I Make BASS Thread

[TheReptilianElite]

Alright guys and gals,

I thought it would be cool to see what everyone's favorite method of creating bass is. This is intended to give "newbies" a shot at asking questions and of course seeing how we dubstepforum people do what we do (as a resource).

I will kick this off with a simple process I like to use straightaway when making bass and the sound design of a bass in a song:

***(feel free to share settings and assignments)

Synth:
Massive - usually creating a patch based off
Osc 1 - scrapyard (drive it to filter one)
Play with the settings
Osc 2 - Kangaroo or Carbon
Again, play with settings
Filter 1 I will typically dial in a bandpass or bandreject and play with it until i get a nice sound.

LFO 5 apply it to Osc 1 and 2
As well as the filter

Next I will group the track and Command D to duplicate. Except! on the 2nd instance of massive in the group I will create a sine-wavetable bass for that low end. What I do next is start to EQ the bass so that it doesn't interfere with my main bass so I will low cut and high cut the sub bass for distinction and separation sake.

Before I get crazy, I will apply a FabFilter Pro Q to my main bass and boost somewhere in the 2khz or around that - and apply that frequency to a macro control so that it sweeps around the spectrum.
On the main bass of the group I will start to gradual use additive synthesis such as overdrive, distortion, etc and apply mapping to macros or draw it in. A good chain to start with is 2 instances of overdrive - use each to similarly follow one another based off of your FabFilter (or any EQ plugin) sweep range in the spectrum. You can assign all of these mappings to only 1 macro control for ease of use, or you can draw them in and create some really dynamic movement.
Next, try adding a chorus and play around. Some really great stuff can happen with a little chorus magic!
Another great tool to add to your main bass chain is a saturator. Try to give it some sinoid fold. Play with those settings as well.

Another cool widening trick is to also hit your main bass with a multiband dynamics - split each (high, mid, low) into their own respective chains. If you want more help with this plug in, reference all the amazing resources on youtube to give you insight on usage.

Now I typically, when happy, will bounce this down to audio. With the movements I have created based on the above chain (give your self flexibility because you are most likely going to repeat this process quite a few go rounds).

Before you bounce down to audio, make sure you know what key your song is in and usually, I will hold down a single note (the root note) for 9-18 bars (lots of length and crazy movement to chop)

Once you get your audio track the next thing I like to do is duplicate the audio 2 more times which will then give me 3 of the same audio track. Pan one center, pan another hard right and the other hard left. Now, Detune 2 of them (preferably the hard right and hard left). Insta-WIDENING!)

Next to give the main bass even more dynamics I will create a new track using granular synthesis. Take a great foley sound and import it into something like Alchemy or Sampler and play around with things until you get a really awesome but funky strange noises out of your foley. When happy align your foley track with your 3 duplicates of main bass you can now bounce all 3 together as yet another audio track - you will now have your audio track contain your hard panned and center main bass along with your foley granulated bass sound all in one.

Another thing to beef your bass up even more is add even a square wave to the mix. Give it a shot.

So now that you have a huge sounding bass going on you can do 1 of a million things - 1 thing to try is copping it up and applying it to your song (paste to the grid and use it as your driver) or you can drop it into a great tool like Ableton Sampler or Kontakt if you want to get even crazier with it as well as assign each key to the proper notes (highly recommended).

I don't think I forgot anything on making this simple patch, but if I did I'm sure someone will ask me about it and feel free to.

I have many ways of doing things and I'm sure you guys do too!

POST CRAZY!

[wub]

Can you post an example of a bass patch you've created with the above technique? Just a short sample of the patch itself, not in the context of a tune or anything.

Also moving this to Sound Design...we have a couple of threads on bass creation already.

[TheReptilianElite]

Sure! I can def put something up!

I'm going to be releasing some music shortly within the next few weeks. But when I get back to my flat tomorrow I can let you guys get a sample.

[TheReptilianElite]

In my opinion the fabfilter pro q is just an all around great plugin.

As for mapping to sweep the spectrum, it's easy if you know where you want/need to be (frequency ranges). A lot of people mess up by sweeping too hard. I hardly ever sweep a high cut. I'll sweep a bell boost or a notch.

Fabfilter pro q is good because you have a great analyzer spectrum built in. And, nothing beats some good ol' linear EQ when going for that big built up snare.

In theory, the native plug ins with ableton are plenty fine. I hear live 9 has a comparable setup as the fabfilter pro q.

[LUNCHPADDLE]

has anyone tried making sub bass with edison in fl studio?
i have a really good technique if anyone wants to hear?

[TheReptilianElite]

Don't let my explanation fool you. When I say I create a sub along with my main bass in an ableton instrument rack - I'm only doing so to write out bass lines and to give the main bass just a little bottom end for multiband dynamics. I actually keep my sub on a separate channel

[Sure_Fire]

has anyone tried making sub bass with edison in fl studio?
i have a really good technique if anyone wants to hear?

I don't see why anyone would ever need to make a sub in Edison. Just make it in sytrus lol

[GregoryTJ]

Or just 3xosc and a waveshaper.

[Sure_Fire]

Or just 3xosc and a waveshaper.

Sytrus has better envelopes ;D

[LUNCHPADDLE]

has anyone tried making sub bass with edison in fl studio?
i have a really good technique if anyone wants to hear?

I don't see why anyone would ever need to make a sub in Edison. Just make it in sytrus lol

open edison.

1.drag a kick into edison
2.edit > insert silence
3.run generator > sine generator
4.freq: 50hz
5.volume: 0.888

trim/put a fade out on the end of the sample, and then voila.

whack your sample on the step sequencer and away you go.

up to you, thats just the basic sine but its got great depth at those settings.. if anyone tries this and wants more info then holla at me.

[Sure_Fire]

has anyone tried making sub bass with edison in fl studio?
i have a really good technique if anyone wants to hear?

I don't see why anyone would ever need to make a sub in Edison. Just make it in sytrus lol

open edison.

1.drag a kick into edison
2.edit > insert silence
3.run generator > sine generator
4.freq: 50hz
5.volume: 0.888

trim/put a fade out on the end of the sample, and then voila.

whack your sample on the step sequencer and away you go.

up to you, thats just the basic sine but its got great depth at those settings.. if anyone tries this and wants more info then holla at me.

1. Open Sytrus
2. Select default patch
3. Apply envelope

No need to make things needlessly complex, just takes time away from actually making music.

[LUNCHPADDLE]

seems easier doing it my way.. meh..

to each his own. <3

[ehbes]

sine wave, lfo on pitch

[LUNCHPADDLE]

sine wave, lfo on pitch

#bareessentials

[ehbes]

It's all that's needed.

[LUNCHPADDLE]

depends on the 'bass' you want.
if youre only after a simple sine then by all means..

[TheReptilianElite]

Here is a song I'm doing with the example I listed above - I'm using 2 different bass patches and process chains.

https://soundcloud.com/thereptilianelite/razzle-jam

[ehbes]

depends on the 'bass' you want.
if youre only after a simple sine then by all means..

dont be so diminutive

[NinjaEdit]

DnB style bass.

Subby reese bass with LFOing LP
layered with
hipassed bass with own LFO LP providing harmonics

Bounce and load into sampler.

[PhaserBass]

I usually make my basses with Harmor or DX10. Heavily phasered riddim basses are fairly easy with Harmor and the correct fx and eq. With DX10 you can make surprisingly powerful wonky fm basses by twisting knobs and using a harmonic exciter on the low end.