The Official Growl Bass Thread

[Eskimo]

So how did Skrillex (a guy that was making pretty meh sounding music before Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites) came up with one of the sickest sounds ever in the genre? (why talk about other growls? the rest all pretty much suck)
I mean the leap in sound production from My Name is Skrillex and Scary Monsters is huge.
You need to know what you are doing in FM8 to come up with that stuff, not just experimentation. If you were to aimlessly tweak parameters for years you wouldn't come up with shit because that stuff is clearly fine-tuned, specially the San Diego Vip one, it's just too clean sounding. How can he articulate these vowels without creating nasty resonances?
The SMANS one is heavily distorted sounding but still works. If I try to use Ohmicide or similar the sound signal goes to hell and starts sounding like a fuzzy electric guitar. Fuck this is unsettling. Ive been trying this for ages and im still not getting close. There is something that we are missing.

Illuminati.

[mromgwtf]

So how did Skrillex (a guy that was making pretty meh sounding music before Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites) came up with one of the sickest sounds ever in the genre? (why talk about other growls? the rest all pretty much suck)
I mean the leap in sound production from My Name is Skrillex and Scary Monsters is huge.
You need to know what you are doing in FM8 to come up with that stuff, not just experimentation. If you were to aimlessly tweak parameters for years you wouldn't come up with shit because that stuff is clearly fine-tuned, specially the San Diego Vip one, it's just too clean sounding. How can he articulate these vowels without creating nasty resonances?
The SMANS one is heavily distorted sounding but still works. If I try to use Ohmicide or similar the sound signal goes to hell and starts sounding like a fuzzy electric guitar. Fuck this is unsettling. Ive been trying this for ages and im still not getting close. There is something that we are missing.

Illuminati.

Nope, feed me/noisia ghost produced him. (maybe)

Well aren't you a tnuc. What's good and bad depends on the subject and the subjects opinion. You make it seem like you have the definite answer to a perfect growl and the way to get it, but the reality is that there is no set-in-stone way to a perfect growl from any startpoint. A vocoder can make a sound sound better, if not to you, to someone else.

I respect your opinion

[hookey]

Nope, feed me/noisia ghost produced him. (maybe)

I've heard that but it sounds a bit ridiculous to me. It's strange that he got a Noisia and Boys Noize collaboration straight on that release tho. How known was he prior Scary Monster release? (mau5trap signup). How many views their tracks on Youtube had or Souncloud or whatever he had back in the day? He never posted in any forum? (here or of similar nature). Most people post on forums, even Pendulum and Noisia used to post on doa, so thats what I find strange. You could think he worked on his own and never posted anything, but everyone at some point has to spam their music around to get noticed, so how did he go about this?

[hookey]

Not really about the growls but interesting nonetheless

Where is the full lecture?

[Fowles]

So how did Skrillex (a guy that was making pretty meh sounding music before Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites) came up with one of the sickest sounds ever in the genre? (why talk about other growls? the rest all pretty much suck)
I mean the leap in sound production from My Name is Skrillex and Scary Monsters is huge.
You need to know what you are doing in FM8 to come up with that stuff, not just experimentation. If you were to aimlessly tweak parameters for years you wouldn't come up with shit because that stuff is clearly fine-tuned, specially the San Diego Vip one, it's just too clean sounding. How can he articulate these vowels without creating nasty resonances?
The SMANS one is heavily distorted sounding but still works. If I try to use Ohmicide or similar the sound signal goes to hell and starts sounding like a fuzzy electric guitar. Fuck this is unsettling. Ive been trying this for ages and im still not getting close. There is something that we are missing.

bare noize probably showed him how to use FM8. Evil as satan was done right before SMANS, considering the VIP (scatta) is on the EP. I seriously think that skrillex's dubstep sound is heavily influenced by Bare Noize.

[AntidoteWasTaken]

For me, It seems I can just take a decent bass, slap a vocoder over it of me just making vowel-y bass sound with my mouth, and BAM and its 5x better

You meant 5x worse right?
All a vocoder will do, is it'll make your signal sound muddy as shit.
Never use a vocoder.

The rest you said is right.

Crude/Sonic/Scrap-yard/Carbon (Mostly digital wavetables + analog wavetables from the bottom) ----> Bend mode ----> Double notch filter ----> Bandreject filter ----> Sine shaper ----> Parabolic shaper ----> FX like chorus etc. ----> Done

Personally, if you use the vocoder to just add character, rather then it as the main sound, it almsot always produces good results for me.
To each his own I guess

[mthrfnk]

So how did Skrillex (a guy that was making pretty meh sounding music before Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites) came up with one of the sickest sounds ever in the genre? (why talk about other growls? the rest all pretty much suck)
I mean the leap in sound production from My Name is Skrillex and Scary Monsters is huge.

Jesus this gets rinsed a lot... there's a definite difference in the sound design (i.e. the basses) but the structure/content/microediting is pretty much the same, just more well rounded in SMANS thanks to proper mixing (with added sheen provided by mastering @ Masterpiece London, who aren't cheap )

My theories on how he did the basses?
1)He spent time with Noisia, who better to learn bass design from?
2)He worked with other artists in the genre whilst producing the album (see the ft. and remixers i.e. Bare Noize, 12th Planet etc. ) garnering tips along the way
3)He probably dedicated a shit ton of time to those tracks, at the time all he was doing was touring shitty DJ sets with his crew and by all accounts he's stupidly dedicated to getting shit done like he produces non-stop whilst travelling.

People always say that others like Feed Me and Noisia ghost produced shit, maybe they did but Feed Me was already released on mau5trap - why would he ghost produce a better EP for the label rather than just release it himself, and Noisia ghost producing? I highly doubt it tbh.

Someone mentioned he didn't post around the internet and stuff, well he did because "skrillex" was one of the names he used on message boards. He also used to have a shitty website him and his management used to use, I remember it having a big fuck off Paypal "please donate" button next to his orignal free EP. Also people always forget he was in a moderately successful band (for their genre) singing and playing before he did all the electro stuff, it's not like he's a fucking retard that just strolled up and made a record - he obviously could have had musical help/support from the outset.

Also someone asked how he met deadmau5/got signed etc... I think he knew Tommy Lee from his band days, and he intro'd him to deadmau5 who was like "omg your derpstep is better than all this boring 2stepderpstep, welcome to the family". The guys talented at what he does, has always had a massive team behind him and now has record labels behind him too... it's not surprising how he's become so widely known.

Sounds like I'm a Skrillex fanboy lmfao... I'm not, honest

Edit... also that fucking video man... Alvin fucking Risk sitting there, he's pisses me off - he always seems to be around Skrillex just living off his success, he's an okay producer at best, his last few songs I've heard have been pretty shit tbf and he looks like a tnuc.

[dotcurrency]

Alvin fucking Risk sitting there, he's pisses me off - he always seems to be around Skrillex just living off his success, he's an okay producer at best, his last few songs I've heard have been pretty shit tbf and he looks like a tnuc.

I agree with you so strongly I can't even express it any better way.

[Maxxan]

Alvin fucking Risk sitting there, he's pisses me off - he always seems to be around Skrillex just living off his success, he's an okay producer at best, his last few songs I've heard have been pretty shit tbf and he looks like a tnuc.
-tnuc-

I agree with you so strongly I can't even express it any better way.

well that one lazer sound he sometimes uses is pretty cool =PPpp

[mthrfnk]

Alvin fucking Risk sitting there, he's pisses me off - he always seems to be around Skrillex just living off his success, he's an okay producer at best, his last few songs I've heard have been pretty shit tbf and he looks like a tnuc.
-tnuc-

I agree with you so strongly I can't even express it any better way.

well that one lazer sound he sometimes uses is pretty cool =PPpp

Fuck man... I bought the re-release of the Prodigy's Fat of The Land album at the weekend to play in my car, I actually didn't realise it came with a remix EP - Alvin Risk's remix of Firestarter is okay... like just okay then I heard PEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPWEPEWE FDV XDBJGVB XNSV over bits, cried and crashed my car (not really but...) They stick out of the mix like you've added them in completely seperately.

Off topic: every remix on that CD aside from Noisia's is poor, don't buy it

[Maxxan]

Fuck man... I bought the re-release of the Prodigy's Fat of The Land album at the weekend to play in my car, I actually didn't realise it came with a remix EP - Alvin Risk's remix of Firestarter is okay... like just okay then I heard PEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPEWPWEPEWE FDV XDBJGVB XNSV over bits, cried and crashed my car (not really but...) They stick out of the mix like you've added them in completely seperately.

Off topic: every remix on that CD aside from Noisia's is poor, don't buy it

Hahaha, that'd be like the worst way to die. I guess they work better in some songs than others but it's kinda lame how his entire sound is basically just... Well, 'Pew'.

'I'mma Try it Out' is actually a guilty pleasure of mine though, the build up is dope and the lazers work so much better with the 140 half-step beat than it does in house/electro or whatever the shit it is that he does. I kinda like it.

Edit: Just listened to his remix of Make it Bun Them, kind of enjoying that one as well even though maybe I shouldn't. Gotta say he's a lot better working with Skrillex. Guess that confirms the dickriding thesis 100%, dude obviously can't do shit on his own.

[AntidoteWasTaken]

Sometimes I let my opinion on the producer cloud my opinion of their songs, which (in my opinion) just isn't right.
If someone makes a great song, I'll enjoy that song, regardless of who produced it, what they are like, or what they were doing at the time
But thats just me.
Anyways back to the main topic here, does anyone REALLY know how to use ohmnicide? I mean the general consensus is fuck with it until it sounds good
Any other good distortion plug-ins for basses?
Thanks

[mthrfnk]

Any other good distortion plug-ins for basses?

Izotope Trash.

Also @ Maxxan yeah I do like Imma Try Out, I think you;re right about the collabing thing... Skrillex makes the tracks good not AR.

[Augment]

Sometimes I let my opinion on the producer cloud my opinion of their songs, which (in my opinion) just isn't right.
If someone makes a great song, I'll enjoy that song, regardless of who produced it, what they are like, or what they were doing at the time
But thats just me.
Anyways back to the main topic here, does anyone REALLY know how to use ohmnicide? I mean the general consensus is fuck with it until it sounds good
Any other good distortion plug-ins for basses?
Thanks

This is the approach I've had to music the last years. Judge a song for what it is, not who made it or what genre it is. It's a shame most people will just write off f ex dubstep because they've heard 1 skrillex track, or maybe a mala track and didnt like it.

[hookey]

Any other good distortion plug-ins for basses?

Izotope Trash.

Also @ Maxxan yeah I do like Imma Try Out, I think you;re right about the collabing thing... Skrillex makes the tracks good not AR.

Whenever I try a plugin like that my bass sounds like a shitty electric guitar with all these cabinet sounding effects... and with Ohmicide the sound becomes like a fuzzy, bright guitar. Also I just can't seem to fit the bass in the mix (when I say bass I mean entire spectrum from 30hz to 400hz or so). It sucks too much headroom. I either have to cutoff to much the low end and it sounds too thin or need to notch on the midrange to make place for the other sounds but then it sounds too muddy.

[PillowFight]

Skrillex said he made the growls in SMANS on accident when trying to recreate a sound from noisia.

On topic, any sort of decent FM8 patch with any sort of decent ohmicide setting will get you the same sort of smans growl you're looking for as long as you EQ and apply other effects properly and take your time on it.

[Maxxan]

Sometimes I let my opinion on the producer cloud my opinion of their songs, which (in my opinion) just isn't right.
If someone makes a great song, I'll enjoy that song, regardless of who produced it, what they are like, or what they were doing at the time
But thats just me.
Anyways back to the main topic here, does anyone REALLY know how to use ohmnicide? I mean the general consensus is fuck with it until it sounds good
Any other good distortion plug-ins for basses?
Thanks

Yeah, I know it pretty well, know what most knobs do etc. There actually is a system to it. Generally you'll want to keep the gain pretty low on the mid bands or you'll fuck shit up, also the phat/sharp knob makes all the difference sometimes so be careful with that. Intensity can also make a lot of difference. The three knobs sitting kind of in a cluster on every band is actually just noise gate controls, took me a while to figure those out. Then there's a couple of parameters that affect the entire sound and not just each specific band and those I actually haven't figured out yet, I don't really use it for that extreme effect anyway so I don't feel like I need them.

Also, @ izotope thrash, the same thing happens to me most of the time. Sounds like I ran the synth through a shitty guitar cab so I never really bothered with it, Ohmicide's always done the trick for me. Sometimes I like Thrash on plucks or weird house synths or whatever though.

[mromgwtf]

I like it when he said that you can play a casual saw wave, put the trash vst on it, mess around and get some crazy noises.

Downloading trash right now, will play around with it.

[Augment]

I like it when he said that you can play a casual saw wave, put the trash vst on it, mess around and get some crazy noises.

Downloading trash right now, will play around with it.

Just fyi, think he was talking about the new trash when he said that

[hookey]

Skrillex said he made the growls in SMANS on accident when trying to recreate a sound from noisia.

On topic, any sort of decent FM8 patch with any sort of decent ohmicide setting will get you the same sort of smans growl you're looking for as long as you EQ and apply other effects properly and take your time on it.

Post example.