how to make this distorted bass???

  • Well, one thing you've got to know (if you do not already) about this kind of production, is that usually the bass is produced by taking a long session of sound tweaking, recorded into one long continuous track, and then taking only the good bits, and making loops out of them. Therefore I can only point out how to get the basic effects, but it might not be possible to reproduce the exact bass line using only one patch.
    The grittiness of the bass line is produced, in my opinion by using a very fast LFO to control the cutoff point of a lowpass filter, filtering most probably a sawtooth oscillator. The LFO shape, sounds to me like sawtooth as well, but try other shapes just to be sure.
    Route a soft-knob to the cutoff frequency, and you will be able to recreate the occasional fade-out. The "talking" effect is created by emphasizing frequencies that are usually quiet, or introducing frequencies that were never there to begin with. Many effects can do that: Rate reducer, distortions, vowel filter - try them all out to see what they do.

  • Thanks for your answer...you seem a very great producer to know all that thing about the sound...
    If I all understand ( sorry i'm french) it's very difficult to reproduce this sound with the virus...impossible???
    But what are their secrets, because this sound is very popular in electro...they used a moog?a doepfer?
    Did you tried to reproduce this kind of sound with the virus???
    Thank you very much....you're very great to help the new user of virus...
    Last question...they are some rules to work with the virus? I explain me!..
    If i want reproduce or creat a special sound which oscillator must i use??
    The grain simple to make this, the wavetable to o that, etc etc...or not
    I'm lost... Without help i'm shure that i use the vius at 5% of his capacities...
    Thank you
    I'm a new user...So excuse me if i don't all understand

  • it's very difficult to reproduce this sound with the virus...impossible???

    I never said that... What I said was that there are 2 stages to the production (I don't know about this case). One is to mess around with your synth (any synth, even the Virus), try many sounds and effects and keep recording your experiments non-stop. After you are done experimenting, you go back to the track you recorded and take only the best parts, to be used as loops in the song. You can apply additional processing to them such as pitch shifting, time stretching etc. This is just the general idea of the workflow, without any regard to a certain synth.

    Did you tried to reproduce this kind of sound with the virus???

    Well, at first I didn't, but now I did. The LFO/filter idea I had was interesting, but not good enough. What actually makes the high pitch buzz of the distortion is most probably a rate reducer (also known as a lo-fi effect). Use only one oscillator at the sawtooth position, and give it a little nudge in the direction of the sine wave, to get a little more bass. Set the oscillator volume in the saturation area, and set the saturation effect to rate reducer. Fine tune the oscillator volume's saturation amount, until you get just the amount of buzz you want. I also found that adding some gain to the mid-EQ helps achieve the desired sound. That's the basic sound. There are lots of effects applied to it, but I don't know which of them you want.

    they are some rules to work with the virus? I explain me!..
    If i want reproduce or creat a special sound which oscillator must i use??
    The grain simple to make this, the wavetable to o that, etc etc...or not
    I'm lost... Without help i'm shure that i use the vius at 5% of his capacities...

    Well, there is some basic knowledge that is good for any subtractive synth, such as that sawtooth waves are good for brass and strings, and square waves are good for flutes. There is a very good tutorial on this site that teaches you this. Follow it step by step. What you really need is to get to know each and every waveform and how it behaves under different filter settings and other effects. It will be long, it will take time, and you might not make any music during this time, but you will be a better user thanks to it.

  • Thanks, really thanks for your help...one day i wish be like that...like you...hear a sound and say " ok, there is a sawtooth with filter, etc etc...i do like that, liitle distortion etc, etc..." ..it would be great...maybe one day...
    I showed the tuto on the website...always in english.... :( ...but i going to read and read and try and try...


    When you write this..." in my opinion by using a very fast LFO to control the cutoff point of a lowpass filter, filtering most probably a sawtooth oscillator", how do you do that with the virus??with the matrix??or just with the lfo's section??
    Really, if you Lived in france, i shall pay you to give me lesson....
    if you get a similar sound, tell me, i shall really very interested , how do you get it....i'll see your work...
    Thank you taking some time to help a new user like me...i really appreciate

  • I showed the tuto on the website...always in english.... :( ...but i going to read and read and try and try...

    There is also a tutorial in Spanish if that is better for you.

    When you write this..." in my opinion by using a very fast LFO to control the cutoff point of a lowpass filter, filtering most probably a sawtooth oscillator", how do you do that with the virus??with the matrix??or just with the lfo's section??

    All the LFO-s have a selection box to the far right. You can choose "filter 1 cutoff" there. You can also use the matrix, but if you have an option to use the LFO section, it's better because it uses less of the Virus' computing power, and therefore yields more polyphony.

    if you get a similar sound, tell me, i shall really very interested , how do you get it....i'll see your work...
    Thank you taking some time to help a new user like me...i really appreciate

    You're welcome, I can upload some photos, but now I'm confused regarding which of the options you are referring to (fast LFO / rate reducer).

  • OK, this is the basic sound:
    [Blockierte Grafik: http://i1240.photobucket.com/a…rbob/tweak-and-cut-01.png
    [Blockierte Grafik: http://i1240.photobucket.com/a…rbob/tweak-and-cut-02.png
    Also, in the common tab I set "Key Mode" to "mono 3".


    I started recording the audio coming from the Virus, played a couple of notes, and while holding a note, I started tweaking the following effects:
    [Blockierte Grafik: http://i1240.photobucket.com/a…rbob/tweak-and-cut-03.png
    Then I took the long audio strip I just recorded, cut it into little bits and placed them in a pattern. It came out like this (first 30 seconds is the full recording, afterwords it's the pattern) .

  • Is one suggesting that Massive is better than The Virus?


    Better? Well thats subjective, personally i think its at least as good as my TI2 ... it is however one thing for sure... different and that if anything else is the best reason to use it in conjunction with the virus.