Tale of us style: Deep house FM bassline

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shubelo
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Tale of us style: Deep house FM bassline

Post by shubelo »

Hey guys,

I've been searching around forums looking for ways figure out this bass sound, even posted topics myself on other sites. Though it has helped me understand mostly the fundamentals of the sound and how FM synthesis produces this type of sound well, Im yet to get a real nice vibe on something ive made or patches people have shared with me.


Here are some examples:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAqRwkr4 ... ax6WSGK_3Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZS0VFQ4 ... re=related

Wondering if you guys can tell if these are made on soft or hardware synths and thats why Im going wrong. If its posiable to get this exact vibe on a soft synth. Do you think maybe the only way to get these sounds are to use an FM synth like FM8 or Fm heaven? I've got Sylenth, Korg soft synths, u-he Diva that I mainly use.

Would appreciate any advice on how to make this sound in a synth or someone that already has this setup.
loictambay
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Re: Tale of us style: Deep house FM bassline

Post by loictambay »

you should be able to get something similar in the box...Diva can def get close. What are you struggling with? The actual sound design or you feel like yours lacks warmth? Have you tried saturating? I recommend Waves RBass. Can get some pretty similar warmth EQing out some of the bottom end then applying RBass on the Big Bottom preset...
What kind of kick are you using? Big boomy or short and punchy? What freq. range is it sitting in? I find a lot of these tracks have really short kicks (about 100ms) with no that much pitch envelope, and a hat or shaker layered on top and sit in the 65-80 range so the fundamental of the bass can sit lower...
Another trick is to analyze the waveform of the bass in your daw then load up an exoscope while messing about with your synth and try to mimic the waveform...Don't spend too much time trying to replicate a sound, if its close to what you had in mind it sounds good, move on, worry more about getting your composition to sound good with all the other elements than imitating a sound, like this your track won't sound exactly like so and so...
shubelo
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Re: Tale of us style: Deep house FM bassline

Post by shubelo »

loictambay wrote:you should be able to get something similar in the box...Diva can def get close. What are you struggling with? The actual sound design or you feel like yours lacks warmth? Have you tried saturating? I recommend Waves RBass. Can get some pretty similar warmth EQing out some of the bottom end then applying RBass on the Big Bottom preset...
What kind of kick are you using? Big boomy or short and punchy? What freq. range is it sitting in? I find a lot of these tracks have really short kicks (about 100ms) with no that much pitch envelope, and a hat or shaker layered on top and sit in the 65-80 range so the fundamental of the bass can sit lower...
Another trick is to analyze the waveform of the bass in your daw then load up an exoscope while messing about with your synth and try to mimic the waveform...Don't spend too much time trying to replicate a sound, if its close to what you had in mind it sounds good, move on, worry more about getting your composition to sound good with all the other elements than imitating a sound, like this your track won't sound exactly like so and so...
I would say the sound design, I've been working on Sylenth because I'm familiar with it. I know the fundamental settings of the sound. Been playing around with 2 saw waves and Filter ENV chorus etc. but not much luck really, nothing that Im really satisfied with.

I've use a drum loop to try and make the bass with so I could just concentrate on the sound. Just a technique, Im not trying to produce this exact sound from one of the tracks, even though the bassline in these tracks sound different to me I can still make similarities between them.

Have you any ideas on sound design?
loictambay
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Re: Tale of us style: Deep house FM bassline

Post by loictambay »

hmm, as far as sound design goes, there really are a few ways to get similar results, the best would be to experiment with them all and really get to know your synths, what happens when you tweak this knob, that knob...what fx you process with, how much filter envelope, decay, release, or even how you approach making a certain sound is really all a matter of choice and depends on the track ur working on. The best advice I can give you is honestly to experiment...you say you use 2 saw waves? Have you tried square? Pulse? Have you tried routing an LFO to modulate the width or pitch of the waves(s)? Detuning? Unisono? Have you tried recording your bassline, chopping stuff up, re-arranging, reversing, re-sampling? You say you tried chorus...have you tried making the low freqs mono and applying chorus to higher freqs? have you tried it the other way, making high-freqs mono and sub wide even though its against "the rules?" My point is to get creative with it...once you know the basics which it seems you do (since you mention a basic knowledge of FM and subtractive) you just need to take a step further and make some tweaks to those basics and make em' your own...
As far as using loops, I know it may seem easier to get ideas down, but why limit yourself to the groove of a loop when you could have the creative freedom of deciding where to place everything? Trying to fit a musical idea into an already existing groove seems so much harder to me, especially in this type of music where groove is so important and bass, pads, and even percussion often seem follow the chord progression and groove. So much easier to get sounds to fit together if each was designed to take a certain place in the frequency spectrum and groove.
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