemy is killer for growls/granular synthesis.

Resampled through it to make this:
Soundcloud

Nice track there man. ... Alchemy has soooo much potential... I REALLY dig the morphing capabilities.

[sketchyderek]

I love alchemy, but they need to put a better band reject on it... the notch filter has too narrow of a Q, which is why I generally go to massive to make the original growl sound, then sample it through alchemy using its granular synthesis...

[traktion]

Just spent the past hour going through these project files, very educational! I have to say this is the most helpful post i've seen, thanks! Really interesting to see how you went about making those sounds, and they're pretty spot on too.

Just a couple of questions - what was your process when you went about to make these sounds? Like in FM8, i've spent countless hours playing with it, but it seems almost as if there's no way of telling what sound i'll end up with. Yet in your patch, you have all of the operators modulating each other, how did you know to go about it that way?

Second question, where did you learn these skills? Any resources that you can recommend?

Thanks again, its nice when people share information like this, especially as these sounds have had many people stumped. Dubspot did a vid a while back and didn't even come close, yet when i look at it all laid out in Ableton it looks fairly straightforward. Awesome post.

With FM8 it was literally random experimentation until I got the best sounding growl I could. I then applied distortion and a vowel filter afterwards because it seemed like the obvious thing to do.
With the KTN bass I just opened up modern talking and moved stuff around until I got to the right vowel.
After using synths for long enough it becomes instinct when working out what to do.
In terms of where I learnt my skills, its mosty just playing around in the synth until you work out exactly what everything does. Youtube tutorials help you learn a lot aswell.

[mromgwtf]

Soundcloud

just skrillzorz man

[Augment]

Soundcloud

just skrillzorz man

Needed change?

[Coolschmid]

Soundcloud

just skrillzorz man

Needed change?

yep

[drake89]

Soundcloud

just skrillzorz man

damn son where'd you find this? lol seriously did you make that? if so how long did you spend on it and what did you use?

[mthrfnk]

Soundcloud

just skrillzorz man

Needed change?

yep

Quite cool, any tips? Seems to be a lot of background noise?

[shim]

HEY GUYS!!!

me and my friend just released our first album and its covered in growls.

if your feeling generous please buy it and support our broke asses (http://bit.ly/W72I7P)

its also available for stream here (http://soundcloud.com/willdabeats/sets/ ... on-system/) and since your all lazy here are the embedded ones.

Soundcloud
Soundcloud
Soundcloud
Soundcloud
Soundcloud
Soundcloud
Soundcloud
Soundcloud

would be happy to help with any sound in there. just listen and enjoy.

[Sinergy]

I think he sampled it?

I didn't sample it, i made the screech in massive.

Here's basically what i did with the growl sounds:
SKRILLEX
I made a patch in FM8 which consisted of sine waves and simple waves like that. I modulated the amp of the frequency modulator to create a 'opening and closing mouth'. I assigned the mod wheel to this.
I then put it through ohmicide for some extra dirt.
Next I put it through a WOW filter in vowel mode on band reject. This was like the 'shape of the mouth'
I would modulate the mod wheel and WOW filter cutoff in a similar fashion to get it to growl.

SKRILLEX (Screech)
This was a patch in massive that uses saw waves in formant mode. I changed the pitch envelope of the formant to give it an interesting attack. Then I detuned the fuck out of it. Added a little dimension expander & chorus.

KILL THE NOISE
It's just a patch in massive that uses modern talking. Instead of spectrum mode I used pitch +/- mode or something like that. I modulated Wt.position and intensity appropriately to get the right vowel.

Obviosuly I've decribed it really simply but that was the process. I might make a video tutorial to go into further detail on what I did.

I know this is somewhat old but I still can't seem to get the screech right, mine sound so thin and formant-y, it feels like it's missing the main basis of the sound. I have the movement down, but I can't get that juicy midrange screamy part of it. Any tips? I followed each direction.

[mromgwtf]

But lol seriously
I didn't make it, it's a skrillex' stem.
I'm just suprised about the amount of background noise in his growls.
If you have good ears you can hear some kind of really short loop of water pouring.