Skrillex reveals details on how he makes his basslines

[Jacob15728]

It's not terribly confusing, look up Trifonic's FM Synthesis 101 tutorials for a start.

Has anyone had any luck creating movement/vowel sounds with these FM8 growls without using an external filter? I can't get Ahh out of it, and that's about it. Any ideas? I know the envelopes play a role in this, but I'm not sure to what extent.

"aahh" like this? these are all straight out of fm8 btw, nothing external used at all
Soundcloud

Now you're just teasing us. Damn.

Do you think that could be done in Sytrus?

[hasezwei]

It's not terribly confusing, look up Trifonic's FM Synthesis 101 tutorials for a start.

Has anyone had any luck creating movement/vowel sounds with these FM8 growls without using an external filter? I can't get Ahh out of it, and that's about it. Any ideas? I know the envelopes play a role in this, but I'm not sure to what extent.

"aahh" like this? these are all straight out of fm8 btw, nothing external used at all
Soundcloud

sounds interesting, how does it behave on lower pitches tho?
i suppose thats the triangle sounds you were talking about?

[Augment]

I've got FL, and I use FM8, jr

thats cool bro. just sayin if you already have sytrus, you could save a buck and use it instead of buying fm8.

I just like the interface better in FM8, sytrus was confusing, haha
btw, who said anything about buying

[Mannyyyyy]

so mostly he's boosting certain ares of the eq to get a certain formant freq?

seems interesting, I wouldn't think boosting is a good idea for mids but i might have to try that.

[Insahn]

so mostly he's boosting certain ares of the eq to get a certain formant freq?

seems interesting, I wouldn't think boosting is a good idea for mids but i might have to try that.

Well, he says he's taking simple waveforms, looking at the entire spectrum, and depending on what is there or not there boosting certain frequencies to create formants. So, you can't just make vowel sounds out of something that isn't really that present, obviously.

And Rando, yeah, Ahhh's like that I can make, but someone posted their FM8 try a few days ago in the "how to sound like skrillex" thread, and that I can't do. I would love a hint.

[dubesteppe]

Soundcloud heres my best attepmt at a Skrillex Growl. All I have to say is automating filters is a bitch.

[RandoRando]

I just like the interface better in FM8, sytrus was confusing, haha

the main reason i use FM8 over sytrus, i am just waiting for JISREAL TO MAKE A TUTORIAL then maybe ill understand sytrus GUI, lol. im jk j i know theres a tons on YT but thought it would be better to head from a DSF er

EDIT : oh and yeah ill upload that patch, i gotta make it more "standard" though i dont want to give away too much of my new monster sounds lol. the sound will still be there though, just you have to make the envelopes . ill write in the attributes section though what to modulate

[RandoRando]

Here is a simplified version of the patches in that sound cloud link, read the attributes section.

http://www.mediafire.com/?oe6swszftyk8p4n

[Jacob15728]

Who needs FM synthesis? I got this starting with a lion growl, then resampled/granulized it several times. Don't remember the effects chain but it was pretty complex. On Soundcloud it got a bit quieter but it sounded quite similar to the growls on Skrillex's Isquare remix

Soundcloud

[Insahn]

Here is a simplified version of the patches in that sound cloud link, read the attributes section.

http://www.mediafire.com/?oe6swszftyk8p4n

I couldn't get your patch to work, I could read the attributes, but it was just a standard initialize patch.

[xrylex]

Soundcloud

this is the same method that skrillex mentioned in the interview... automating an eq for diff formants. (there is no sub in this btw)

its pretty simple to understand actually.... think of the EQ as the "mouth" of the bass sound. its easy to sit here and mimic the sound of a bass growl with your mouth. and all you are doing is changing the shape of your mouth, moving your tongue slightly, opening/closing your mouth...

since we obviously dont have that much control of an EQ, you just do it as simply as you can.... and in ableton, this is pretty much already done for us as there are EQ8/formant presets for each vowel. the key is automating the boosted frequency point back and forth to replicate a mouth opening and closing.

if you guys have other questions about how i got the sound im happy to give more details.

[xrylex]

so mostly he's boosting certain ares of the eq to get a certain formant freq?

seems interesting, I wouldn't think boosting is a good idea for mids but i might have to try that.

its not boosting much at all.. its more about boosting 2 points, and then cutting a huge notch in between them. so think of it as: --V-- so the top points are boosted a couple of db with very narrow q. but the big notch is scooped waaay down. the automation can be on either one of the top points, or on both. or even the q of the cut/notched section as well.... only automate a little bit back and forth.

and bam, talking formant eq automation.

[RandoRando]

Here is a simplified version of the patches in that sound cloud link, read the attributes section.

http://www.mediafire.com/?oe6swszftyk8p4n

I couldn't get your patch to work, I could read the attributes, but it was just a standard initialize patch.

its working for other people :/

do you have an old version of FM8? mine is 1.0.1002

[BassSaber]

@xrylex, what was your initial waveform in creating that sound? Is it essentially just an Operator with EQ and an automated vowel preset boosting back and forth between different frequencies?

I'm interested in this technique but I know not of any EQs other than Ableton's one that has vowel filters - WOW Filter comes to mind though that's not an EQ, but is it possible to do such formant EQ automations in FL Studio?

[AllNightDayDream]

Great read

[Insahn]

Here is a simplified version of the patches in that sound cloud link, read the attributes section.

http://www.mediafire.com/?oe6swszftyk8p4n

I couldn't get your patch to work, I could read the attributes, but it was just a standard initialize patch.

its working for other people :/

do you have an old version of FM8? mine is 1.0.1002

Yeah, I have an older version of FM8. Ah well... I'll figure it out.

[RandoRando]

Here is a simplified version of the patches in that sound cloud link, read the attributes section.

http://www.mediafire.com/?oe6swszftyk8p4n

I couldn't get your patch to work, I could read the attributes, but it was just a standard initialize patch.

its working for other people :/

do you have an old version of FM8? mine is 1.0.1002

Yeah, I have an older version of FM8. Ah well... I'll figure it out.

its free to upgrade from NI

[xrylex]

@xrylex, what was your initial waveform in creating that sound? Is it essentially just an Operator with EQ and an automated vowel preset boosting back and forth between different frequencies?

I'm interested in this technique but I know not of any EQs other than Ableton's one that has vowel filters - WOW Filter comes to mind though that's not an EQ, but is it possible to do such formant EQ automations in FL Studio?

the initial sound really isnt that important with this to be honest. this particular sound is a combo of scrapyard and deepthroat, but ive gotten similar results with a totally different patch in massive using totally different waveforms. ive also got it running thru band reject in massive, plus some other random massive stuff (phase modulation, feedback, etc) none of that shit is important tbh, thats just to give different characteristics to the sound.

however the plug in chain is pretty long on this one, and ive got alternate versions of this that sound just as good with a shorter chain, but here is this one:

(all built into a custom ableton rack)
- massive > corpus > ableton vocoder > eq eight > ableton saturator > ableton phaser > wow filter > fabfilter pro-q > ableton guitar cabinet thingy > fabfilter pro-q
(then sent to my bass buss which is: Waves SSL channel > PSP Vintage Warmer > Ozone4)

automation macros in the ableton rack are:
- eq8 frequency movement
- vocoder formant shift
- saturator dry/wet adjustment
- vocoder dry/wet adjustment

oh! and PITCH BEND!! a ton of the movement in the sound is due to pitch bending....

you can def do the same thing in FL no problem. any parametric eq should work. and to be clear is not boosting up and down.. its MOVING what frequency you are boosting, my preference is what i said above in reply to mannyyyyy, having a big frequency CUT in between 2 boosted frequency points.

for example... this is the vowel of E as it looks on a EQ8...
http://postimage.org/image/ptxd43hg/

if you have ableton just look in the Eq8 presets under formant... from there is about moving the boosted frequencies with some automation to get EEEE-AAAA-EEEE type effects...


also, this is a great read on formant synthesis:
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/mar01/a ... nthsec.asp

[RandoRando]

It's not terribly confusing, look up Trifonic's FM Synthesis 101 tutorials for a start.

Has anyone had any luck creating movement/vowel sounds with these FM8 growls without using an external filter? I can't get Ahh out of it, and that's about it. Any ideas? I know the envelopes play a role in this, but I'm not sure to what extent.

"aahh" like this? these are all straight out of fm8 btw, nothing external used at all
Soundcloud

sounds interesting, how does it behave on lower pitches tho?
i suppose thats the triangle sounds you were talking about?

if i go really low in pitch i just raise the ratios on certain operators and its a low growl which is great, and yeah i have like a square, a 2nd formant, and saw tooth all modulating eachother, then all those go into the triangle which has the envelope for the main sound, then all those go into a sine and parabol.

[franzen]

It's not terribly confusing, look up Trifonic's FM Synthesis 101 tutorials for a start.

Has anyone had any luck creating movement/vowel sounds with these FM8 growls without using an external filter? I can't get Ahh out of it, and that's about it. Any ideas? I know the envelopes play a role in this, but I'm not sure to what extent.

"aahh" like this? these are all straight out of fm8 btw, nothing external used at all
Soundcloud

sounds interesting, how does it behave on lower pitches tho?
i suppose thats the triangle sounds you were talking about?

if i go really low in pitch i just raise the ratios on certain operators and its a low growl which is great, and yeah i have like a square, a 2nd formant, and saw tooth all modulating eachother, then all those go into the triangle which has the envelope for the main sound, then all those go into a sine and parabol.

That sounds really awesome man. Can I ask you what the automatisation is on the first 11 seconds to get that wobbly sound? Is it the EQ, and if it is, how? Sounds different from other things I have heard. A bit like the wobbles on the song "WEEKENDS!!! (feat. Sirah)".

Would be really nice if you colud explain. Thanks!