Hey, guys. Does anyone know how to make that massive bass found in scary monsters and nice sprites by skrillex? (YouTube - Skrillex - Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites) I've tried in massive but it doesn't sound as dirty or grindy. Anyone have guidence? Help would be really appriciated.
Do a few searches mate- this has been discussed a few times quite recently. (just search skrillex and dubstep) But here's the gist, as described in response to a rather weak "dubstep bass tutorial" on some blog.
"There's a specific technique to achieve this bass. And the biggest producers out there do it this way:
sine and two saw waves detuned. Split the freq's into 3 bands. Low (30hz to 150 hz), mid (150 to 3500khz) and hi (3500 to 20000 hz).
Then apply different modulated effects to both mid and hi channels. Think of chorus, delay, ringmods, phaswers, flangers, distortion etc.
Then when you have a little "moving" bass, you resample and import it into kontakt. Then to exactly the same as above but with some more modulation. Then do the same, then do the same then do the same.. you get it right?
When your satisfied with the basssound you import it in a sampler like kontakt again and put a lowpass with lfo or a chopper on top and modulate it.
Now that's a dubstep bass alla 16bit and 501 and the likes. They also call this a Reese bass, it originates from drum n bass (neurofunk especially). "
LOL- he forgot to mention the filter and modulation. using massive you'll want to modulate the crap out of a bandpass filter w/ the performance LFO going all over the place. Also watch the video below (gets posted in all of these threads):
Awesome, although the video wasn't explained that well (the guy skipped over a lot of the modulation and the camera was shaky as hell). How would I seperate the synth bands?
Awesome, although the video wasn't explained that well (the guy skipped over a lot of the modulation and the camera was shaky as hell). How would I seperate the synth bands?
tutorial was explained fine, I did this by following the instructions and copying the modulation
I did things different though, had a centered synth which comes in first that tackled most of the mid frequencies, then a wider one comes in that tackles most the highs plus some mids and a sub under for the low end
the skrillex talking bass is done by setting an oscillator in massive to "modern talking", and then modulating the "wt-position" with an LFO (or with automation), and then distorting that signal to jesus
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Originally Posted by keylay
I don't know what all the arguing is about. When I listen to my favorite Frank Sinatra Album it clearly was done in FL studio. Frank was anti Pro Tools, and Logic. We had a long conversation about it on his cell phone in 1965.
the skrillex talking bass is done by setting an oscillator in massive to "modern talking", and then modulating the "wt-position" with an LFO (or with automation), and then distorting that signal to jesus
wow just tried that, didn't use distortion and was only listening with the laptop speakers but it definitely sounds like it could be what Skrillex used for "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites"
it sounds the closest when the wavetable is set to to bend -/+ and the intensity is around 12 o clock
Now that's a dubstep bass alla 16bit and 501 and the likes.
LOL I was just quoting something I stumbled upon on the internets- no surprise it's complete BS. Just trying to provide two different explanations of this particular approach.
I probably shouldn't have included that line- oops
Quote:
the skrillex talking bass is done by setting an oscillator in massive to "modern talking", and then modulating the "wt-position" with an LFO (or with automation), and then distorting that signal to jesus
That's interesting- As tired as I am of the sound of Massive, the more I read about it the more I am interested, simply because of it's wavetable features, and the cool sounds I keep hearing that were created using them. I'm not surprised at all that Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites has one of those sounds.
Any other synths I should know about with this type of wavetable modulation capabilities? (forgive me- in retrosepect that's off topic)
Last edited by MPZ; 28th November 2010 at 12:33 AM..
Reason: an addition
wow just tried that, didn't use distortion and was only listening with the laptop speakers but it definitely sounds like it could be what Skrillex used for "Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites"
sorry forgot to add that you need to set the modern talking oscillator down 2 octaves to -24 to get that tone, then automate the wt-position...
"There's a specific technique to achieve this bass. And the biggest producers out there do it this way:
sine and two saw waves detuned. Split the freq's into 3 bands. Low (30hz to 150 hz), mid (150 to 3500khz) and hi (3500 to 20000 hz).
Then apply different modulated effects to both mid and hi channels. Think of chorus, delay, ringmods, phaswers, flangers, distortion etc.
Then when you have a little "moving" bass, you resample and import it into kontakt. Then to exactly the same as above but with some more modulation. Then do the same, then do the same then do the same.. you get it right?
When your satisfied with the basssound you import it in a sampler like kontakt again and put a lowpass with lfo or a chopper on top and modulate it.
Now that's a dubstep bass alla 16bit and 501 and the likes. They also call this a Reese bass, it originates from drum n bass (neurofunk especially). "
Talk about convoluted... I'm surprised the "biggest producers" have time for anything like that.
You don't need time as this would cost probably 4 minutes to do in any DAW, provided that you have any skill with it.
Really, it sounds like a lengthy process but it isn't. Furthermore, once you have your raw resampled material, you can take some of the audio you've used for an intermediate step, throw more effects on it and use that as variation.
Talk about convoluted... I'm surprised the "biggest producers" have time for anything like that.
err, yes they do. im lucky enough to have been a member of dogsonacid when noisia went from being nothing to being quite good, and the whole lot is archived, and this is one of the always talked about techniques when it comes to making a reese.
it keeps the bass from being distorted or phased so you dont ruin your thick low end when processing.
its only a few clicks away to set up a frequency split nowadays anyway (+1 software) thumbsup
I'm pretty sure he does use that modern talking wavetable in massive with frequency splitting and distortion. but what I think he himself actually does is find the sweetest note to play it in that has the harmonics and peaks he likes and then bounces it to audio and loads into a sampler like Kontakt. the transformer sounding phrase i believe he is using a LFO post bounce as an effect. a plug in like camel phat could potentially have this result and also offers some pretty harsh sounding robotic/metal distortion.
just what i think is going on though :p
oh and yes, if you do dubstep, ohmicide for sure. that plug is amazing. truly great for creating single bands of your bass to spread over multiple tracks or keep it all on one and let the plug split the distortion for you.
Yo Rasseru. Thanks for the knowledge. Never thought of splitting the frequencies so that the deep bass doesnt get lost during the processing. You just opened up some ideas. Although I don't resample my tones I do a lot of processing to the signal from the VST directly.
Just wondering, when talking about splitting the frequencies. I'm not familiar with Ohmicide so could you theoretically create 3 channels of the same sound, EQ'ing each channel filtering as needed and place distortion?
Are there any videos or interviews describing Skrillex's production setup? I've Google'd quite a bit and there's a lot of speculation floating around without much real information. Just curious
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various old roland synths and a smattering of modules and drum machines 
