Help With Dnb Bass Sounds!!

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demologik

New member
this really sucks for me, because i hate asking for help.. i feel that the result is not all me.. im the perfectionist, do-it-all-by-myslef, type of guy.. but i am trying to venture off into the "help me im lost stage.."
soo here it is..

okay i am trying to make the rough, raspy, deep, down, dark and dirty style sound heard in DNB from a software synthesizer, but my problem is that i can't get it right. Where do these artists get that distinct rough nasty sound from? Am i at a loss for trying to create that sound from scratch? should i buy a certain piece of hardware? ive heard a lot of talk about vaccum tubes' effect on the nastiness of that sound..

im using only Fl Studio 5 and an Edirol PCR-50 midi controller keyboard.
i use the 3x oscillator a lot. i think i am getting the hang of that thing.. i am trying to use the WASP generator plug-in, but i am completely un-educated in the actual science behind it.. HELP! i feel n00bish. =[

thanks.
 
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3 Osc doesnt have many dnb presets,except the "hoover" a pretty basic sound,you could experiment with that..

3Osc in itself is a pretty basic synth and even if you had all the synthesis knowledge there is you wouldnt get those top notch fresh dnb basses out of it...

If you`re really into dnb you`ll have to learn some synthesis.
You`ll need to learn about types of synthesis,waveforms and harmonics,types of filters and such...Dnb is pretty much technique and production,you dont need a lot of music theory...
 
demologik,

Making evil DnB basses is very exciting and interesting. It can really put one's sound design skills to the test.

You will want to get a good grasp of synthesis and effects. Listen to tracks which have the bass you want to create, and see if you can get close with your synths. You may want to mentally segment some of the more complex bass sounds into chunks - because often they are not even pulled off with 1 synth patch.

Try making a few different rumbling/growling/snorting/womping patches, even in different synthesizers. Then record them down into WAV files and work on splicing them together into an interesting bassline. This might take more work than you might have expected at first, but the payoff is worthwhile.

A good way to make a dynamic bass is to imagine that it's being spoken/screamed by a person or monster. Listen to how Louis Armstrong played his trumpet and how he sang - so full of expression and dynamics.

If you want the womp-womp-womp rotating basses, you can develop one 'killer note', make sure it modulates rhythmically (LFO onto various synth parameters), and insert that one note into a sampler, mapping it across the keyboard. When you play various notes, the rhythm of the modulations will change in that classic DnB way :)

If you can't get your synths to make the evil sound you want, don't be afraid to layer on 10 effects to get a result. Why not distort it, filter it, phaser it, distort it again, filter again, if its right for your bass sound? You'll be recording it all down in the end anyway, so be liberal if you need.

Hope those tips help you out. Have fun!
 
I'll also add that an enjoyable and fun technique for finding those gems of sound is to scotch-tape down a low note of your midi controller and then record audio of yourself playing with synth parameters (I love fondling my minimax and making it roar). You will usually record yourself making some neat noises during the session, and can review the audio recording and maybe salvage some tidbits for beginnings of a bass.
 
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leper thats some really good advise!

id second the idea of layering sounds, and using liberal amounts of effects.

i think youll find success quickly by just choosing a nice clean sub sound, and layering a grimey, nasty, whiny synth over it. leave the sub alone, so the meat is still there, but slap some effects on the synth. like compression, eq, distortion, overdrive... anything really. i really like just using eq and distortion to get a sound that is really mostly midrange, and raspy sounding. but quietly layered over a slammin sub with an lfo... you get that eeee-vil sound.... haha.....






peace.
 
THanks for the feedback.

but what i meant was how do you create them FROM SCRATCH in lets say, FL Studio using, the WASP plug in or something similar?
 
demologik said:
THanks for the feedback.

but what i meant was how do you create them FROM SCRATCH in lets say, FL Studio using, the WASP plug in or something similar?
Click to expand...

I dont think its that hard. Just use 1 oscillator, saw or square, feed it through a lowpass filter. on the filter envelope set the attack to 0, decay to about a quarter of the way, sustain to zero and release to zero. The Amp envelope should have zero attack, zero decay, fully sustain, and no release.

Now, once you have this basic bass patch done, there are several paths you can go towards. One thing you can do is have a second oscillator highly detuned with a volume of zero, and then u can set your modulation wheel to modulate the volume of said oscillator.

Another thing you can do is set your filter envelope to modulate the pitch of your single oscillator patch and then use your modulation wheel to control how much of an effect this envelope has on your pitch.
 
highkoo & Array, those are some good pieces of advice!

demologik, I think pretty much all the posts so far were describing how to make the bass "from scratch" ;)
 
thanks to you everyone i am just a noobie at the sound enginering aspect of it all.. i have crapload of software, but a lot of it looks really complicated so i feel lost..

fm7, Pentagon 1, synth 1, Toxic, ms-20, Polysix, dreamstation, legacy cell, etc..

where's a good place to learn about sound enginering/ design?

thanks, i appreciate all of your help.
 
I'd start with -one- synth, like the Synth 1, Pentagon, or MS-20. Forget stuff like FM7 for now, learn subtractive analog synthesis. Sit down and spend a lot of time tweaking the hell out of that one synth and you'll probably get an idea of what most of the knobs do.
 
demologik said:
THanks for the feedback.

but what i meant was how do you create them FROM SCRATCH in lets say, FL Studio using, the WASP plug in or something similar?
Click to expand...

I thought it was sic advice.. and ima stop doing as much layering and split the bass lines onto diff synths after reading this!
 
if youre getting lost, its DEF good advice to stick with one synth until your comfortable with at least the basics....

z3ta is prolly a good all arounder for dnb... id agree with forgetting the FM7 for a while. its pretty complex for a beginner imo...





peace.
 
right on! thanks so much for the helpful tips, guys! i've been able to creat a really nasy sound in by using the 3xosc and some effects. i agree, the fm7 looks very technical, so ill stick to the basics for now..

btw what is "subtractive analog?"
 
Grats man!

Subtractive/analog synthesis means the type of synthesis where you start with a harmonically rich sound (saw, square oscs, etc) and subtract frequencies from them using filters. It's the traditional, most popular form of synthesis.
 
some dnb producers i know mostly use a yamaha dx200 (hardware module) for those fat deep basses. So i suggest you learn about fm synthese and buy NI FM7 or an other FM synth style vst. They say substractive synthese is not good for that, and i never made such a sound with an substractive synth, so maybe they are right. Don't aks me how, cause i don't know enough yet of fm synthese
 
demologik:
Pretty much, yeah - filters are a bit more versatile than EQ's for sculpting raw sounds though.

A filter lets you change its cutoff frequency, as well as the intensity of its resonance peak at the spot where it begins to drop off. Filters also curve off to complete silence, whereas EQ's are more designed for tweaking sound character.


About FM - it has it's strengths of course! Once you get a handle of how different harmonic tones affect each other via FM you can make some seriously gnarly basses too. The thing is, it's a completely different ballpark programming-wise than subtractive synths. I personally think it's much easier to start off making sounds with subtractive synths, since results are reasonably predictable and straightforward. With FM synths, once you start stacking more than a couple operators it gets touchy :) At least we don't have to deal with DX7's dumb interface anymore... :rolleyes:

Remember that the 'Hoover' was made with an analog subtractive synth..
 
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