The Drum & Base Growl
 

I have had the virus for 2 weeks now and i have got kinda close but not close enough to be proud of. How is it done, it not just a few detuned saw waves with a filter on LFO, if you ever heard any pendulum track you hear it quite alot, especialy in "Fasten Your Seat Belt" i think the a bit of a pitch sweep in there aswell and some eq sweeps aswell hmmmm. any ideas?

post some example, there's many different growls and wobbles in dnb.

the one pendulum uses in slam and fasten your seatbelts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UINhE8L1yXg
you can hear it in the back ground when this songs kicks in

Ok, first of all it's almost impossible to get this sort of sound right out of a Virus alone, or basically any other synth for that matter because it requires some layering and resampling.

Theoretically, most of those dnb basslines are based on a classic reese/reece sound (a pair of detuned and distorted saw waves) and then split into two or sometimes even 3 channels on the desk with EQ's, one channel for low frequencies, second channel for midrange, and third channel for the higher frequency part. However three channels it's an overkill, two channels are usually more than enough. Each channel being processed individually with a unique chain of effects. Then the whole thing gets resampled and filtered to beyond recognition, sometimes if it's still not enough to get the desired results it's getting resampled again.

Practically, in those two particular tunes it sounds like mostly the midrange part of the reese being used, and a plain sub layered underneath. There's many ways to get this sound anyway, but from what i can hear there's tonnes of strong chorus and very sharp filtering action with 24 or 36db slope going on here. (maybe even couple of filters in parallel?) Probably bandpass or a combination of low-pass with high-pass. In dnb it's all about overprocessing the shit out of your sound by violently abusing effects and raping filters.

Regarding reeses, the Gamera PR preset in your virus would be a good starting point.

Btw, "fasten your seatbelts" sounds like a standard clownstep LFO wobbling the filter innit.

but the virus ti can do layers, so it is semi possible, im still strugerling to make just a simple distorted wobble, i assign a lfo to it and the pitch and a bit of distortion but it still dosent sound right any ideas on how to make it sound more rough?

As far as i know on virus ti you can't actually split a preset into two channels with eq and then process each channel individually with different effects, correct me if i'm wrong. Also resampling is a must, resampling a filtered bass through the same filter couple of times over and over is what gives the rough 'squelchiness' that you hear in many modern dnb basslines. This is how it's done usually. Check out Calyx&Teebee latest album on Momentum, it has some of the most complex and futuristic basslines i've ever heard in dnb. Check this out:

Calyx & Teebee - The Shape of Things to Come


Calyx & Teebee - Make Your Choice


Calyx & Teebee Studio Interview

Does this mean then it is a good Idea to have some sort of sampler setup on one of the outputs at all times.

I have an ES1x so in theory I could have this hooked up to take say output 3 to its input, then send the output of the sampler back to the TI input. Sample a sound, tweek with either the input through the TI filter then back to sampler and keep going, suppose it would be easy enough.

I just want to get another piece out of the loft ;)

But I took it from that EMU filters can be well used, suppose these must be going kind of cheap these days?

yeh emu filter are kinda cheap and for DnB the zplane filter is quite big. A few people dont like the sound of them alot do i spose it just personal taste really. i have heard the new calyx and teebee album and yeh i see what you mean, i know you can get dirty sounds out of the virus like pendulums bacteria (remix) that was made with a virus powercore i think it thoughs sorta sounds that i want to aim for on the virus i know it possible but i spose it jsut learning how to use multi patches on the virus.

I think a lot of the grit in those basslines comes from the constant re-sampling.
tiny errors and glitches brought in from the analog to digital conversion.
thats what gives them that edge which you lack straight out of synths

So whilst the virus may be able to do multiple layers and filters. the best bet is still to re-sample

I've bought an EMU 6400 only for the Peak-Shelf Z-Plane filter tbh, the standard LPF BPF and HPF are quite disappointing imo, but the morphing filters are made for sick twisted basslines.

im thinking about getting
http://www.turnkey.co.uk/web/product...text=CLEARANCE
that has 50 odd z-plane filters in but i spose i better get back to the virus and start making some new sounds

http://www.flipsideremix.com/virusbass/dnb

This is a single patch from my Indigo 2.. not quite Calyx & TeeBee, but hey.. :)

Best
Alex

nice i nearly got 64 sounds in my bank not all dnb a range from Prodigy sounds to electro house and DnB i will post them up once its complete

i really like the bass youve made there
:cool:

will you post the actual virus patch up ?

I might do that.. You might also want to check out a couple of tracks I just posted:

This thread

There even is some kind of half-assed explanation on how they were done :) This might not be the kind of basses you were looking for though, I dunno..

Best,
Alex

Junglists! You guys have touched on layering. One thing I like to do is send MIDI ch9 (for instance) from my MPC through MIDI interface to ALL ports. Every synth with a patch that responds to ch9 will play. These are all routed to a mixer then recorded to Cubase or whatever. If theXL7 has a fundamental sub and the virus has a midrangey animated thing you get some pretty thick sounds. I get the impression most of you guys have multiple hardware pieces. This same approach can work in the DAW too. Many happy accidents this way.

Also, rather than resampling one can route a patch back through the virus (ext input right?!) and get a similar thing. Not all the jitter and digital trash. I find that stuff hurts the fundamental but really adds to the overtones.

Thanks for that Calyx/TB interview too BTW. NOthing really groundbreaking, but interesting all the same.

The cool thing about bass is that there are so many different ways to get what you're after - none seem to be wrong, as long as you're happy with the sound you finish with.

I tend to think the Virus is pretty bland for basses by itself, although I do like to run layered bass through it's filters and saturation though - keeping in mind I don't have a TI. :)

I tend to use analogues for the main waveforms, sample them and have one set of layered bass going through a HP, then another set going through a LP - then the resulting signal with be run together through another filter or two. This is the basic setup, and from here I will have alot of processing going on. It's all personal taste though, and I tend to like to older style of DnB/Jungle.

I have some old bass examples I did using this method on my soundclick site called 'Chunky CS10' and 'heavy electronic 1 and 2'.

EDIT: After listening (it's been ages since hearing those sounds), these sounds are pretty different to what I am doing now, but the method I have is still the same. Chunky CS is still a favorite with me though. :)