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I'm trying to make a good bass for my Dubstep track. It's still a huge work in progress. I've picked out some good drum samples for the track which I'll EQ and fix up later. I just wanted to start out with the basic instruments and stuff I want to do with the track, you know? The layout process first. Then mastering, and extra FX, sounds, etc. (Not in that order lol.)

So here's a snapshot of the bass patch:





And here's what the bassline sounds like in my track:

Soundcloud

I did use a very tiny small almost unnoticeable amount of Sausage Fattener just to add a bit of color and buff some frequencies in the upper mids, then EQ'd out some lower frequencies below 632 hz.

EDIT: I also did use TAL-Reverb II.

It sounds very weak and I just don't know what to do with it. Is the LFO in the wrong area, am I using a bad insert for this waveform?
I just don't know. Help me out here, please. I'd appreciate it very much.

I'm trying to get it that gritty grinding wet sound. Also is there anyway I can configure a yoi function on it? Just to give it more variation with the sounds in the bassline.
Should I add a different waveform with it? What waveforms go good with Duckorgan and should they be down or up and octave or two?
I don't know which waveforms sound good or bad together.

id lower it an octave for one. for a wet sound add resonance to the filter, also will probably sound more wet at the lower octave. then just experiment with adding waveforms once you get that one dialed, add distortion and fx man. no one can tell you how you should make your bass. sounds a bit poop right now though to be honest lol.

Eat Bass wrote:id lower it an octave for one. for a wet sound add resonance to the filter, also will probably sound more wet at the lower octave. then just experiment with adding waveforms once you get that one dialed, add distortion and fx man. no one can tell you how you should make your bass. sounds a bit poop right now though to be honest lol.

Yes, it definitely sounds bad, I agree lol.

I'm gonna try splitting the mids and low frequenies, then aplying some different distortions and effects on different frequencies.
I'll try lowering it down an octave, but when I did that it sounds really nasty-bad as if there was no tone to it. But I'll try and work it out a big better. I'll post my progress along the way if it gets any better. Right now I'm just gonna try experimenting with multiband dynamics and toss some junk on it. I'll also try experimenting more with waveforms til I find a good one.

Don't use Duckorgan, it sounds like shit most of the time.

If you want a "fatter"sound, layer waveforms + noise + sub then saturate/compress/eq etc.etc.

BYTEME wrote:

Eat Bass wrote:id lower it an octave for one. for a wet sound add resonance to the filter, also will probably sound more wet at the lower octave. then just experiment with adding waveforms once you get that one dialed, add distortion and fx man. no one can tell you how you should make your bass. sounds a bit poop right now though to be honest lol.

Yes, it definitely sounds bad, I agree lol.

I'm gonna try splitting the mids and low frequenies, then aplying some different distortions and effects on different frequencies.
I'll try lowering it down an octave, but when I did that it sounds really nasty-bad as if there was no tone to it. But I'll try and work it out a big better. I'll post my progress along the way if it gets any better. Right now I'm just gonna try experimenting with multiband dynamics and toss some junk on it. I'll also try experimenting more with waveforms til I find a good one.

honestly man id stay away from freq splitting for right now. freq splitting isnt going to make an already shit sound better. if anything freq splitting can make shit sound worse especially if you dont have the right sound in the first place and are just tossing random shit on diff bands.

id first tweak your duck organ osc alone. try diff wave positions, adjust envelop to taste. then add another osc that adds to the sound where the duck organ lacks. balance the amp levels. really you just need to get the bass sounding pretty good from massive. effects will only make a bad sound worse. also when distorting try using multiple instances and small amounts. eq before and after if necessary.

if you want something that sounds cool, try using a diff wave for your meat, then use just the organ layered ontop of the meet pitched up a bit. this can sound pretty cool. i tend not to use the duck wave position.

and i recommend using an entire different track for your sub bass so you can keep it seperate and unaffected.

Eat Bass wrote:

BYTEME wrote:

Eat Bass wrote:id lower it an octave for one. for a wet sound add resonance to the filter, also will probably sound more wet at the lower octave. then just experiment with adding waveforms once you get that one dialed, add distortion and fx man. no one can tell you how you should make your bass. sounds a bit poop right now though to be honest lol.

Yes, it definitely sounds bad, I agree lol.

I'm gonna try splitting the mids and low frequenies, then aplying some different distortions and effects on different frequencies.
I'll try lowering it down an octave, but when I did that it sounds really nasty-bad as if there was no tone to it. But I'll try and work it out a big better. I'll post my progress along the way if it gets any better. Right now I'm just gonna try experimenting with multiband dynamics and toss some junk on it. I'll also try experimenting more with waveforms til I find a good one.

honestly man id stay away from freq splitting for right now. freq splitting isnt going to make an already shit sound better. if anything freq splitting can make shit sound worse especially if you dont have the right sound in the first place and are just tossing random shit on diff bands.

id first tweak your duck organ osc alone. try diff wave positions, adjust envelop to taste. then add another osc that adds to the sound where the duck organ lacks. balance the amp levels. really you just need to get the bass sounding pretty good from massive. effects will only make a bad sound worse. also when distorting try using multiple instances and small amounts. eq before and after if necessary.

if you want something that sounds cool, try using a diff wave for your meat, then use just the organ layered ontop of the meet pitched up a bit. this can sound pretty cool. i tend not to use the duck wave position.

and i recommend using an entire different track for your sub bass so you can keep it seperate and unaffected.

Was going to say all of that...

I would add
You have a lot of nasty frequency in that patch. It sounds like the crunch you are getting from the sin sharpers or scream filter is in the wrong place frequency wise. I'm no expert but try using multiple distortions to get a trashy sound instead of cranking one up loads. I normally turn one up until I get crunch in frequencys that sounds good and then add another. You can also really drive a shaper/distortion and the blend just a little of it in with the dry/wet.

mthrfnk wrote:Don't use Duckorgan, it sounds like shit most of the time.

If you want a "fatter"sound, layer waveforms + noise + sub then saturate/compress/eq etc.etc.

Well if you want sounds like newer kromestar, badklatt, requake, megalodon, etc. it's a pretty good way to get there

You gotta tweak it right so you don't get that weird clicky sounds on the high end that duckorgan has a lot. lil bit of phaser can make it sound nice, definitely a good amount of reverb, fat sub.

The wobble in this is im working on is duckorgan alone.
Soundcloud

I can post a clip of some random shit I made with duckorgan and a long fx chain tomorrow (:

@Sinergy

Shit that sounds a LOT better than mine. Lol.
I really love those Chiptune arps you have going on in the background.

I think I'm just gonna give up on the duckorgan. I thought it would be a pretty good waveform to use to get a sort of whompy metalic bass out of. I just can't use a duckorgan.
I'm too accustomed to my square bass.

I spent all night on it, and all morning trying to make it better. I just give up on it, sorry.
It's too weak and something sounds wrong with it, when I add other waveforms, the duckorgan sounds out with the other waveforms.

I suck at bass. I'm better with my Chiptune..
I'm just having an off day. I'll try again later. Maybe.

blinkesko wrote:I can post a clip of some random shit I made with duckorgan and a long fx chain tomorrow (:

That'd be great!

I'm gonna go read up on some threads about Dubstep bass. I really need more experimenting with making different kinds of basses and understanding why they sound that way.

Honestly it's a lot of experimenting. And although processing outside of say, massive, is very important to a good sound, if it's shit in massive it's gonna be shit outside of massive. Which is nice because there is less guesswork at getting a proper sound with this truth.

Try the bandpass filter with duckorgan, much cleaner. I've noticed certain waveforms sound better with certain filters as a general-ish guideline.

Fatter sounds = "simple" waveforms usually. Try messing about with saw, square, triangle, and sine waves and using some distortion and filtering.

Honestly there isn't anything wrong with the sound, the riff your playing is just a mess. Any sound can sound good in a certain context. Focus on getting a riff that sounds funky/dark/bouncy whatever you're going for, then work from there. No matter how wet, gritty or gnarly your sounds are if the riff their playing is bland it's going to sound bland

Use the mod oscillator and detune that an octave below your duck organ

First don't modulate everything at once and program the track to modulate what is required at the right time
Second as already said an octive lower its a bass not a lead i also don't know why its moved down to 11.86 rather than 12 your not trying to detune it as you are only using 1 osc
Third try modulting the cutoff all the way so it goes off as the sound is always there and needs to go at some point
Forth try a good distortion chamber like ohmicide
If you can't get the right sound from these suggestions look at youtube tutorials or change duckorgan for one of the many others
Check out www.soundcloud.com/staff-e/staff-e-caustic-vibrations

BYTEME wrote:

blinkesko wrote:I can post a clip of some random shit I made with duckorgan and a long fx chain tomorrow (:

That'd be great!

So didn't have internet, so could'nt post it before now, but here it is atleast. Duckorgan with a sine an octave underneath it and distorted to fuck. Had a daft filter on it inside massive aswell. d-organ part starts at 0:40
gotta warn that this is some crazy shit
Soundcloud Not sure if this is anything you're interested in, but if you are, I could go into more detail about the fx chain and stuff

blinkesko wrote:So didn't have internet, so could'nt post it before now, but here it is atleast. Duckorgan with a sine an octave underneath it and distorted to fuck. Had a daft filter on it inside massive aswell. d-organ part starts at 0:40
gotta warn that this is some crazy shit
Soundcloud Not sure if this is anything you're interested in, but if you are, I could go into more detail about the fx chain and stuff

How'd you do that...? It sounds totally different than just a duckorgan. What was the fx on it?
Or really, how'd you control the movement of the bass? It sounds very whompy in a good way! I really like that sound. It's cool.

almost 3 chains of fx in fl studio, haha. Without the layered sine wave, it's a completely different sound. (the sine is not used as a sub in this patch, lower freqs are removed at the end)
Here's how it sounds like before n after fx:
Soundcloud
the change in timbre is just more resonance on the daft filter, and the movement comes from automating the cutoff.

In fx chain 1, I removed all the high end and boosted the sub quite a lot, then I distorted it and added some notch filters. (mostly tube and mech disto in camelphat)
In chain 2 there's a bunch of EQ's, just boosting up the high end that came with the distortion. also, freq split in patcher and a short delay on the mids. and some reverb.
in chain 3 I removed the low end, boosted the highs even more, some multiband compression and a waveshaper at the end to distort it a bit more.

If there's something specific you want to know bout it, just tell me, but that's pretty much the basic processing behind this.

blinkesko wrote:almost 3 chains of fx in fl studio, haha. Without the layered sine wave, it's a completely different sound. (the sine is not used as a sub in this patch, lower freqs are removed at the end)
Here's how it sounds like before n after fx:
Soundcloud
the change in timbre is just more resonance on the daft filter, and the movement comes from automating the cutoff.

In fx chain 1, I removed all the high end and boosted the sub quite a lot, then I distorted it and added some notch filters. (mostly tube and mech disto in camelphat)
In chain 2 there's a bunch of EQ's, just boosting up the high end that came with the distortion. also, freq split in patcher and a short delay on the mids. and some reverb.
in chain 3 I removed the low end, boosted the highs even more, some multiband compression and a waveshaper at the end to distort it a bit more.

If there's something specific you want to know bout it, just tell me, but that's pretty much the basic processing behind this.

Wait so was your point to remove the actual high end from the patch and replace it with that of what's gained from distorting? That's what I gathered but idk.