Ableton Forum

hey guys

so im trying to learn the ins and outs of ableton. I have a good understanding of the interface but i dont have a good understanding of HOW the sounds are created (basically if theres a sound in my head i'll have to screw around on ableton for a while until i find the right sound.)

i'm in the very early stages of beat making so sorry if this question seems a bit "noob"

im trying to create dubstep music. i know how to play around with the operator and auto filter options to create the wobble and the "oi oi oi" sound but im trying to figure out how to make the "dubstep scratch"

a good example is this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apKIptA4eCw

and i also wanted to now how to make the "bwahh" kind of sound (the sound gains intensity instead of losing it)

this is a very good example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTpcfDKV0wA.

Dubstep isnt a type of music or a genre, its a production template.

I havent really looked into exactly how people make dubstep (as Im not that interested) but i suspect it involves:

1) A Sample CD of percussion loops or a set of dubsteppy drum hits.
2) A synth that makes squarewaves modulated with a pretty extreme filter connected to an LFO. Ran through a samplerate reducer / waveshaper. Or Massive.
3) Recording hours of randomly messing around with LFO settings. Then chopping it up. Or loads of random automation in Massive.
4) Sidechains all over everything.
5) Some sort of sequensable FX plugin with lots of distortion type effects that you can set to do random shit all over everything.
6) A brickwall limiter.
7) Asprin.

And thats as polite as I can get about Dubstep.

Tenshi wrote:Dubstep isnt a type of music or a genre, its a production template.

I havent really looked into exactly how people make dubstep (as Im not that interested) but i suspect it involves:

1) A Sample CD of percussion loops or a set of dubsteppy drum hits.
2) A synth that makes squarewaves modulated with a pretty extreme filter connected to an LFO. Ran through a samplerate reducer / waveshaper. Or Massive.
3) Recording hours of randomly messing around with LFO settings. Then chopping it up. Or loads of random automation in Massive.
4) Sidechains all over everything.
5) Some sort of sequensable FX plugin with lots of distortion type effects that you can set to do random shit all over everything.
6) A brickwall limiter.
7) Asprin.

And thats as polite as I can get about Dubstep.

thanks! i didnt understand close to 40% of your post which gives me a ton of researching to do. More posts like this please! id rather research all this stuff than have someone tell me an answer outright

on a side note, i've heard of massive but are there any other good vst's for dubstep?

Tenshi wrote:Dubstep isnt a type of music or a genre, its a production template.

Haha! Oh god... I've heard it all now. Thanks for the lol.

P.S. rock music isn't a type of music, its just a template. And hip-hop isn't a genre, its a donkey with 3 legs.

Tenshi wrote:Dubstep isnt a type of music or a genre, its a production template.

I havent really looked into exactly how people make dubstep (as Im not that interested) but i suspect it involves:

do a youtube search for "how to make dubstep" for example, there are tons of videos.
i would love to give you THE answer, but that`s really too complex.
and of course there are other plugins than massive which are great for dubstep!
take a look at zebra2, NI razor and FM8 for example.
but all of them are using complete different synthese techniques, so take your time
first choose one of them, learn it as best as you can, before you go to the next.
maybe massive isnt a bad starting point?!

cheers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... BStbd2B8Jk#

Yes, it seems like people use Massive a lot, but you should be able to use whatever you've got. It's just a matter of learning how to use the synth instead of using presets. I don't make it myself typically, but you should be able to get a lot of the bass sounds with thick distortion, extreme compression settings (basically search around for what not to do with a compressor), and most importantly learning about modulation on your OSC, and on your Filters.

You can learn most of this by taking stoersignal's suggestion of youtubing it.

I think getting decent sound placement/balance is pretty tough. I've never been able to do it when making this type of track. This is probably why 93% of dubstep sounds like a low frequency circle jerk, because lots of other people can't either... so be careful.

simmerdown wrote:

Tenshi wrote:Dubstep isnt a type of music or a genre, its a production template.

I havent really looked into exactly how people make dubstep (as Im not that interested) but i suspect it involves:

Can you communicate with words or only pictures?

I will change my mind about dubstep when someone makes the second dubstep track.

mutator wrote:

Tenshi wrote:P.S. rock music isn't a type of music, its just a template. And hip-hop isn't a genre, its a donkey with 3 legs.

To me dubstep is breakbeat. Minus dynamic range. That doesn't constitute a genre. I have heard nothing in dubstep I havent heard in what was once called breakbeat years ago.

But as those with any knowledge of music know segregation of genres is subjective.

levi?

Actually I like dubstep. Or at least some dubstep tracks. Its just become kind of a cliche.

It reminds of me trance. There were a few seminal trance tracks that became templates for a never ending stream of commercial trance records. It effectively ended trance as a genre as it seems no serious artists want to be labeled as trance. Even though there is still some great trance being made today.

Dubstep is like that except it has happened about 50 times faster, thanks to the internet.

hey guys.

ya i've been watching a crap load of youtube videos but a lot of them produce a sound that im not looking for.

believe me i've searched for tutorials on how to re-create the sounds in OP but i couldnt find anything so any help on that?

and music is subjective to how your nerves handle the frequencies. since we were born billions upon billions of small details have affected our personality and preferences so regardless if dubstep is a genre its still considered MUSIC it still puts a smile on people faces (or that might be the drugs)

if i farted in a mic rythymically im sure SOMEONE on this planet would consider that music

people who classify and put music into categories have become cold to the creativity and effort put in to make a song. thats my 2 cents atleast

and i also wanted to now how to make the "bwahh" kind of sound (the sound gains intensity instead of losing it)

this is a very good example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTpcfDKV0wA.

This is likely simply a lowpass filter with an envelope.

Maybe this will get you in the right direction. You never mentioned what synth you are trying to use, so I used Operator. It isn't exactly like you hear in the song, but it's close, and I'm at work so won't mess around too much.

Operator should open with the default factory Sine wave preset.

Click OSC A on the lower left, and in the center display, set the "wave" to something like a SQ6.
On OSC B, set the wave to something like SQ32, and change the "Coarse" value to 2. Put the volume for osc B at -26 db. Different levels of volume on this OSCB will create a very very different sound, so just mess with it until it sounds acceptable.

The trick to get the bbwwaAAHH sound you are referencing (on any synth) is to tweak a filter while the note is playing. The specific sound you are looking at sounds like it uses a low-pass filter.

In the filter section on the right, turn it on, and select Low 12db. I have my frequency setting as low as it will go, and resonance around 1.

In the paramater window, find Envelope (it's in the very middle). Set it to 100%.

Adjust the ADSR envelope to have an elongated attack, and preferably with a change in slope. This is hard to describe with text, so I'll put an image up of my current settings.


Notice especially two things: My attack value is set around 800 ms (click the top left yellow box), and my attack slope is at -66% (click the first little blue dot).

This envelope is what creates the sweeping effect I believe you are asking about.

The next thing I would definitely recommend doing, is making it a little more dynamic, perhaps by setting the "Freq<Vel" value high (mine's at 65%). This changes the filter frequency (or how dramatic the oooWAHHH will be) based on how hard you strike a note. It helps with expression significantly. You can also route velocity to adjust the "time" parameter (click the bottom right panel, with the Time Tone and Volume knobs, then in the center display where it says Velocity, select Connection A and choose "Time"). This will give different lengths of sweep, which can be nice to control as well.


If you are looking for the auto-wobble stuff, you would just turn the LFO on (top right), turn off A, B, C, D, and turn on FIL in the center display. ABCD are for controlling pitch, and FIL controls the filter. It doesn't sound awesome in this patch's context, you'd definitely want to adjust some of the settings...
You'll want to click the drop down marked "L", and select Sync. This controls how fast the LFO oscillates, and will force it to the time of your music. Change your Rate as you wish, and set your Amount to 100% for the most dramatic effect, to help you understand what it's doing. Of course, modify your settings to whatever sounds cool. You might want to change the wave type for instance, to a SawUp or something maybe...

That's just one way to do it, using Operator. There are a billion other combinations of settings to get a similar sound, but the Filter Envelope is likely the trick you need to learn. If you are set on using Massive, then you may be better off asking this question in the NI forum.

Hope this helps, have fun.