The Official Growl Bass Thread

[Maxxan]

What was this thread meant for: Discussing the creation and techniques of growl basses.

In this thread: Peoples posting how cool their growl is.

Don't forget coming to this very same realisation every 4 pages.

I think it's because everyone knows how to growl these days, there's no need to discuss it anymore. All the techniques are out in the open.

[cent4ur]

I think it's because everyone knows how to growl these days, there's no need to discuss it anymore. All the techniques are out in the open.

not really. last six pages i've read were about what synth is F Me using, what waveform etc... so people still don't know how to growl.
so please rename the thread to "official copy-that-growl-bass thread"

[Kit Fysto]

Ok fuck growls then. Lets discuss this laughing synth for a while. This triggers clown nightmares from my childhood

[Maxxan]

Ok fuck growls then. Lets discuss this laughing synth for a while. This triggers clown nightmares from my childhood

That was too fucking creepy, could only handle like four seconds. Not going to try to recreate that.

[mromgwtf]

Ok fuck growls then. Lets discuss this laughing synth for a while. This triggers clown nightmares from my childhood

Vocoder

[Kit Fysto]

Ok fuck growls then. Lets discuss this laughing synth for a while. This triggers clown nightmares from my childhood

Vocoder

I bet you could make that without vocoder. It's mostly about the pitch+vowel shape. Just thought it was interesting as far as creativity goes.

[mromgwtf]

Ok fuck growls then. Lets discuss this laughing synth for a while. This triggers clown nightmares from my childhood

Vocoder

I bet you could make that without vocoder. It's mostly about the pitch+vowel shape. Just thought it was interesting as far as creativity goes.

vowel shape


Vocoder

[enjarcher]

What was this thread meant for: Discussing the creation and techniques of growl basses.

In this thread: Peoples posting how cool their growl is.

Don't forget coming to this very same realisation every 4 pages.

I think it's because everyone knows how to growl these days, there's no need to discuss it anymore. All the techniques are out in the open.

That's not really true. There's some really useful information on synthesis here. Of course there are always going to be people that just copy other people and get nowhere, but copying other people can actually be a good start to getting your own sound. It's all about learning from the techniques.

[claudedefaren]

And im giving up on bro stuff as well as soundcloud. No personal offence but i just saw the light. Thanks.

huh? Why soundcloud? What do you mean

[Kit Fysto]

And im giving up on bro stuff as well as soundcloud. No personal offence but i just saw the light. Thanks.

huh? Why soundcloud? What do you mean

hosting audio is too bro

[somepony]

heres something i just did.. uh basically looped the drop gonna do something more interesting with this later maybe
Soundcloud

Awesome, mind if you tell us how u made it OWO I'll do anything.

[Sinergy]

Oi, never really got a straight answer. Everyone here said by growl lacked in the midrange. I've got one osc left unused in massive, anything I could quickly throw on there to remedy this? Or any other strategy to give it a good midrange bass foundation?

[shim]

im the only one here who still wants to talk growl theory... everyone else is like OMG I MADE THIS GROWL THATS KINDA GOOD HOW CAN I MAKE IT BETTER ??????

[Sinergy]

im the only one here who still wants to talk growl theory... everyone else is like OMG I MADE THIS GROWL THATS KINDA GOOD HOW CAN I MAKE IT BETTER ??????

Well, if one were to want to make said growl "better", using "growl theory", or getting tips/advice to make it "better" would that not be "growl theory", whatever made up producer terminology that might be?

[Kit Fysto]

Theory. Sample burp. Profit.

[mromgwtf]

There is no fucking growl theory, it's just synthesis. Do you think there is a fart theory or a crocodile taking a dump theory?

Just my thoughts, that aren't going well with my previous post.

[shim]

There is no fucking growl theory, it's just synthesis. Do you think there is a fart theory or a crocodile taking a dump theory?

Just my thoughts, that aren't going well with my previous post.

Post i made from page 53 that no one read. please read it i put a lot of thought into it haha

About Growling

OK, so i am not a scientist or a doctor in the least, so don't try to call me out on the physiology of the throat, but with my very basic knowledge of the human body i can tell you that all the tones that our voice can produce come from our vocal chords, and while the anatomy of the vocal chords are irrelevant their function is important when discussing voice synthesis. when air is pressed through the voice box it creates tones that when pushed through the throat, look similar to something like this:



also if you have Native Instruments's fm8, the formant waves are a good demonstration of voice synthesis.

but we have all heard these waveforms and they kinda suck. they sound nothing like a growl which is ultimately what this thread is about. so the difference between these briefly mentioned voice waves, and a growl, is when we growl we stress and put pressure on the throat and vocal chords making a relatively hard path for air to escape. this necessitates that the air build up, and then release, and this ultimately is where we will find growls, in these short, strained bursts of tone.

as an exercise, if you are are alone in your room, take your favorite skrillex growl bass line and thinking about the voice ideas mentioned above, try recreating it without straining your throat at all. sounds really fucking dumb, like you are basically trying to sing what should be growled. now try to recreate the sound as accurately as possible with your voice. notice how much strain this requires you to put on your throat and voice.

TL;DR Our vocal chords make tones, and when strained by our throat creates sharper bursts of tone, rather than the smooth tones we create when the throat is open (growling vs humming)

Skrillex Growl Basses

now upon listening to a lot of skrillex basses back to back, they are all very similar in timbre and i think its safe to assume for his main growl basses aside from SMANS (wtf was that shit for real???) are the same, or a very similar initial patch with different FX added on.

just for analysis i threw some back to back to prove this point
Soundcloud

we also know for a fact that skrillex made these basses including in his chain fm8 and ohmicide, although probably not exclusively. in an interview with DJ Times, he is quoted saying,

I use Native Instruments Massive, I use a lot of NI's FM8, actually, and even Operator. I've actually been using the Ableton Operator FM Synth just because Massive is great. Gear it towards a certain sound, whereas you can do so much with very simple sine waves. A lot of my signature monster bass sounds are FM8 and even Operator......

... There are always different strategies for different sounds. But basically, the whole idea is you have some waveform and the whole sonic spectrum is, depending on what frequencies are spiked and what frequencies are there or not there, will cause different formants. I've taken very simple waveforms that aren't wave-table waveforms, like a modern talking oscillator or whatever in that synth, and actually done similar things where I'm actually automating an EQ to actually create different vowels manually. So taking a simple sine wave in Operator, in FM8 and starting with that, you can get some different effects that you might not get in just automating the wave-table on the Massive thing, even though I like that as well.

so with this we can assume skrillex makes his growl basses starting with a sin wave and modulating it.

it is also interesting to examine the wave forms from an open skrillex growl that i found a long time ago from an early version of "Syndicate" or the second growl in the sound cloud link.


upon examining the waveforms i made a couple of observations and i encourage you all to also make your own and post what your see and how you try to recreate them, but what i saw is a series of "Nuggets" of sound emulating (probably by accident) pressure on the throat. the sound comes in bursts rather then a flat waveform. also i think its very important to notice that at the beginning of each burst of sound or "nuggets" as i always think about them is a little click of a high pitched noise which is where the growl gets its harshness and its illusion of being very mid heavy as everyone calls it. it simply accentuates the bursts of a more mid heavy frequency.


What a Growl Bass Requires

so this is completely subjective, but to me a growl bass requires only a couple things to growl and i encourage you all to try to make a bass or two like this to learn your synth better.

1. the growl needs a very low bass frequency in which the mid heavy frequencies are contained. what i mean by this is you should be aiming to make these sound "nuggets" or bursts of sound or a mid heavy frequency at a much lower frequency. this is a tough concept to put into words, but i like to think of it like the kick in this video


2. a click before this aforementioned sound nugget to emphasize the mid frequencies dependence on its fundamental low frequency. i achieve this with ohmicide at the end of my effects chain with a band of distortion only on the high end.

3. EQ modulation. really no rules apply hear, but for my i like to have one EQ controlling the boosted frequencies, and one EQ with a notch filter sweeping out frequencies to make more interesting vowels.

3.5 dont drench that shit with FX. try to get the best sound with as little as possible

4. dont tell anyone about fight club.

5. there are no rules

6. pleaase post results so we can learn from each other and finally crack this mystery of skrillex growl basses, as in my opinion it is the only growl bass that people are yet to accurately recreate.

[mromgwtf]

There is no fucking growl theory, it's just synthesis. Do you think there is a fart theory or a crocodile taking a dump theory?

Just my thoughts, that aren't going well with my previous post.

What a Growl Bass Requires

5. there are no rules

I sized down your post a bit

[shim]

There is no fucking growl theory, it's just synthesis. Do you think there is a fart theory or a crocodile taking a dump theory?

Just my thoughts, that aren't going well with my previous post.

What a Growl Bass Requires

5. there are no rules

I sized down your post a bit

thank you. you are very funny. i just wanted to put some more information out there.

[PhotonOfficial]

Thank you. you are very funny. i just wanted to put some more information out there.

While I appreciate the time and effort you put into that post, it surely must be a lot more simple than that. I mean, i doubt Skrillex would have researched all that to create his sound, he made it by accident (or so he says) while recreating a Noisia sound.