Ableton Forum

I just purchased Live 7 (was working with the demo for a long time...)
and I was wondering how to get that famous electro house bass.
Think of Benassi, Global Deejays, Wolfgang Gartner, Swen Weber, Deadmau5, etc
That dark gritty bassline. I know that it's easily possible in Live and I've seen videos on youtube where people have a bass sound like that, I'm just wondering how they created it.
Would a simple plugin like impOSCar do it? I've heard that you should use a sawtooth waveform but is that it? Can someone please give me some tips on what the plugin values should be at? Or better yet an example in a live project?

Any help is much appreciated... I think it's great that there is an online community of musicians that can share knowledge and help each other out..

The sawtooth is the way...

Some distortion works too...

So only a sawtooth? And then some effects? I tried only a sawtooth and it's not really that sick bass sound. I guess it obviously wont be that easy...
Well I'll keep trying thanks...

$2,000+ hardware Moog or Virus. I'm not happy about it either but that's just the way it is.

Try for example mixing a saw and a square wave. Or have a saw wave play two octaves at the same time c2 and c3 for example. Distortion works very well quite often. Check out the free camelcrusher http://www.camelaudio.com/camelcrusher.php

This video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgPJ9T-s_Rk might help you out a bit...
It's using Logic's ES2 analog synth, but the info is basic.

gah, double post

context is everything

a saw on itself isn't very special (although I think it's nice enough sometimes)

what you need is a specific combination of synth programming, EQ, FX and the rest of the track needs to be good too ...

I've personally found that e.g. a slightly distorted saw osc played in the lower octaves with an EQ that cuts the midrange by -8dB and a short and slightly delayed reverb works well for that up front very present saw bass.

[edit] honestly, at first I though you were referring to that quintessential Kevin Saunderson bass, but then I saw you had 'electro' in your title

Thank you for the links! I will check them all out and see what i can do...
Anyone make the kind of music I'm talking about?

Can I download an Ableton Live 7 project from somebody with a good sounding electro bass?

Check these out mate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZUGTPOJ ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0NDA8CJBY8

beats me wrote:$2,000+ hardware Moog or Virus. I'm not happy about it either but that's just the way it is.

Or an SE Electronics analog synth

Having tried all three for this (and a bunch of others), ended using the virus TI for it mostly. Also running it through an SPL charisma helps too.

Basic ingredients are a fat raw osc sound, LP12 filter and tubey distortion, very little if any reso. I find a mix or saw and square wave at about 65% cycle and use EQ to add presence and soften the high end a little if needed. Also trying dialing in an extra osc at +19 semi tones to add extra harmonics. With SE Synths, then the 303 and LP24 filters are not that useful for it - better with the ARP or SEM filters. The OD models have a useful overdrive in them for this as well. If moog - then you probably want a mini or LP rather than a voyager, or use an external overdrive.

Its probably amount the most basic sounds you can get out of an analog or VA synth + distortion - most of the programming effort goes into getting a good fat character out of it, but the basic sound is a no brainer - it more about how you real time mess with it.

rob lee wrote:Check these out mate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ZUGTPOJ ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0NDA8CJBY8

Thank you!
The second one really helped. I downloaded that VST (Ritual) and I'm almost getting to that sound I love.
'm just using a sawtooth with full cutoff and no resonance and then I've got a vinyl distortion on top of that...