Re: BASS HARMONICS
Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2010 4:59 pm
Jesus christ, this thread got out of hand pretty quick.
I'm 90% sure the sound is a sine sub, layered with the same sine run quite subtly through a sine waveshaper and then highpassed. It's quite a distinctive sound, similar to a filter-enveloped square but not quite the same. You can hear it in the harmonics - odd only. It's definitely not a saw, or filtered saws, or any combination of saws, because saws contain both even and odd harmonics and sound a lot more gritty and less hollow. It *might* be some kind of filtered square - again, odd harmonics - but unlikely, because, er, it sounds exactly like a sine run through a sine-shaped waveshaper.
Step by step guide:
1) Write a sub bassline
2) Copy the track, instruments and all
3) On the copied track, modulate the amplitude of the sine using whatever you want (slow envelopes, LFO, whatever)
4) Run this amp-modulated sine into a sine waveshaper. Go easy on the gain. The varying amplitude will mean you get varying levels of (odd) harmonics, because waveshapers are heavily dependent on the level of the signal coming in
6) Highpass this channel so the pure sine gives you all the sub and this channel gives you the low mids
5) Filter/EQ/etc to taste
I'm 90% sure the sound is a sine sub, layered with the same sine run quite subtly through a sine waveshaper and then highpassed. It's quite a distinctive sound, similar to a filter-enveloped square but not quite the same. You can hear it in the harmonics - odd only. It's definitely not a saw, or filtered saws, or any combination of saws, because saws contain both even and odd harmonics and sound a lot more gritty and less hollow. It *might* be some kind of filtered square - again, odd harmonics - but unlikely, because, er, it sounds exactly like a sine run through a sine-shaped waveshaper.
Step by step guide:
1) Write a sub bassline
2) Copy the track, instruments and all
3) On the copied track, modulate the amplitude of the sine using whatever you want (slow envelopes, LFO, whatever)
4) Run this amp-modulated sine into a sine waveshaper. Go easy on the gain. The varying amplitude will mean you get varying levels of (odd) harmonics, because waveshapers are heavily dependent on the level of the signal coming in
6) Highpass this channel so the pure sine gives you all the sub and this channel gives you the low mids
5) Filter/EQ/etc to taste

