shrike
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shrikeParticipantSo I decided to take the “808 Challenge” with this sample to see if I could truly & somewhat accurately hit the mark of making something similar to the iconic boom-bass kick sound.
This is all media res. Don’t take anything to seriously!
001 – Ok, need to put the sample in a sampler so I can loop it…aiming for a single-ish cycle waveform of some shape. For review – single cycle means that there is one cycle that runs positive, -inf – 0dbfs one time only, and then negative for only one cycle. That’s it. It’s not a fucking wavetable, it’s a single cycle sample! Bass. Science.
So a pro task needs a pro tool, right!? I’m in Live, and I know many of you are in Live, so I would like to make something that as many of you could follow as possible (if your little heart so desires). Like a pro tool, I reach for the pro tool of…Live’s sampler. Not simpler. Sampler. Well, this is the farthest I can zoom in on a sample. So much for PRO FUCKING TOOLS. Yer 86’d, Ableton.
002 – Very well, lots of people have Kontakt…I’ll do it in there, then they can follow. NOPE. Waveform, while zoomed in, looks like this scene from early 1980’s Missile Command. I still am only on 5, cuz in 6 THEY OPTED NOT TO UPDATE THE SHITTY ASS INTERFACE, so fuck em. I know this is a subversive hot sports opinion, but: I have never fucking liked Kontakt, ever since I first used it forever zillion years ago. I know you can make cool shit in it, but also, Jennifer Lawrence is hot or whatever yet I do not find her attractive. We all think differently and have individiaul tastes! Fuck you, Kontakt.
(oh and also this is the part where the radio caller might inform me that I maybe could have sliced up my sample a bit in audio, and in not dealing with the whole sample, I might not have these resolution issues. Fair point, but I am being a purist and actually working from the sample, and plus I honestly just thought of it, but also plus I can’t be bothered, and also fuck to you.)
003 – Running out of options, I go to what is actually my real goto sampler these days, UVI’s Falcon. Is that thing fucking expensive? Yup, you bet. Will they even give you a demo? *Not even if you email and ask nicely, arrogant French fucks* (I love you, my French dnb brothers!)
But is it a hell of a tool? Absofucckinglutely. It’s an incredible piece of sound design gear, with some of the fattest OSC’s I’ve heard, the lowest artifacting. (I love me some Serum, but that naked init Saw drives me bonkers cuz you can hear the aliasing like crazy (hint it sounds like high-er freq digital water dripping, somewhat like bad mp3 encoding, but in a higher register. Even at 4x oversampling at the global level. Can’t hear it? CONGRATS, your sanity is somewhat saved. Falcon don’t do dat, at least not this bad. Plus loads of sampling options (reg, granular, multi granular, etc), tons of mod options, loads of extremely high quality FX. You win this one, you beautiful fucks…you’ve made an tool worth the price of admission. Well done. I honestly think you could have a DAW and just this VST and do all you ever need. Yeah, I know…just a DAW is technically all you ever need, but that is just fucking *boring*.
004 And while I think the vertical resolution should be better, it is from this sampler that I get the first step of what I need: my single cycle waveform. I know if I can catch this little monster, I can grow this bass into SOMETHING.
005 I do need to tune it though. And this plus the single cycle thing might be the two biggest key components of the entire process. A Sine OSC, which we know makes some of the gnarliest sub bass ever. It is second in power only to the mighty square wave, which creates the most time at full energy of any waveform, as it jumps from full positive to full negative instantaneously and never even hits -inf dbs (that’s right, Bass Fucking science…you know who you are, fucking noobs), but that square also gives us a bunch of audible harmonics in the upper registries (more proof that it is the strongest), so we are looking for something that isn’t flattened against the ceiling or floor. But fortunately we are dealing with a decent mic, decent recording, of a fairly organic sound captured as a sample. Remember, it’s a bamboo wood comb bristle, being “strummed” by me. It’s actually loaded with tasty harmonics. If I get a wave in the spectrometer (SPAN). So this is before I tuned it down in Falcon:
006 This is the “downtune”. I had to go to G8 (the highest falcon will go), and then even knock down by -12 more semitones. I’m looking for somewhere around my man ~44hz, aka F0. I like that low end fundamental bass note, and so do many of your friendly neighborhood dnb producers. It’s a good low note, and also a note that scales up very well, IE next is ~88hz, 175hz, etc, and these spots are often left vacant by a nice sounding kick and snare (but of course by no means the only key through which to sonically arrange your tune). Also, could I have lowered my midi note? Yeah prolly. Gofuckyerseflwithyergoodideas.
007 Here is our SPAN now (image below). See that big ass fucking hump on the scr left? No not that far, not that half hump, we’re actually gonna have to shave that down. I’m talking about that juicy hump sitting right around 50hz. We’re fucking reeling him in now, boys. Thar be a WHALE.
008 I try to fix the pitch a level up, in falcon, but between the shortness of the sample, and falcon’s inherent limitations, I need another plug to do this. I use KHS pitch shifter for this, my goto pitch shifter. BTW, does thing thing sound like shit right now? AWFUL. Patience, my son.
009 I throw in an oft-used rack of mine. Very simple, just meant to split the low freqs from the high, and in this case I have one fixed at 70hz xover. Could I assign a macro knob to adjust freqs? Yup, got one of those, too. But sometimes I like to work *real fucking fast*, and I know what I want.
010 Solo’ing only the low end, I have two FFQ’s in succession. The first one is set to linear phase so that I get a clean crossover with the higher freqs with no phase-anomalies (kinda like the aforementioned aliasing, but at the xover point). The second one is me filtering out that super low end, which, at those values, will absolutely suck away headroom/energy from our target, the F0 sub note. Bass fucking science!
Oh, and could I have combined these into one EQ instance? Absolutely. I just didn’t. It’s gonna be ok, I promise.
011 I currently have two goto ways through which I beef up a sub. I try the Izo Trash version 1st, cuz I know you all have it, it’s like your pass into starting to produce dnb. Tape saturation is a good algo to try. I get the gain where I want it. But as oft tends to happen in trash, and it’s something I kind of don’t care for, is that it can provide too many smaller side harmonics, which is why you get “rumble” in bass. The fundamental freq of 43.66666666 has to fight with little microinstances of 42 & 45, and lots of little bits in between, and for me, it just takes away from that pure, gooey, focused low sub note that is clean and makes you shit your pants. But some like that rumble, as it can also widen or thicken your sub note. YMMV. But I digress, not tonight, trash.
012 Onto the greatest free VST of all time if you are making dnb, the bx_subfilter. This little badboy is a fucking nuclear weapon of bass, in that it doesn’t just gain boost, it actually resynthesizes the bass fed in, or some shit like that in which only BASS SCIENTISTS like us understand. But seriously. It’s a fucking grenade. And it’s free. Go get it on plugin-alliance.com. Right now. I’ll wait.
013 This sample is such a weak piece of shit in the bass area right now that I get to do something I am never able to do: I get to go hamfist on the bx_subfilter. Generally I am turning the rez to lowest, bringing down the gain, etc. but in this case we get to go to 11. That’s a Spinal Tap reference. Not an actual instruction. Dial in your target freq, turn it up, and SMILE.
Fuck me, this sounds so nice already, I am uploading a clip to the dropbox. It’s called “SH_Lamp_SSC_SUB_F0.wav” or someshit. You’ll find it.
014 I now load this sample back into a Live Sampler. I’m sorry I ever hurt you, baby, I didn’t mean those words I said. Come here, you dirty dirty slut.
015 Since we are aiming for an 808, I need a reference. Battery comes with a decent library of 808’s (Hey Battery, you tell Kontakt to go fuck himself, next time you see him around the office. Yes, still.) I happen to like the “808 12”. Nice and long with a poppy start. Let’s match. (I tune it down in the clip by -2st, to get us to the matching F0 note)
016 First is the pitch env. That’s how that kick gets its poppy transient. No, seriously. That is how Roland fucking did it. Fortunately we can too.
(pro tip- at this point just turn on the pitch env, jack up to 48st, leave the timing as is, and you now have every fucking kick from every gabber or happy hardcore tune ever. Pro sounds, bro!)
But we make modern tough guy drum and bass…serious hard 808, no mucking about here. After a little micro tuning in the sampler to pull the freq down a little more to sit firmly at F0 (Hey, pobody’s nerfect, fucker), I set the pitch env. And, honestly…we done? It sounds as identical to the 808 as it needs to, especially given all of that bullshit that you are going to lay over it. ;P No seriously, it’s nearly identical.
017 I set the amp env to give it that fade out 808 kick miami bass goodness…
018 Hear the results for yourself, the wav file is called “SH_Lamp_SSC_SUB_F0_808_SUCCESSION.wav”, and it is the 808 sample, and then my Sub, played back to back for several loops.
Now go forth and make bass sounds that have never been exactly created before, you dirty filthy bass sluts.
Time to get back to making the musicz…Hope this helps!
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,shrikeParticipantOk! Here is a central shared repository that we can all dump our stuff into.
If possible, please preface your file titles with some version of your name.
My stuff is prefaced “SH”…several goodies already uploaded…yes all made from the sample.
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/t193mq0lotat5jx/AABpz7ziF67BqrpwmHldzG3ia?dl=0
Radar, Live’s Vocoder is also good for laying in reactive, soft tops. I used it in my hat loops in the dir above.
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,shrikeParticipantBig suggestion, Mr Fake, I agree 100%.
I’ll setup a Dropbox dir tonight for us to all pitch into.
And keep in mind, everyone, if the problem is too big or overwhelming, break it into smaller pieces. I’ve had some success by using the sample to create some wavetables in Serum (I will share), and there is no doubt in my mind that from the sample you could extract simple waveforms: a single cycle sine, or saw, or square, or whatever.
Get the sample into a sampler, cut your in and out so short that you get a single cycle waveform, tune it, then go to town. You basically now have a simple synth, start stacking them to get complex sounds. I used to do something like this in the MPC. It needs a lot of spicing up with FX, but that’s perfectly okay.
Fake, I bet I can actually create an 808 approximation this way. Challenge accepted! I’ll try tonight…
DO OR DO NOT, THERE IS NO FUCKING TRY!
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,shrikeParticipantStart small, Juan. Use the sound and just make a snare, or a kick.
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,shrikeParticipantThis challenge is gonna be a tough one, fellas. Not something you can start last minute.
I’ve got something going…spent ages on the snare and kick. We may all need to help each other along the way.
I’ll tell you, though, you will learn so much from doing this one! It’s difficult, but those that persist will be rewarded with new levels of confidence in skill.
If anyone wants help or tips or even proof that it works, just let me know!
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,shrikeParticipantMy brain is dumb, and for a few days I thought the title of this room was “Mouse House”.
Forever it will be, for me.
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,shrikeParticipantWICKED, Thank you so much
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,shrikeParticipantThanks for listen and kind words.
Man, I make so many sounds, and have such a massive personal library at this point, so it’s hard to say how those particular sounds were made. I think though that they came off my pair of Behringer Neutrons, into the Rossum Morpheus filter, and then mucked with more in DAW. I often go bananas on resampling.
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,shrikeParticipantIt’s a privilege to be involved with this group, but you’re welcome, of course.
I used my trusty Tascam DR-05 field recorder.
I really like it, good signal to noise, decent mics, well priced. Nice piece of kit.
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,shrikeParticipantNice one Harry.
Oh and obviously I am in on the challenge. Excited for it!
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,shrikeParticipantI could work on this so much longer. Lots of fun. I went for some straightforward tropes, kind of a low-hanging voxquote, but I always loved that scene.
All of the instruments were made fresh by me. Lead-lead was actually done in a Reaktor synth called FM4 that was *perfect* for just the right amount of fm & phase distortion, but fuck me that thing is buggy as hell. Literally dropped the sound back to the wrong preset every time I hit play. But it sounded kind of authentic.
Kind of low key, at least for me…so much fun though, what a great challenge!
https://soundcloud.com/the_shrike/sh-lamp-bladerunner-wip02/s-kclk8
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2019-06-27 at 01:54:22 in reply to: Haven’t posted anything for a couple of months. Here’s the latest #85261,shrikeParticipantListened last night on my rig. Sounding nice. Congrats on your upcoming releases, every win counts! Keep going, mate
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,shrikeParticipantYeah, Greeno, I get it. This one was kind of a left-of-center vibe, but I just kind of went where the music took me. Hard to classify, though, hence the giving it away for free!
And you like my nod to ’96, Mr Genie!? Never tried a throwback like that before. I am actually working on an EP, but it won’t be on that tip. Maybe someday…
Appreciate the listens all around! Big ups!
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,shrikeParticipantBuilding this out today. Fun to get to try new (for me) styles & such.
Looking forward to the entries!
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,shrikeParticipantNice one! Love the tension and the vibe.
I might automate a filter on that kick so that it kind of gradually comes in, vs. magically appearing at full strength.
I think your upper bass “fizz” could be brought up quite a bit in gain. This is definitely a taste thing, but right now it’s just barely there, and I personally would like it to be a bit more hero’d.
I dig the feelings of negative space, but I think as you approach that 2nd break you could fill the void a bit more…some kind of riser or noise, to let the listener know what’s about to happen. I think the first break could possibly use some moments of stabs or something to fill some of that negative void, as well. Not saying to completely occlude the negative space, just a nice little surprise, here and there.
I really like the skittery organic robot-y sounds…my kind of jam.
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