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How to create this synth sound?

Snarf

Senior Member
Hi all, I've got a question for the many talented synth programmers on this forum about a specific synth sound in this track by Thomas Bergersen:



I'm talking about the 3 successive bass stabs at 0:49 and again at 0:58. The sound almost reminds me of dubstep growls but with a more 'clicky' percussive attack. Any insight into how to create a sound like this would be appreciated!
 
Hi,
sounds like a kick with overdone saturation for a distortion and/or bit depth reduction effect - should be possible with any saturation plug-in or also with distortion. You could try izotope trash, HY punish (also their tube compressor is perhaps possible), could be also done with NI guitar rig. For the "wooden" click try layering with a rim sound, perhaps also try to change the attack with an envelope/transient shaper.

It is the kind of sound you can find in keepforest devastator libraries and also in Heavyocity libraries like Evolve or Damage (both included in NI Komplete).

Hope it helps you find the sound you wished. Greetings.
 
Hi,
sounds like a kick with overdone saturation for a distortion and/or bit depth reduction effect - should be possible with any saturation plug-in or also with distortion. You could try izotope trash, HY punish (also their tube compressor is perhaps possible), could be also done with NI guitar rig. For the "wooden" click try layering with a rim sound, perhaps also try to change the attack with an envelope/transient shaper.

It is the kind of sound you can find in keepforest devastator libraries and also in Heavyocity libraries like Evolve or Damage (both included in NI Komplete).

Hope it helps you find the sound you wished. Greetings.
Hi, thanks for your response. I'll give it a try and report back!

Just to clarify: the function of the transient shaper would be to emphasize the initial attack of the rim sound - right?
 
Hi,
yes - that was my intention, you can adjust it to the desired "click" (if your used source sound needs adaptation). There are many possible routes in sound design - just try :)
Greetings.
 
IMHO just like @ars said - it can be achieved with a specific tonal kick as a starting point. But I think it was created with synth.

I like to do such sounds in the good old Massive. Take a saw. Add a really low LPF with screamer and resonance. Add a tube. Make two voices and spread them stereo. At this point you should get very muddy awfully boring sound. And now the most important thing: outside the Massive add a hell lot of distortion (not every distortion will work with that!). Then you can experiment with other shapes of waves other than saw. Oh and play really low notes, it is the bass sound obviously.

In this example there is also a slight HPF probably with layered sub kick/bass under.

I do not think there is a "click". I do not think transient shaper could work here. For me it is almost instant attack of a low note hard limited with the distortion. Technically each note is one big and long transient.

Cheers!
 
This sound is a bog standard modern neuro-bass Reese (a la Noisia, Black Sun Empire, Joe Ford, etc). This type of reese goes way back to the early days of Noisia, and in many ways goes back even further to Ed Rush & Optical... (I also say "modern" because 'reese' basses have used in drum and bass and bass music since the mid 90s).

You can hear they've very obviously used a one shot sample because the sample has no variation, just the same one shot being re-triggered a few times in a row in both places. They've also used the sample as a stab (more or less), by using a short note duration with a short decay on the sample. (Reeses are often held for long periods of time, as they're the heart of the bassline in 'neuro' (aka neurofunk) drum and bass tracks using this type of sound design).

The formula is typically to start with two detuned saw waves (or complex waves), from there you add movement in any number of ways before you hit the 1st distortion phase (it's not uncommon for multiple distortions to be used). The distortions you choose, and the modulation choices you make will define the character of the reese...








Joe Ford (who also did a lot of the sound design in Keepforest Devastator Breakout) is nuts. He got so bored with making reeses from synths he started using two detuned sine waves, then piling on huge chains of modulation and distortion. Basically, there are a lot of ways to make a sound like this...




EDIT: And yes, sort of, in terms of dubstep... Some early dubstep artists (making the heavier kind of tracks that became associated with dubstep), came from a drum and bass background, which was already using heavily distorted basses like this in the early to mid 2000s
 
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