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Subject: Help! My bass sounds crap!

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Original Message 1/32 29-Oct-02 @ 03:44 PM Edit: 29-Oct-02 | 03:45 PM - Help! My bass sounds crap!

Steve Roughley

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Until recently, I have mainly created my bass with my EM1 electribe, but now that I am trying to synthesise it, I am having a whole lot of trouble. Whenever I try to get a tight, smooth and punchy bass out of my Virus, it ends up sounding hollow, dirty and generally sloppy. I am alright with leads and pads etc., but bass is truly eluding me.

Does anyone have any tips for getting my bass to sound tight and growly? Pongoid?

Thanks in advance.

Steve.

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Message 2/32 29-Oct-02 @ 03:46 PM - RE: Help! My bass sounds crap!

milan

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you�re gonna hate me now, but if you use the search function you will find a LOT on the subject. in fact it was discussed just some time ago.

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Message 3/32 29-Oct-02 @ 03:53 PM - RE: Help! My bass sounds crap!

Steve Roughley

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Oh god, I forgot about the search function! I did the View last 365 days and couldn't find anything. Oh well.

Cheers Milan!

Steve.

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Message 4/32 29-Oct-02 @ 07:00 PM - RE: Help! My bass sounds crap!

psylichon

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I would also point out that if you're trying to compete with bass on pro albums, you're going to have to consider processing. EQ, compression, sub-bass extenders, and magnetic tape (or simulation) all contribute to a bass' meatiness. Don't think you can do it all with your synth. Lots of times I'll leave my bass a little lacking while tracking if I'm having trouble with it. If I can't beef it up after tracking then I'll take the time to edit the patch some more.

psylichon

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Message 5/32 29-Oct-02 @ 07:43 PM - RE: Help! My bass sounds crap!

Steve Roughley

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OK, I've had a good look through the search results (about 300 pages were returned - sheesh!) but couldn't find an exact answere to my problem. Most of the posts that I read were about getting big fat basslines and chunky sub-bass and big hollow basses, etc. But I am after just the opposite. It's quite hard to explain, but I'll have a go.

Basically, I find that I can come up with the afore mentioned bass sounds, but I fall down when I try to make the base very tight, smooth and punchy. I can do this easily with the ROM sounds from my electribe (see my track BatMoBeats for reference if you wish), by filtering, eq'ing, compressing, etc. This isn't what's troubling me. The trouble is whenever I try to synthesise a bass from scratch it always seems to sound too fat, hollow, noisy and wide. I've tried mixing it down and doing all the usual processing, but even that doesn't help. I can get tight leads and pads etc., but I seemed to have missed something major when it comes to synthesising bass.

Could anyone give me a good starting point for synthesising tight bass. Just the basics (filter settings, and oscilator settings.). I would be soooo greatful.

Thanks again.

Steve.

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Message 6/32 29-Oct-02 @ 07:44 PM - RE: Help! My bass sounds crap!

xoxos

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i usually try for a simpler waveform.. something fuller, more vibration.

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Message 7/32 29-Oct-02 @ 08:39 PM - RE: Help! My bass sounds crap!

psylichon

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Yeah, use softened saw waves. Start with one oscillator. I usually add a bit of "filter eq" by dialing down the cutoff of a LPF with a bit of resonance down near the fundamental tone. This adds a nice bump and keeps the tone simple. If you want higher harmonics, try another lpf in parallel with the cutoff a bit higher and a touch of resonance. Of course, both filters should track the keyboard to keep the freq response smooth.

I find getting it to be punchy is a matter of envelope settings. Use an ADSR env as a compressor with a quick attack, short to medium decay (depending on desired punchiness), and a sustain level just a bit below the attack level. This will give the attack the "pop" it would have if you were using a compressor.

Another nice sound is a 1-bar decay. Set the decay of your amp env so it fades exactly on 1 bar at your song's tempo. Play it legato mono with just a touch of portamento and pitch bend and you can fool a lot of people into thinking it's a real bass.

Once you get one oscillator sounding nice, copy it over to another osc and fiddle with that one. Maybe an octave lower but much lower in volume for subliminal bigness. There's lot of things you can do.

psylichon

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Message 8/32 29-Oct-02 @ 09:34 PM - RE: Help! My bass sounds crap!

Steve Roughley

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That sounds like it might just be what I am after. Cheers mate. I'll give that a go when I fire up the studio later on tonight.

It looks like the trick is keeping it simple. Am I right? Because I was applying all manner of wavetable functions to try and compensate for the bigness of the sound.

Regards.

Steve.

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Message 9/32 29-Oct-02 @ 09:52 PM - RE: Help! My bass sounds crap!

milan

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yup. keep it simple.

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Message 10/32 29-Oct-02 @ 10:01 PM - RE: Help! My bass sounds crap!

psylichon

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oh yeah, if you want some dirt on the front end like to simulate string buzz, just put a softened white noise burst (quick amp env) on the front just ever so slightly and it can add some air to your bass.

psylichon

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