Bassnectar sound

[John_Dope]

Bassnectar has that breakbeat sound with those thick wobbles. Everything is so offbeat but right on cue. Anybody know what he uses? Discuss

[charles1]

You can use anything to make his sounds. I'm sure that bassnectar uses a large amount of various DAWs, VSTs, hardware, etc to make his music. Specifically, I do know that he has been known to use Ableton Live.

http://www.cosm.co.nz/index.php?option= ... Itemid=175

[blinx]

I love the Bassnectar sound, Lorin is the shiz. I am a basshead lol.

Omnitempo Music as he would call it, he once said his signature break beat/swing/trip hop drum beat was create late night in a hotel room when he tried something odd and it jsut worked for him. I have not found the "special sauce" entirely but i know swing is huge and getting of the the grid has something to do with it.

He also works in a very refined workflow. His "muscle beats" as he calls them are really the basis for any bassnectar track. You can even hear some of the same basic beats in most his tunes, just tweaked/layered for mood and taste of the new track. This is how he is able to just cranck tunes out. He doesnt re invent his wheel all the time.

Ableotn is his primary DAW and he uses 2 custom midi controllers based off the trigger finger onstage with 2 macbook pros ran into a H&A mixer (last time i checked). Ill.gates and him co created his specialized dj template for ableton. THis tempalte/controller setup along with how he groups his live tracks into playable/remixable segments allows for the spontaneous live show that is Bassnectar. Check out the ill.gates templates if you want some of the details explained.

I once emailed ill.gates asking for tips on the bnectar sound, he replied with "lorin uses alot of layers, keep layering stuff". When you listen to his tunes you can tell that he does layer ALOT, sometimes these layers play the same riffs others they are counterpoint/counter tempo.

I know he uses massive quite abit and i bet he has quite a plethora of VSTs on his studio pcs. He used to go to school at berkley and is on record saying he would lock himself in their studio and jsut dump synth sounds/lines to audio like a crazy person.

He uses vengeance samples, hes quoted at saying, every year he buys the new Vengenace pack and just replaces his samples that way, recreating the muscle beats and just updating the sound.

He writes each bassline with 1 finger and still holds that he does not have any "formal music theory trianing/knowledge". The kid obviously has an ear for this stuff lol but i belive he runs with less music theory than some.

You can hear his use of different LFO speeds for different layers of a bassline. 3/1 for the heavy slow swelling with a 1/8 1/16 womping along ontop of it with a different sound in the bassline groups.

I also noticed he sometimes writes in the 80-100 bpm hiphop range, of course he does the 140, 175 stuff too but so many times ive gone to mix in a bassnectar track and i have to do some tempo juggling to get the stuff to work in or out of a 140ish dubstep track.

LINKS
http://www.dubstepforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=262570
http://www.emusician.com/artists/0767/bassnectar/148981
http://www.mtvhive.com/2012/11/16/bassn ... interview/
http://www.nuvo.net/indianapolis/interv ... id=2436106
http://swaager.com/ultra-music-festival ... bassnectar
http://www.mixmag.net/music/mp3-blog/motw-bassnectar
http://www.urb.com/2009/11/02/bassnecta ... interview/
http://www.bassnectar.net/2012/06/pushi ... oundaries/

AMA
http://www.reddit.com/r/dubstep/comment ... ng_an_ama/

[John_Dope]

thanks for the info bro, he is one of my biggest inspirations on music

[Metaphor]

Hey,

Longtime friend & occasional collaborator of Lorin's here....

The answer you're seeking is that Lorin primarily uses Reason to write in, and occasionally uses Cubase to a lesser degree. He uses Ableton for His shows, and may make beats in it a bit more now, but that's more or less the way it's been for years and years. I know that he occasionally will hire out one of our friends to do some studio work & sound design for him (making kicks, replacing soft synths with hardware on occasion) etc... Now, It's been a minute since we've talked studio/music stuff, so things may have changed, but I doubt they would have changed that much. I'd wager that the bulk of his sound still comes out of reason.

The thing that is so inspiring to me about Lorin on a production level is that he learned Reason inside & out years ago (with version 1), and works the shit out of that program to get his sounds. He's always had a clear vision of what he wants to make, a strong work ethic, and is relentless about tweaking the sounds until they arrive where he wants them to be. And he's figured out a really efficient workflow that works well for him. Really, that's what makes him so successful. He just stays focused, works his ass off, and always has. When you listen to his albums, it's just the stock synths in Reason, Lots of .Rex files, Redrum (or Kong, or whatever). Really, he's never been one to tweak out on new gear and get all caught up on the latest & greatest. He knows how to make what he uses sound good.

[Ledger]

Hey,

Longtime friend & occasional collaborator of Lorin's here....

The answer you're seeking is that Lorin primarily uses Reason to write in, and occasionally uses Cubase to a lesser degree. He uses Ableton for His shows, and may make beats in it a bit more now, but that's more or less the way it's been for years and years. I know that he occasionally will hire out one of our friends to do some studio work & sound design for him (making kicks, replacing soft synths with hardware on occasion) etc... Now, It's been a minute since we've talked studio/music stuff, so things may have changed, but I doubt they would have changed that much. I'd wager that the bulk of his sound still comes out of reason.

The thing that is so inspiring to me about Lorin on a production level is that he learned Reason inside & out years ago (with version 1), and works the shit out of that program to get his sounds. He's always had a clear vision of what he wants to make, a strong work ethic, and is relentless about tweaking the sounds until they arrive where he wants them to be. And he's figured out a really efficient workflow that works well for him. Really, that's what makes him so successful. He just stays focused, works his ass off, and always has. When you listen to his albums, it's just the stock synths in Reason, Lots of .Rex files, Redrum (or Kong, or whatever). Really, he's never been one to tweak out on new gear and get all caught up on the latest & greatest. He knows how to make what he uses sound good.

I would use Reason (I used to since it was my first DAW other than FL), but I came to realize the synths that come out of it (w/o layering synth upon synth for hours) would come out really thin.

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

nah mate. reasons synths are too sick.

[Ledger]

To be honest, this thread made me go back to Reason. The only thing(s) I dislike about Reason, are the EQ isn't as efficient as I need it to be, it needs a stock multiband compressor, and there isn't just a flat out LFO rack (at least I don't think there is).

[mikeyp]

layers.

pure sine wive > big ass kick > lowpassed reese > midrange awesomeness > boppy little subtle melody > huge reverb, crashes, and white noise

the basics for his signature tracks. the man's my idol. i've gotten high and dissected his tracks so many times.

[mikeyp]

oops double post

[RmoniK]

To be honest, this thread made me go back to Reason. The only thing(s) I dislike about Reason, are the EQ isn't as efficient as I need it to be, it needs a stock multiband compressor, and there isn't just a flat out LFO rack (at least I don't think there is).

LFO rack?

also there's loads of multiband compressor preset combi's...

[Aphile]

To be honest, this thread made me go back to Reason. The only thing(s) I dislike about Reason, are the EQ isn't as efficient as I need it to be, it needs a stock multiband compressor, and there isn't just a flat out LFO rack (at least I don't think there is).

LFO rack?

also there's loads of multiband compressor preset combi's...

alert alert.

LFO RACK? automate your VCF you fucking clown

or maybe look harder at thor

[blinx]

Hey,

Longtime friend & occasional collaborator of Lorin's here....

The answer you're seeking is that Lorin primarily uses Reason to write in, and occasionally uses Cubase to a lesser degree. He uses Ableton for His shows, and may make beats in it a bit more now, but that's more or less the way it's been for years and years. I know that he occasionally will hire out one of our friends to do some studio work & sound design for him (making kicks, replacing soft synths with hardware on occasion) etc... Now, It's been a minute since we've talked studio/music stuff, so things may have changed, but I doubt they would have changed that much. I'd wager that the bulk of his sound still comes out of reason.

The thing that is so inspiring to me about Lorin on a production level is that he learned Reason inside & out years ago (with version 1), and works the shit out of that program to get his sounds. He's always had a clear vision of what he wants to make, a strong work ethic, and is relentless about tweaking the sounds until they arrive where he wants them to be. And he's figured out a really efficient workflow that works well for him. Really, that's what makes him so successful. He just stays focused, works his ass off, and always has. When you listen to his albums, it's just the stock synths in Reason, Lots of .Rex files, Redrum (or Kong, or whatever). Really, he's never been one to tweak out on new gear and get all caught up on the latest & greatest. He knows how to make what he uses sound good.

Do you produce under Metaphor?

I swear i read in an interview (maybe it was false lol or just a thing he was trying right then) but he moved out of reason for production.

Even here he states he used to use reason.
http://www.dontparty.co.za/music/interv ... interview/

What software do you use for your production?

Previously: Reason, Cubase, Sound Forge.
Currently: Ableton, Massive, Albino.

and here again
http://bassmusicblog.com/producer-qanda-bassnectar

What's the boring, workhorse plugin/piece of kit that you use all the time?

Oddly, I have lost most of my go-to techniques... i enjoyed using Reason for about 6 years, and then i felt like everything sounded "Reasony" so i am now using Ableton, and pretty open-format with it.

I wish i could be part of Bassnectar Labs lol id do synth work ALL DAY happily.

[Ledger]

To be honest, this thread made me go back to Reason. The only thing(s) I dislike about Reason, are the EQ isn't as efficient as I need it to be, it needs a stock multiband compressor, and there isn't just a flat out LFO rack (at least I don't think there is).

LFO rack?

also there's loads of multiband compressor preset combi's...

alert alert.

LFO RACK? automate your VCF you fucking clown

or maybe look harder at thor

I know there's presets of multiband comps, I just would rather have a dedicated rack for it as a combinator with tons of vocoders or mclass racks can take up a ton of room.

And, yes, I know there's an LFO on every synth/sampler in Reason, but I'm talking about a DEDICATED one. Idk, it just seems more real looking to me to have an LFO rack, not a random Thor placed as an LFO.

[RmoniK]

so basically both your problems with reason are aesthetic?

[big_lurch]

layers.

[mikeyp]

layers.

something wrong?

[Metaphor]

layers.

pure sine wive > big ass kick > lowpassed reese > midrange awesomeness > boppy little subtle melody > huge reverb, crashes, and white noise

the basics for his signature tracks. the man's my idol. i've gotten high and dissected his tracks so many times.

This is more or less correct (though to be fair, it's pretty true of almost EVERYBODY in the "bass music" game)... layering is really the way to go if you want a huge sound.

Do you produce under Metaphor?


I swear i read in an interview (maybe it was false lol or just a thing he was trying right then) but he moved out of reason for production.

Yes, I produce as :metaphor:

Apparently, things have changed. I stand corrected

Thing to remember with a producer who tours as much as Lo does is that he doesn't have time to dick around with new gear all the time. He needs things that are easy to learn, reliable, and get results quickly. In terms of "artist vs. addict" ( http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.php?t=749410 ), Lo would be an extreme form of the "Artist". Okay, enough of this from me. Threads like this make me feel dirty . Just wanted to clarify what I knew to help peeps who are stumped on how to get those sounds.

[blinx]

Dude i think his "muscle beats" idea is pretty genious and i know Dylan and him are all about efficiency in their workflows.

Thanks for coming in and talking truth with me. I have never meet Lorin, but my buddies did ride the elevator with him in Minneapolis at the hotel he was at for the night lol They rode it like twice, because he had his hair tucked back and they didnt know if it was him or not... funny story, slightly sad i was at the hilton and missed him, but alas the show was pretty sick for halloween.

Also +1 for not trying to yell at me for quoting his interviews as a coutner point to what you had mentioned about reason lol you got respect from me Metaphor.

[mikeyp]

layers.

pure sine wive > big ass kick > lowpassed reese > midrange awesomeness > boppy little subtle melody > huge reverb, crashes, and white noise

the basics for his signature tracks. the man's my idol. i've gotten high and dissected his tracks so many times.

This is more or less correct (though to be fair, it's pretty true of almost EVERYBODY in the "bass music" game)... layering is really the way to go if you want a huge sound.

yeah I know it's pretty general but it in his big "wall of sound" bangers where it's more of a straightforward sound rather than wobbly and groovy this is it. I realized after posting that that the op was talking about his wobbles and groove but still.