How to create this lovely acid bass?

Electronic Music Production // Dark Arts
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bram2000
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How to create this lovely acid bass?

Post by bram2000 »

Hi All,

Check out this Van Hoesen remix of the excellent Cio D'Or & Dozzy track Menta from '99. It's awesome. :P

I really like the acid type baseline in this tune (comes back in after the drop at about 1.06 in that sample), and it sounds like it should be straightforwards to synthesise, but I've tried all sorts of wave shapes and filter envelopes in Ableton Analog and I'm unable to get anything that sounds like this. It has a kind of 'wobbly' character which I've heard quite a lot but never been able to get close to (subtle LFO on pitch or something?).

Anyone fancy having a go or have any tips on how they you would go about achieving something similar?

Thanks!

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sam
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Re: How to create this lovely acid bass?

Post by sam »

i don't know exactly whats making the noises in this track bram but i agree they are lovely. even at such a low bitrate the minimal elements play off each other perfectly.

do you mean the resonant bass noise? if so i think you can get close using square waves, a fair amount of resonance, quite a lot of lpf and an envelope with a fast decay on the cutoff so the start of the note pops out. i think when the filter envelope grabs hold it gives the shape of the sound a nice character almost like a 303 bend.

also the velocity should be assigned maybe slightly negatively to amplitude and the amp adsr need to be set up right. it's actually a really dynamic sound in your example and used incredibly well.

i can upload something later - maybe someone else has some input?

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bram2000
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Re: How to create this lovely acid bass?

Post by bram2000 »

Hey Sam, thanks for the reply - it is a great track and I highly recommend getting the whole release if you can.

I think your method sounds fairly close to what I was trying, but i didn't think of the negative velocity > amplitude. I've been using a single pitch of notes, but perhaps there's some bend in there giving it the wobbly character? Either way i'd love to hear an example of your method - I'll give it a go tonight and upload it too.

PS bit of an error in my first post, it was '09 rather than '99.

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Re: How to create this lovely acid bass?

Post by bram2000 »

Ok, so I've tried your suggestions Sam and It's certainly closer than I was before. I think the key was actually a small amount of velocity > envelope and then some variation of velocity. Here's my quick attempt - very rough around the edges ;)

I'd be really interested to hear if anyone has any thoughts on my attempt or even better their own!
Basic Analog patch. Dual square waves an octave apart, LP filter envelope with a small amount of velocity > env.
Basic Analog patch. Dual square waves an octave apart, LP filter envelope with a small amount of velocity > env.
Analog Patch.png (50.32 KiB) Viewed 1354 times
Subtle delay on the mid and high frequencies only, helped to bed out the sound a little.
Subtle delay on the mid and high frequencies only, helped to bed out the sound a little.
High-Pass + Delay Chain.png (58.88 KiB) Viewed 1354 times
Finally a bit of EQ and a small amount of basic saturation.
Finally a bit of EQ and a small amount of basic saturation.
EQ + Saturate.png (58 KiB) Viewed 1354 times
Bram_Menta_Bass.mp3.zip
Audio of my attempt. Added a few drums for context.
(102.4 KiB) Downloaded 146 times

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Críoch
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Re: How to create this lovely acid bass?

Post by Críoch »

That sounds really nice man.. I'd be more than happy with that - Sounds great.
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bram2000
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Re: How to create this lovely acid bass?

Post by bram2000 »

Thanks man, it's amazing how much more movement I got with that small amount of velocity > env.

Forgot to attach the MIDI clip so here it is:
MIDI Clip.png
MIDI Clip.png (21.64 KiB) Viewed 1349 times

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Re: How to create this lovely acid bass?

Post by wouterdewitte »

Yeah sounds very close imo.. nice job!
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Re: How to create this lovely acid bass?

Post by Patriek »

Sounds very nice! And thanks for sharing how you managed to get it to sound like this :)
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sam
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Re: How to create this lovely acid bass?

Post by sam »

yeah it sounds really good bram, closer than i got.

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Críoch
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Post by Críoch »

Tbh.. I prefer it to the original sound haha
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Post by bram2000 »

ICN wrote:Tbh.. I prefer it to the original sound haha
Haha 8-)

Just thought of something that came up when I was trying out Sam's tips. You don't seem to be able to assign negative values to the velocity settings in Ableton Analog like you can in other synths. Is this because that's the case with real physical analog synths, or am I missing something?


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