I know its just a kick, bassline, whnoise, and some ambients…
My problem is trying to make the right bassline… Its thick and seems to have no melodic value whatsoever… It just sits with a bit of sidechain on it… But how does one make it sound so full and heavy on the sub? There’s nothing going on in this track, but I’m sure most of you’ll agree it really turns heads when it kicks in.
I also suspect the amount of reverb/delay on the build helps with the impact.
A good tip is that you use the same key for the kick on the bass.
Check the freq off the punch off the kick and caculate the key for the bass. Also try to use a EQ to clean up the lower buttom. You can properly find some tutorial on youtube on how to do that.
It sounds pretty easy actually. Take your bass noise that you created, and turn the release up till proper. This kinda makes the notes longer to the ear.
You are right about the sidechaining compression. However, they are using it a bit different. It seems as though they are using a very very quick attack and release. I could understand why though because MNML has a quick un-punchy (if thats a word) kick most of the time.
I used the analogue synth from the ableton suite but nearly all synths can do it, to get the three sine waves i used 3 seperate synths grouped together to respond to one midi track.
My reasoning for this will be explained soon as I’m just putting a sub side chain tutorial together so I’ll link it when its online.
oh i forgot I also eq’d out a few peaks in my bass that I couldnt see in the example you linked to on youtube.
and I also put a wide bandpass on the overall sub side chained very slightly to move up a little over a slower time than the compressors side chained speed so the sub gets a little brighter inbetween each kick
Theres actually more of a rumble to it other than the sine, which is usually done in a square or saw at really low octaves and with a low pass around 70hz. I’ll do a replication tomorrow. That same bass is found in a lot of minimal songs, including one of my favorties - - - - Church of Nonsense
Righty ho people, actually finished this a few weeks back just haven’t had time to top and tail the titles etc
I’m am planning to do more tutorials based peoples requests with the dubstep bass series in production right now, so I would be interested in feedback on the tutorials too so I can continue to improve my form.
Sub & side-chaining techniques for Ableton Live 8
Part 1: Key and timing
Part 2: Layered and filter side chaining
This two part tutorial series will teach you:
how to detect the key of a kick drum
how to create a sub bass line in the same key
overall side chaining for the sub bass
specialist tips for the Ableton Live compressor when used for external side chaining
creating multi layered sub bass instruments
independent side chains per layer
setting up an Ableton Live Auto Filter for external side chain
specialist tips for using the filter in a kick and sub scenario
