Analysis of S1E04: FD – Bass Sequencing Tips

WATCH NOTES
FD looks at his track “Break & Enter”, released on Metalheadz in 2012. States in the intro he mainly uses sampled basses. Likes making the sampled basses work to make a groove with the drums, finds drums and bass are the backbone of the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GL41oOnTkvg
 
DAW used: Logic 9 – this can be followed along in any DAW, though you may need to use different brand plug-ins for a few things

Topics: bass, bassline, sound design, frequency splitting, bass modulation, sample tuning

03:30 – root note/key
• Determines the key he wanted to write in, starting with the sub bass
• Root note is D#

05:30 – synth basses vs. sampled basses
• Makes a bassline using the sub, going for a “one note” approach
• Prefers using a synth for the sub, to be sure the sub bass is in the intended note/key
• Bass notes hit on and around the main kicks
• Sub is a simple patch made in Massive, but FD does split the output to three busses (low, mid & high)

11:00 – “shadow bass”
• Sort of like a ghost note with drums, FD has a quick two note hit of an 808 bass, low frequency, done at the end of every two bars
• You do not want the basses to clash frequencies

12:30 – using NI Battery as a sampler
• Explains the functions, describing how to use tuning and volume envelopes

14:30 – 808 bass hit with saturation and a low pass filter on it
• “Weight & power, but not clashing”

18:30 – discusses importance of distortion in making sounds “fat”

22:30 – “Intron” mid-range bass stab
• Used to add more character to the bass used
• Turns a long bass hit into more of a stab by turning down the decay parameter on the sampler

30:00 – the next bass is looked at
• Another stab that comes in later in the track
• No low end, stab sits on top of a sub bass hit

38:30 – the last mid-range bass

40:00 – the bass hook is examined
• Tuning of the sample
• These hits fall between the sub bass notes
• Actually made from processed snare samples

52:00 – a bounce of the sub from Massive, processed with different FX

55:00 – FD stresses the use of envelopes to “make sounds fit” and modulation to get sounds moving in different ways

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THOUGHTS & QUESTIONS
• I think the main thing I took away from this is the importance of envelopes for making long sounds in to short sounds or stabs. Also, resonant filter settings seemed to come up a lot, from this video and the previous S1 videos.

• Need to try being mindful of tuning of sounds, as feedback I’ve received in the past has been critical of sounds being out of key some times.

• Experiment with ways to give sounds movement, be it LFOs, steppers, performers, or envelopes.

• Experiment with turning non-bass sounds in to basses & stabs, a la the hook being made from Goldbaby 909 snare samples being saturated.

• What’s the different between a tremelo plug-in and an LFO tool? Is the tremelo just volume, and something like LFO Tool or the Cable Guys LFO plug-in a bit more customizable? Should test.

• Kind of unconventional how FD uses NI Battery as a sampler, but it gets the job he wants done. Example of knowing your tools and utilizing them differently then expected. 

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Also, waiting to hear back from The Genies about ways we could catalog these tutorial reviews I’ve been doing. Maybe something on the site, or maybe somewhere else? Would do a forum post that linked to each, but I think you can only edit a post within a few minutes of the initial post, can’t go back & edit days/weeks/months later. I think the next analysis I do next week will be the most recent S5 video that comes out in a few days. No idea who it is or what it’s about.