Any Bazzism Users?

[starrk]

I'm a huge fan of BazzISM ever since I realized that was the sound I've loved for so long in early Tommy Four Seven. One of the limitations I've found in my own productions though is that you have to spin up a new instance if you have differently kicked tunes in the C0-F1 range instead of just being able to tune the kick by taking the MIDI pitch (I play C0, I get a C0 tuned kick).

Anyone know if it is possible to configure BazzISM in that way? I often find myself experimenting with variously tuned kicks in breakbeat songs and that experimentation is really slowed down when I have to open up the plugin window each time I want to try something different.

[pafavag]

Didn’t t47 say that the buzzism is the only element that doesn’t fall into his sound design philosophy and he just uses it to make his tracks club friendly? I’ve never tried the plug in myself but it looks like it ignores the midi pitch and you tune the peak and sustain frequencies separately, right? The quick solution would be to just assign those parameters to macros (or even one macro) just to avoid opening the vst window. I can’t imagine how it could work with having steps assigned to specific notes since as far as I know the tone of the kick isn’t necessarily the tone of the highest or lowest frequency. But if you are only after the frequency of the sustain you can assign every macro to an interval between notes. It’s a bit time consuming but you can save it as a preset. That’s all I can think of but maybe someone who actually uses the plugin can give you a better advice.

[starrk]

That's interesting, I actually didn't know that, do you have the link to that comment somewhere maybe? Would love to read up on that.

Yeah I tried what you have said and it seems to work, but at the end of the day it too comes with some limitations, as there are other parameters you may / may not want. I guess I'll stick with what's available though I've reached out to the developers to see why they made this decision.

[pafavag]

But what exactly would you like to modulate by midi. The final key of the kick? I don’t think that’d be possible anyways. Usually midi controls the freq of oscilators. Since this is split in two (fpeak and fend) i can only imagine you’d control the sustain parameter (fEnd). But this is not necessarily the tone of the kick, is it?

This is the interview:
https://www.residentadvisor.net/features/1308
I thought thats what you were referring to. It’s interesting

[starrk]

Right yeah, so what I was after was basically fEnd. I.E. a MIDI note C0 should play back the plug-in with all parameters as they are set and override fEnd to C0.

Interesting, that is the article I've read, but I can see what you mean now, I guess I was overly excited about generating that clean drum that I'm fond of that I didn't actually read carefully.

FWIW I reached out to the authors of Bazzism and they have a version they claim does what I'm after, they sent it over though I haven't had the chance to play with it / explore if it actually does what I want it to. Apparently there is some deterioration that happens in the sound for lower octaves? Not entirely clear, but have sent back an email asking for details so hopefully they respond.

[pafavag]

I see. So the only walk around I can think of is to create a template with the plug in and 12 hits in midi, 4x4, every hit for one note. Then you set fEnd in envelope mode in the midi clip so every midi note has the parameter set for the according value (C0-16.3Hz; C#0-17.3Hz etc.). Then you just move the loop marker along the clip to get different notes and the fEnd will be the only parameter affected. There is no point in doing that if you already have the version that does that with midi, but in case it didn't you can try that. Anyway, so nice of them that they sent you the alternative version. I've had mostly experiences with design software and the approach of music production plugins developers comes as quite a shock to me.

Btw, how is that bazzism working out for you? Do you manage to design the final kicks not using anything else? Atm I synthesise them in a regular synth vst and just drop loads of effects, resample, drop some more effects, resample again and so on. It works alright until it's the end of the process and I realise I'd like to change the pitch envelope. So maybe a decent kick synth would do...

[Divjak]

Bazzism is nice I use it sometimes. During my workflow I am constantly going back to the pitch of the kick (even when i am finishing a track); it is really important for me to be able to correct the pitch at the start of the kick and at the body of the kick. I learned that kick really starts to work in proper context. I build the context and constantly try to get elements "in tune" with each other. Its like a puzzle, at one point you hear a "click" and your kick sings with the track. I would say tuning is more important than source.

[starrk]

pafavag I don't really design kicks in Bazzism but to the point of that article it adds an extra oomph at the end that I can highly recommend. The kicks I use will be either samples or field recordings that I've processed but Bazzism is capable of generating a very powerful and cutting low end that sounds wonderful. You can definitely hear it in all of T47's Primate. That said I've grown to really love the sound, and when I'm working in breakbeat songs, I'll sometimes actually start with it.

And to the point mentioned above, it's easy enough to tune the output of Bazzism so it works in your mix.

[sergiobR1]

you can make kicks with any synth u want, I've been hearing that vst, the magic might come from the filter envelope (maybe???)
the "whoof" u say at the end it's because theres a click at the beggining that's layering the kick so after the clicks gone comes the real kick.
I don't really use that kind of kick designers anymore, I'm more into kicks samples processed by tape recordings or analog desks for the layers.

But a more modern vst kick designer nowadays I can recommend Kick 2, it's kind of mainstream, but it has a osciloscope and it's really easy to get what u want/need.

I would like to give it a try maybe, but it's too old, and I'm using 64bits vst, and my Jbridge it's fuck'd up or I don't really remember how to use it.

Do you have a 64bit link ?

[Críoch]

Is t47 actually producing music again?

Last thing i heard was the CLR album. Think there was something else on Stroboscopic Artefacts maybe.. they're the last things.

Anything else worth listening to?

[acesd619]

Sorry if I seem like an ass because the last guy asking what my thoughts were about Ozone thought I was an ass. Maybe I shouldn't reply to these technical threads when I'm buzzed. You can get different pitches if you play from a lower octave. The confusion is thinking you're playing C0 from Middle C but fact of the matter is you can go lower than Middle C on a MIDI controller to toggle between various pitches. Sorry if that isn't what you're looking for. Bazzism is cool. It forces you to zero in on the low end like a surgeon. I'm too stupid to be a surgeon. I'd rather make experimental EQ boosts in Toraverb.

Just did a drunk experiment and I can play from -C2 on the keys (negative C2) all the way up through the low end spectrum. Oh that is sick - I had no idea it went that low. It's falling off the low end of the spectrum analyzer - all the low end range you could ever dream of from this life and through the next.

[Barry G]

I have Bazzism and Kick 2 and prefer Kick 2 somewhat ( larger learning curve), though I will use samples as well. I always found Bazzism did not quite
get the fatness I was after, though since then there has been a few updates, it seemed to exel at short punhcy kicks in my experience. Of course you can eq and process but I am a believer of getting things right as close to source as possible. Sometimes a great kick as a sample, is just a great kick. I have no objections at all in using a sample. It can be educational to synthesize your own kicks in order to learn something and understand the anatomy of well crafted kicks that you like.

Without really good acoustics it can be hard work nailing a subby and punchy kick drum. (and that is before you even get your bass line sorted) And arguably the kick and the bass are part of one and the same thing, that which gets your legs moving.

[0dd]

I have Bazzism and Kick 2 and prefer Kick 2 somewhat ( larger learning curve), though I will use samples as well. I always found Bazzism did not quite
get the fatness I was after, though since then there has been a few updates, it seemed to exel at short punhcy kicks in my experience. Of course you can eq and process but sometimes a great kick as a sample is just a great kick. I have no objections at all in using a sample. It can be educational to synthesize your own kicks in order to learn something and understand the anatomy of well crafted kicks that you like.

Without really good acoustics it can be hard work nailing a subby and punchy kick drum. (and that is before you even get your bass line sorted) And arguably the kick and the bass are part of one and the same thing, that which gets your legs moving.

Do you know of some good kick2 tutorials by any chance? I've been using it for a few months but basically just tuning and shortening/lengthening it and raising the amp curve at the tail and then layering over a mid/hi sample and then post processing out of the plugin. I feel there's more to it no?

[Barry G]

Kick 2 is quite a fiddly bit of software. A little unintuitive as I was finding that changing the amplitude envelope
seems to have unexpected results... making it a bit twitchy. I think the key is knowing what a good kick is.. It is
subjective of course.. and your good kick, is not the next persons, and 1 out of 2 good kicks one may suit your track better than the
the other. The advice I can give is to always tweak your kick in context of the bassline as they have to work together and well.

You can come up with something that sounds good in isolation but it is not much use if not grooving with your bass line.

This is not techno precisely (there is some overlap in techniques presented at times) but the guy gives some insight into Kick2's power as he synthesizes some kicks from other tracks he liked, navigate to 02.22 for Kick 2 info. (although the entire video is a good watch), see how he uses amplitude envelope as an eq, he is a power user.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSzP2_AO0DQ

Well worth a watch, and his accent becomes mesmerizing.

My own take is that ears are the final judge of good and bad kicks/bass (though that needs a good room or other methods you trust) but it can be
useful to consider the kick vs bass phase relatiionship overlaps (if any of course). I would not focus on an oscilliscope as the be all and end all but it
can be illuminating to see what is happening in between notes/overlaps and your kick.

64 bit version of the scope in the video: http://armandomontanez.com/smexoscope/

[0dd]

Thanks mate, will check it out!

[Barry G]

I pop back to this as I made a very nice deep fat kick with Bazzism recently. You do have to scoop a bit of mud out of Bazzism kicks
as it tends to load the lower mids quite a bit for some reason. But it can do decent fat deep kicks as well : )