Wonky/fidget basslines

[Blairly]

I love the basslines that the fidget house guys like Crookers, Sinden, Switch, Herve, etc are using these days, but I can't seem to get the same sounds coming out of my gear. It's that wobbly, LFO driven filter kind of thing that I know my gear is capable of, but I can't just make it happen. Any tips? You guys into this stuff?

[Blairly]

Here are some examples:

The bassline comes in at about 1:15. How do you make that wobbly sound?



This one too. The same kind of wobbly bassline comes in at about 2:07



Any tips guys? I've been messing with modulating filter cutoff with an LFO and have been getting sounds sorta like that, just not right.

[HQ. 17]

Sounds like LFO modulation of the cutoff as you say. I would try at least two oscillators, the first a deep sine wave for the sub then add in a sawtooth / square or two for the body. The right amount of detune between these should get you nice and wonky.

I think these Benga vids may help you, slightly different style but quite a bit on synthesizing those phat wobblin' b-lines:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_6RitUOONI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BaU6Asd ... re=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cQIpn6LW ... re=related

Can't say I was feeling those tunes you linked to. If ya want some decent House / Techno / Whatever recommendations gimme a shout.

[Yoozer]

Here are some examples:

Thank goodness, I was afraid someone forgot the first rule of threads like these.

The bassline comes in at about 1:15. How do you make that wobbly sound?

1 oscillator, obviously a square wave, lowpass filter, bit of resonance, LFO > filter. A lot depends on the filter's character. The volume envelope is just a gate - the filter envelope does the work.

Any tips guys? I've been messing with modulating filter cutoff with an LFO and have been getting sounds sorta like that, just not right.

Sounds like example 1 has a bitcrusher thrown over it, too.

edit: here, try this. Synth1. Just copy the positions of the knobs.



Don't move the cutoff further than halfway.

[Blairly]

Thanks for the replies guys! I'll try this stuff out and let you know how it turns out.

[Stab Frenzy]

The key is setting the LFO that's modulating the filter cutoff to reset at the start of every note, and tempo syncing it. Switching between 8th note and 16th note sync sounds cool too. When I use the V-Synth for this kind of sound I also fade the LFO in, if you can do that it adds a lot to it.

[Sir Ruff]

ahhh.... the infamous wobble bass... in its current "bassline house" incarnation

in this case I would say it's chorus on the single square wave rather than a second oscillator.

[7Hz]

This sound was used loads in D+B ages ago, especially that one in the first example. It was used on loads of tracks as well, almost like music by numbers, amen + wobble bass... maybe the amen was out at that point ant it was more tech sounding drums, but still that massive wobble.

1000:1 bet that all examples of this bass are sampled (or originate) from the one unique recording (ala Amen). I bet it took the creator some time to make it, and I bet it is hard to get exactly that sound again, some of these boys were SERIOUSLY into their basslines and synthesising them using whatever they needed. Ask in a Drum n Bass forum and you'll probably get a canned history of it.

[Blairly]

I've been messing around with all the tips you guys have gave and have started to get some ok results! Thanks!

That Benga video was awesome!!! Does anyone have any more links like that where producers talk about their songwriting process? I don't care about genre of music, I just find it interesting to see other people's processes.

[Stab Frenzy]

That Benga video was awesome!!! Does anyone have any more links like that where producers talk about their songwriting process? I don't care about genre of music, I just find it interesting to see other people's processes.

http://www.redbullmusicacademy.com

[Hair]

I've been messing around with all the tips you guys have gave and have started to get some ok results! Thanks!

That Benga video was awesome!!! Does anyone have any more links like that where producers talk about their songwriting process? I don't care about genre of music, I just find it interesting to see other people's processes.

There are a couple of cool videos (also from Future Music) with D Ramirez going through the process of remixing an electro house type track on google video

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 9682989989
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 7574101536
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 7337119032