Ableton Forum

hey guys. Whoever makes trip hop here or downtempo chill music do you guys filter your sound? What kind of filter low pass? and what are the actual parameters used, whatever I try I can never get that deep warm sound without it having either release noises on it or loud picking sounds. (I am using Trilogy for bass

cartel00 wrote:hey guys. Whoever makes trip hop here or downtempo chill music do you guys filter your sound? What kind of filter low pass? and what are the actual parameters used, whatever I try I can never get that deep warm sound without it having either release noises on it or loud picking sounds. (I am using Trilogy for bass

Depends on what you mean by trip hop.

A lot of it is real bass. That's what I like to use for it mostly.

Try a simple sine or square with a longer attack and somewhat short release.

You can just find a preset that has some of the elements and then play with the attack and release.

The longer attack will make it sounds softer on the front edge which will eliminate the picking sound.

when you say what I mean my trip hop... that is a good point. Howver I think the one element that all of trip hop has in common is the bass sound which is like what you said usually played (the acoustic or electri upright). However Trilogy has a very good bass soundbank, and the one thing I want to get out of it I cant. What you suggested did not work... I always thought it had something to do with filtering the sound... do you filter any of your bass sound?

Well if you throw on some low pass (talking eq here as opposed to filter) you'll surely cut some of the high attack sound out, and as kennerb says increase the attack time to kill the initial attack or pick sound.

If you're adjusting the synth's filter, yeah, use a low pass and bring down the frequency and q to kill some high end.

Hilarious. I was just about to make the same thread on the synth forum I'm on. I agree that most trip hop has the same sound. I was just listening to Portishead b-sides and rarities and that bass is pounding, yet soft.

Everyone I've talked to says to go high on the resonance and low on the cutoff. The attack/release tips don't always work, however, because alot of this trip hop bass can pound, meaning it attacks hard and ends abruptly.

But, yeah, square and sine waves have a real soft sound. But I've found triangle wave patches to do just the same.

I'm retarded when it comes to filters (I'm new to synthesis), but I generally tweak out the highs on my Eqs. It seems a lot of sub bass patches have a "pop" when you hit the note, which I don't like.

(bump)

No one else has any advice?

I use a Moog Voyager, NL2x, Reason and NI Komplete 3, and can never seem to built this sound from scratch.

i think alot of that type of bass sound has to do with the use of compression...try using two compressors, the first one set to limit with a fairly quick attack and release, another set at a lower ratio with a slow attack and long release.
i've used this type of compression with my electric upright and had some really great results.

D K wrote:i think alot of that type of bass sound has to do with the use of compression...try using two compressors, the first one set to limit with a fairly quick attack and release, another set at a lower ratio with a slow attack and long release.
i've used this type of compression with my electric upright and had some really great results.

Wouldn't one cancel out the other with respect to attack/release?

What compressor (in Live) do you use, if any?

the first gets the levels really even, the second controls the length of the compressed sound...it's more like an effect than level control. this is actually a real old-school use of compression. in ableton, you could use combinations of different compressors,
a cool one is hitting saturator pretty hard(it has an extreme type of compression) and then using say compressor 2 with long attack and release. this might have a rougher attack, but yields a really cool sound with the release dialed in. if that's too much, try a pair of compressor 2's.
play with a pre-recorded loop that has some space so you can hear the release times,
it's nice to adjust the release to fit around kit loops/percussion hits.

D K wrote:the first gets the levels really even, the second controls the length of the compressed sound...it's more like an effect than level control. this is actually a real old-school use of compression. in ableton, you could use combinations of different compressors,
a cool one is hitting saturator pretty hard(it has an extreme type of compression) and then using say compressor 2 with long attack and release. this might have a rougher attack, but yields a really cool sound with the release dialed in. if that's too much, try a pair of compressor 2's.
play with a pre-recorded loop that has some space so you can hear the release times,
it's nice to adjust the release to fit around kit loops/percussion hits.

That's a good point. I like to fatten it up with saturater or tubeVST. A low cutoff is good as well. I don't know about the rez though. That would depend on the patch. You can back off the attack just enough to round it out while having a good punch still. cutting the release and then adding a little bit of delay can also make it end quckly while still having the full sound without tapering out as well. Compression is also a great idea if used right. Might I suggest cutting out some of the mid frequencies as well. Make it sit well on the low end while having a little color in the higher range.

What I do pretty often is combine two different sounds. One being your run-of-the-mill sub bass, which is just there the reinforce the low end if needed. The other is a sample of a Fender Telecaster played with a pick pitched down an octave. The combination of the two gives you this nice 1960's Gibson EB-2 short-scale bass sound with a nice attack (Think Portishead's Sour Times), and usually doesn't need too much EQ. If I need an upright bass I use a multisample of a '63 Kay upright that I got from the EXS24 Yahoogroup, and add the sub bass to flavor.

mcconaghy wrote:What I do pretty often is combine two different sounds. One being your run-of-the-mill sub bass, which is just there the reinforce the low end if needed. The other is a sample of a Fender Telecaster played with a pick pitched down an octave. The combination of the two gives you this nice 1960's Gibson EB-2 short-scale bass sound with a nice attack (Think Portishead's Sour Times), and usually doesn't need too much EQ. If I need an upright bass I use a multisample of a '63 Kay upright that I got from the EXS24 Yahoogroup, and add the sub bass to flavor.

Nice tip, yo!!!

what vst plugins are you guys using for your bass sound?

bass station

karma fx

a tuned down guitar

korg triton

marijuana

anyone else using anything else