Here we are going see how to add a bit of movement to your sound. This will get you kind of a Wobble Sub Bass sound, but with a gentle wobble effect.
TKN
Normally you should have your Unison activated in Poly Config and Voice 1 and 2 checked ! If you do not please refer to the Analog Four manual
Oscillator 1 settings
1/ Shut down OSC1 by selecting OFF in the waveform. We are going to use Sub OSC = 1OCT, Level at 127 for a more smooth version. This gives you the opportunity to mix waveforms differently and allows you to lower the Level of this Sub OSC Square to something less pronounced. When practicing this patch design I am aiming to make something buzzy here.
Oscillator 2 settings
2/ As oftenly with Sub Bass sound design we set our base waveform on Triangle and we set the Tuning Parameter to TUN = -12
Filter settings
3/ A simple configuration for the filter here is if we only remove odd harmonics by a small amount to get something in the Sub Bass register. Here I set it up so the Filter Cutoff = 45.75 in LP2 Mode.
Amp Envelope settings
4/ It’s Important here to set a Sustainable Envelope otherwise you won’t be able to hear movements & the “wobble effect” introduced by the LFO modulations at the END ! That’s an important point for every sound-design mindset. Sometimes you make it too short like a piano kind of envelope or short bass then you want to introduce movements but you can’t hear it it’s because of the short Sustain and the short Release settings. Always have that in mind
Filter Envelope
5/ Nothing crazy here just follow these settings.
LFO1 settings (Wobble is LFO)
6/ That’s the important part other steps before was just get the low tone, filter odd harmonics. We need to get the sound “buzzy”.
Here we gonna work on the “Feel & Hear” of the Sub Bass as discussed in the introduction of this LowEnd 101 course. The first thing I did is modulate the Overdrive so it gives movement on altering the timbre and making it from clean to gritty like a vibrato style effect. We also want to do the same on the Filter Frequency F2 so we’ll be able to heard the Sub Bass better. When playing the sound sustained. in TRIG Mode we don’t want the LFO to be free here but we need to retrig each time a note is hit.
LFO2 settings
Then with LFO2, we set a vibrato but not applied when hitting the note so set Fade in = -40 and Vibrato on VOL = +25 in TRIG Mode we don’t want the LFO to be free here but want retrig each time a note is hit.
What next ?
- Next we’ll learn how to make a 808 Bass / 808 Sub Bass it will be fun ! I love that kind of powerful bass… But pay attention it’s hard to mix in the Low End especially with a loud kick drum.
There’s more than one way to achieve it. It’s also a widely adopted sound in HipHop and in the Trap Music Genre. Prepare yourself to get a very loud and punchy bass - Next piece of material I want to cover is we only have to do a baby step to build a bass drum after that tutorial. This is because the 808 bass is a more softened pitch envelope with a little bit of release. With few adjustments we can get a bass drum (Kick) but i warn you it’s not that easy to get a kick drum because with small adjustments here and there you can get many different results. The issue with the 808 sounds that get emulated from other synths is we are too used to hearing it treated and compressed. You may feel discouraged sometimes when you play a raw 808 kick drum and wonder why it’s not as “Fat sounding” as your favorite record. You blame the mix engineer for that for being able to polish a basic drum sounds so well. Thanks to the A4 envelope models we can get a very nice bass drum from it. The A4 pairs with the New RYTM MKII and Sampling capability if you have both. You are more than ready to get every kick you can have in mind creatively ! If you add an Analog Heat to the signal chain then you will have that moment where you have your 808 sounds sounding like the producers you look up to. With a good signal path you will have the whole chain to design every bass drum you are looking for.
