Getting the womps to sound PERFECT

[sargentpilcher]

Hello all,

I like to consider myself rather proficient at producing music, and know my way around a lot of things. Lately I've been learning all that I can about making grimy dubstep sounds but getting the womps right is something I've always struggled with. I use massive sometimes, and it probably has the best method of getting the womps being able to assign an LFO to any perameter, such as the cutoff of the lowpass filter. I also love its performer curves.

However, I have been learning how to use FM8, and it can make some amazing bass sounds, but it's LFO sucks for making womps IMO. I am using ableton live, and have tried using autofilter on top of FM8 to apply the LFO, but I find that it sucks as well. My favorite womp sound I ever got was when I didn't know what I was doing, so I hand programmed in each womp by programming the cutoff on a third party lowpass filter, and that is really what I would like to do, but without the tediousness of it all.

So is there a way to take an internal LFO controller in ableton to modulate the cutoff? FL Studio can do this, although it can't sync the tempo's. What do you guys use for womps? Is there another third party filter out there (Prefferably not expensive) that can LFO the lowpass? What do all of you guys use?

Edit: I am posting a couple examples to show you what I'm talking about. In womp 1, I hand programmed in the womps by programming the automation of a lowpass filter. In womp 2 it's all the internal LFO's of massive, and FM8 and they sound like garbage to me. So am I just doing something wrong?


http://soundcloud.com/thomas-norman/womp-1

http://soundcloud.com/thomas-norman/womp-2

[Jacob15728]

Use the Love Philter in FL. It has a built in LFO that has a tempo sync, and it also lets you draw your own curves by hand. If you pick Mango LP and bump up the gain it also adds some distortion.

[sargentpilcher]

Love Philter is a very handy tool, and thank you for the suggestion, but it can't tempo sync either. It has a button that says tempo, but it doesn't really do anything when it's highlighted. Also you cannot select 1/8, 1/16, 1/4, etc. for the womp speed you want.

[Jacob15728]

When you click tempo it makes the speed knob snap to the whole-number times. This is better than just being able to select 1/8 or 1/16 because you can use the knob and still automate between the different tempo settings.

[Trichome]

PSP N20 is sick for basses, pads and leads.

[sargentpilcher]

Ok cool, I didn't notice it was doing that, and I can see uses for not having the 1/4, 1/8, etc. option, and I can see uses for having that option, so love philter is still a very powerful tool, and it wouldn't be very hard to do it by ear. However, it has 2 strikes against it. 1 being that it is exclusive to FL Studio (I'm trying to make ableton my main DAW, at least for dubstep projects). , and 2 being that it can't do the 1/4, 1/8, etc. option which I find to be incredibly useful in massive for example.

Still one of the better ideas for FM8 womps. I could always go into FL Studio, make the FM8 womps in there and bounce it down, but I would find that to be a pain in the ass.

[sargentpilcher]

PSP N20 is sick for basses, pads and leads.

Downloading the demo now. It's 150$ to buy, but if it does what I want, then I'll get it. Thanks for the refferral! Do a lot of people use this?

[Trichome]

PSP N20 is sick for basses, pads and leads.

Downloading the demo now. It's 150$ to buy, but if it does what I want, then I'll get it. Thanks for the refferral! Do a lot of people use this?

No idea, I think wub recommended it to me... I can't remember

[Jacob15728]

PSP N20 is sick for basses, pads and leads.

Downloading the demo now. It's 150$ to buy, but if it does what I want, then I'll get it. Thanks for the refferral! Do a lot of people use this?

No idea, I think wub recommended it to me... I can't remember

I think it's pretty popular but I've never seen people talking about it here. I don't have it but Atlantis Filter is free and does pretty much the same thing so I use that quite a bit

[Teknicyde]

and 2 being that it can't do the 1/4, 1/8, etc. option which I find to be incredibly useful in massive for example.

It does though, didnt someone just explain that to you? Just because it is represented to you visually in a different way, doesnt mean it is in some way not timed the same. If you tempo-sync love philter, its the linking it to the same master midi tempo massive is. Setting tempo synced love philter to happen 4 times per bar is the same as setting massives lfos to 1/4.

As mentioned above, Atlantis Filter is a free, stand-along, midi-syncable filter bank.

[sargentpilcher]

and 2 being that it can't do the 1/4, 1/8, etc. option which I find to be incredibly useful in massive for example.

It does though, didnt someone just explain that to you? Just because it is represented to you visually in a different way, doesnt mean it is in some way not timed the same. If you tempo-sync love philter, its the linking it to the same master midi tempo massive is. Setting tempo synced love philter to happen 4 times per bar is the same as setting massives lfos to 1/4.

As mentioned above, Atlantis Filter is a free, stand-along, midi-syncable filter bank.

Right, it's possible, but it's much different than knowing in your head you want it to womp 4 times per bar, so you put it on a quarter note. With love philter you CAN program it to 1/4, but you have to fiddle with it more in order to get it to that point. I was looking for something a bit easier.



Edit: Also, I just went to KVR to get the atlantis VST. Fingers crossed that it works well. Thank you all for your replies, and more would still be welcome!

[narcissus]

you just keep saying "i want an easier way."

almost every womp i've ever womped was hand-drawn...

seriously, how hard is it to draw out each filter oscillation? sure it takes some time. that's the nature of art. it takes time and nobody said it was easy. do you think michelangelo would've ever painted the sistine chapel ceiling if he had had qualms about tedium??

[jrisreal]

you just keep saying "i want an easier way."

almost every womp i've ever womped was hand-drawn...

seriously, how hard is it to draw out each filter oscillation? sure it takes some time. that's the nature of art. it takes time and nobody said it was easy. do you think michelangelo would've ever painted the sistine chapel ceiling if he had had qualms about tedium??

This. Manual automation is my favorite for this reason. Plus it is more precise

[sargentpilcher]

I completely agree with you! My favorite womps I ever had were hand programmed in! It's not neccessarily simply because I'm lazy and I just want an easy way out, it's that there's always a give and take. The more time you spend hand programming womps, the less time there will be for something else, like preset production.

I'm very curious what the pro's do though. Does skrillex hand program womps or does he figure out how to work with the ones inside the synth itself, like massive? Because hand programming womps is VERY time consuming! But worth it for sure if that's what will get the best sound.

[sargentpilcher]

Also, I just tried PSP n2o and atlantis filter, and didn't like either one. Neither is straightforward enough for me.

[alexvont12]

If you have Fl Studio 10, (not sure about older ones) you can find the parameter and edit events. Then at the top select (so it all turns red) where to want the wob, then click the wrench icon next to the magnet (top left) and lfo. Edit to taste. Once you get the basic wobs in you can (very carefully) fine tune them even more.

[narcissus]

i couldn't care less what skrillex does because his music doesn't speak to me in any way. i think it's trite and appeals to consumerist culture. the rule is to do what sounds good to YOU. and you said that you like the hand-drawn sound the best. so just commit to it and do it.

of course if you spend time doing one thing it gives you less time to do another. that is the way of things. it's up to you to decide if your time is better spent on the perfect womp, or on something else.

[jrisreal]

Skrillex probably hand-programs every bass sound man.

[hasezwei]

spor probably hand-programs every skrillex bass sound man.

fix'd

[jrisreal]

spor probably hand-programs every skrillex bass sound man.

fix'd