The Official Growl Bass Thread

[Maxxan]

Okay, so I've got a pretty thick sounding growl that I'm pretty happy with. I'm just looking for some tips on how to modulate it. Right now I've got an automated EQ going to get it to talk a bit, and then just a bandreject to get some more motion in the sound. But I never really got the hang of EQ automation, anyone got any pointers on how to get it more vowelly?

This is how it sounds so far:

Soundcloud

Edit: Should probably mention that right now I'm just automating one of the bands. It's got some decent movement but it's really touchy about the frequencies and it's not moving as much as I would like. Are there any good guides for this around?

[MassAphekt]

I love creating a notch filters in correlation wih your other filters just as bandreject and automation, it can create even more aggressive sounds

[Reversed]

some more material for analyzation it sounds a lot like skrillex growls, and also it has very little harmonics. another hint that the "sample on top of growl" technique is used here?

[Maxxan]

some more material for analyzation **YOUTUBE VIDEO** it sounds a lot like skrillex growls, and also it has very little harmonics. another hint that the "sample on top of growl" technique is used here?

As far as Feed Me's growls go I've always been convinced it's just a matter of really intricate PWM modulation and EQ automation. A lot of his growls sound very PWM-y. As far as the lack of harmonics go, I think that the screechy growls everyone's got is just a matter of paying too little attention to your osc's and jumping headfirst into the fx. I see this a lot in massive, all osc's are on max amp and intensity, and that just makes a really messy sound. IMO most growls sound better with the intensity around half on the highest osc, otherwise it just gets screechy. What I do is to keep the harmonics to a minimum, then apply some controlled distortion on the mid band (maybe very slight on the highs if it sounds good) and boost the high harmonics coming from the distorted mids slightly after the distortion. Sounds a lot better and moves a lot nicer (especially if you're automating an EQ or something) than just static white noise (which you pretty much get if you crank up 3x roughmath on max intensity) coming out of massive.

I posted some of my growls higher on the page if you're interested in hearing them. Obviously they're much brighter sounding but almost all of that I added post-distortion because I liked it that way so I'm assuming I could get it a lot closer to the ones in the vid if desired.

(Not saying I can recreate it, I'm just not sure about the sampling thing. Although I'm pretty sure it's also a valid technique)

And also, not to be a nagger and bring this up again but anyone got any good info on EQ automation? I feel mine is a bit dull.

[RandoRando]

I love creating a notch filters in correlation wih your other filters just as bandreject and automation, it can create even more aggressive sounds

speaking of automated bandreject filters, whats happenin with our collab?

[hasezwei]

it sounds a lot like skrillex growls

of course it does, he made them after all

[Augment]

it sounds a lot like skrillex growls

of course it does, he made them after all

no?...

[Marzz]

it sounds a lot like skrillex growls

of course it does, he made them after all

no?...

He is referring to Skrillex having Feed Me produce him music as a ghost producer. People say its true.

[Augment]

it sounds a lot like skrillex growls

of course it does, he made them after all

no?...

He is referring to Skrillex having Feed Me produce him music as a ghost producer. People say its true.

People say milk is healthy too, doesnt mean its true

[Maxxan]

BTW, an update on the Feed Me case and the vocal-sampled growl, I just made this from a sampled vocal. I know it's a really short loop and pretty quiet etc, I just bounced the channel straight outta the song I'm working on and it was only in for a brief moment, but couldn't be arsed to fix it for a demonstration and I figured I'd share it in case anyone was interested. But I guess it proves it can be done (or I've also got Feed Me as a ghost producer.... )

Soundcloud

Edit: Oh yeah, it's not really meant to be a growl either, more of an effect type of thing so it's still quite dry. So if you were to make it a growl you'd just up the wet a lot more than I have I guess.

[Reversed]

it sounds a lot like skrillex growls

of course it does, he made them after all

conspiracykeanu.jpg i heard about that, but i also read about this theory being denied. But feedme is really sounding a lot like skrillex, especially in that last track i posted. it's weird.

...I just made this from a sampled vocal....
**soundcloud**

intredasting. how do you get it to be tonal and have harmonics at all though? that's what i was doubting about this method. the only way i can think of is granular synthesis, but that would make it sound not growly at all

[Maxxan]

...I just made this from a sampled vocal....
**soundcloud**

intredasting. how do you get it to be tonal and have harmonics at all though? that's what i was doubting about this method. the only way i can think of is granular synthesis, but that would make it sound not growly at all

(First off, I just listened to the growl without the dry vocal and it sounds a lot more growly, the clip i uploaded is pretty misleading)

Anyway, the process was a lot more basic than most people think, didn't even load it up in a synth, but fairly long because I was already fucking up the first sample, but I'll explain the basics of what I did. I started off with a female vocal drenched in reverb from this remix I've been asked to do, not an ideal sample but what the hell. Obviously I had to pitch it down first, so I ran it through melodyne because I like their pitching/formant algorhithms and screwed around with the formant and pitch until it sounded 'roboty'. Then I dropped it another octave with QuikQuak pitchwheel set to preserve the formants, by now I had a pretty fairly deep vocal robot sample (That's basically the main part of the sound you hear, you should probably be able to figure out the tonal qualities you're looking for, otherwise just give me a holler) with a bit of harmonics in it. I ran that through Vocodex (FL Studio native vocoder, i reckon any decent one will do.) I turned down the amount of bands and upped the bandwidth a lot, basically what a lot of people are doing to their growl basses, just to give it a rounder, heavier synthier feel. Dont know if you're familiar with the technique but if you listen to Skrillex or anyones basses, the vocoder is what gives it that warm, round low end (At least I think that's what they're all using, cant be sure though).

After that I sent the whole thing through Ohmicide, no gain on the lows, moderate gain on the low-mid/mids and slight on the highs (Gotta be careful here, too much and you get a bunch of noise), then some basic EQ:ing to get the good parts better etc.

Then I sampled the whole thing, and ran it through my FX chain on my growl bass which I already had in place. It's pretty much the same as this one, your basic growl stuff with vocoder, some overdrive, ohmicide again, careful EQ:ing with some modulation, a multiband compressor etc.


TL;DR - Pitch your sample down, make sure to preserve the formants, put on some basic dist/EQ:ing and then ohmicide that shit. Don't overdo with the distortion, I think this is where most people fuck up their growls. Carefully distort mids/low mids 'til you get some nice harmonics, and then automate some stuff to get it moving. I would have put a bandreject on it as well but tbh I didn't need to since it was moving around so much anyway.

I'd say there are two keys to the sound, Melodyne or similiar because it allows you to pitch down without losing formants, and ohmicide because it's fucking sweet.


Not sure if I explained it very well but just ask away if you like.

[ephyks]

I'll try to get some growls rollin' up and post what I can do. I don't really use synthesis anymore. I'm kind of regret dropping sound design and moving over to sampling based works, but I've found it to be a much more fun and creative process, plus I've pumped out some serious sounds with resampling that are incredibly unique on their own. But writing melodies and getting flow to work is pretty much a gamble every time since resampling requires so much extra detail and preciseness. But all in time, give me a day and I'll try my hand at some FM resampling growls.

[Today]

why would u have to give up synthing sounds to devote to sampling

y not both

I've been crazy about both since i first got caught up with production
Even if i'm terrible at them, i still fux w both
knamean

[jrisreal]

Sample a synth.

[Marzz]

why would u have to give up synthing sounds to devote to sampling

y not both

I've been crazy about both since i first got caught up with production
Even if i'm terrible at them, i still fux w both
knamean

jah feel

[python453]

very nice tutorial on vocoding basslines that wub posted, thought i would throw it in this thread
if you haven't seen all of the seamless tutorials they're worth your time

[twilitez]

Heres some more stuff i made recently: Soundcloud

[shinra]

People say milk is healthy too, doesnt mean its true

hahahahahahahaha, this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

so pissed vocodex isn't available on mac

[MassAphekt]

I love creating a notch filters in correlation wih your other filters just as bandreject and automation, it can create even more aggressive sounds

speaking of automated bandreject filters, whats happenin with our collab?

i never received a message update, lets skype soon?