The Official Growl Bass Thread

[neonmansion]

hey guys, i put some growls in the latest track i've been working on and i think they came out quite good. (little muddy though)

it comes in at about 1:00

Soundcloud

[mromgwtf]

Just a quick edit: personally this is the reason I like a lot of Knife Party's midrange/bass work because it sounds good, fits the genre, but doesn't sound overly similar to other stuff (at least not intentionally). One of the reasons for this I think is because they use other synths outside of Massive/FM8 - for example the basses in Bonfire were made in Sylenth and according to Rob Swire really weren't hat hard to make.

Knife Party uses massive a lot in their tracks I think?

[mthrfnk]

Just a quick edit: personally this is the reason I like a lot of Knife Party's midrange/bass work because it sounds good, fits the genre, but doesn't sound overly similar to other stuff (at least not intentionally). One of the reasons for this I think is because they use other synths outside of Massive/FM8 - for example the basses in Bonfire were made in Sylenth and according to Rob Swire really weren't hat hard to make.

Knife Party uses massive a lot in their tracks I think?

They do use it but use other synths as well... and they don't rinse the same sounds as everyone else (i.e. modern talking...)

[mromgwtf]

as everyone else (i.e. modern talking...)

Oh cmon, no one really uses modern talking.

[Maxxan]

as everyone else (i.e. modern talking...)

Oh cmon, no one really uses modern talking.

Actually this guy built an entire career on it

[Sure_Fire]

hey guys, i put some growls in the latest track i've been working on and i think they came out quite good. (little muddy though)

it comes in at about 1:00

Soundcloud

Obvious Skrillex sampling is obvious

[Kit Fysto]

Unless you're a genius with 10+ years experience with synthesis, don't use fm8. FM synthesis is fucking hard. In specification, massive is a subtractive synth. But in reality, no it isn't. It has many different knobs that create fm effect, + almost each wavetable in massive is a little fm8 patch. The PHASE option in modulation osc does phase modulation, which is almost the same as the so-called frequency modulation. FM8 uses phase modulation, not frequency modulation. The sine shaper does little phase modulation too.

You can create such awesome complex fm-like basses in massive in MINUTES, you'd have to spent hours to get the same growls in fm8. If you're going to use fm8, you should know, you won't create a nice bass with a one instance of it. You have to layer 2 of them at least. It's like creating a complex bass in massive with one wavetable. I've made a kinda cool bass in massive I'd like to show you:

Soundcloud

It's not that great, but whatever. Soundcloud compression fucks it up a little bit.
The whole sounds comes from sine shaper, actually. Without it, the bass sounds like nothing, automating the drive in sine shaper gives you a lot of movoment, it's fm-ing the sound. Notch filters are cool too.

This is actually horrible advice and such a self defeating attitude to have. I could write a wall of text of reasons why, but I think it's pretty obvious that the desire to learn new techniques as a producer should be something you naturally desire. Also, 10+ years? seriously. It's not THAT hard of a concept to grasp. You can learn to be a godamn doctor in less than 10 years haha.

[neonmansion]

hey guys, i put some growls in the latest track i've been working on and i think they came out quite good. (little muddy though)

it comes in at about 1:00

Soundcloud

Obvious Skrillex sampling is obvious

i'm flattered that you think they sound that good but I ASSURE you that I made that. Perhaps you could point to the particular song a sampled if you are so observant?

[mromgwtf]

Unless you're a genius with 10+ years experience with synthesis, don't use fm8. FM synthesis is fucking hard. In specification, massive is a subtractive synth. But in reality, no it isn't. It has many different knobs that create fm effect, + almost each wavetable in massive is a little fm8 patch. The PHASE option in modulation osc does phase modulation, which is almost the same as the so-called frequency modulation. FM8 uses phase modulation, not frequency modulation. The sine shaper does little phase modulation too.

You can create such awesome complex fm-like basses in massive in MINUTES, you'd have to spent hours to get the same growls in fm8. If you're going to use fm8, you should know, you won't create a nice bass with a one instance of it. You have to layer 2 of them at least. It's like creating a complex bass in massive with one wavetable. I've made a kinda cool bass in massive I'd like to show you:

Soundcloud

It's not that great, but whatever. Soundcloud compression fucks it up a little bit.
The whole sounds comes from sine shaper, actually. Without it, the bass sounds like nothing, automating the drive in sine shaper gives you a lot of movoment, it's fm-ing the sound. Notch filters are cool too.

This is actually horrible advice and such a self defeating attitude to have. I could write a wall of text of reasons why, but I think it's pretty obvious that the desire to learn new techniques as a producer should be something you naturally desire. Also, 10+ years? seriously. It's not THAT hard of a concept to grasp. You can learn to be a godamn doctor in less than 10 years haha.

Don't take the 10 years seriously. I meant, unless you've mastered simplier forms of synthesis, don't get into fm synthesis. The fm synthesis is so... unsuspectable, you can't tell what sound you will end up with. I've been spending a lot of time with fm8 recently, I've made only ONE nice, harmonically rich growl bass. Why? It was accident. I was just playing with operator routings, and it was just luck I've got the good sound. Seriously, there is no any "recipe" how to make a sound in fm synthesis, what routings you should have as a base, to make it sound nice. Well I hope you can get me right.

as everyone else (i.e. modern talking...)

Oh cmon, no one really uses modern talking.

Actually this guy built an entire career on it

When the drop came... I've burst into tears...

[mthrfnk]

as everyone else (i.e. modern talking...)

Oh cmon, no one really uses modern talking.

Pretty much every other "bro" track I hear I'm sure contains MT basses, even house artists are using it now...

[Kit Fysto]

as everyone else (i.e. modern talking...)

Oh cmon, no one really uses modern talking.

Pretty much every other "bro" track I hear I'm sure contains MT basses, even house artists are using it now...

I actually hear it on random electro tracks on electric area (satellite radio) more than anything now.

[IamDroid]

MT is for noobs. Only beginners use it. I hate seeing people just use one instance of it in tutorials and just modulate wt pos/ intensity and claim "oh this is the best skrillex/growl bass on YouTube" what a bunch of horse shit. As a producer, you should always strive to find a more creative no commercial way to make unique sounds. Not this generic ass formula all these noobs use. Pisses me off so much. You can make filthy ass sounds using another other wavetable if you modulate it right. So why use MT.. da fuck?

[neonmansion]

what is MT? aand i'm still mad at the dude who claimed i sampled skrillex. I used fm8 filters and distortion

[mthrfnk]

MT - modern talking wavetable in Massive.

Don't use it hah

[twilitez]

You are really overthinking FM in a big way. For one, you can make bass with 2 operators. You could probably make a cooler one using 6 and a ton of FX internally and externally, but you dont NEED to do that. Ten years even if just a metaphor is nonsense.

[Maxxan]

When the drop came... I've burst into tears...

Yeah it's... I, uh... Yeah. It makes me want to kill myself.

[ephyks]

Made this today with FM8 and figured I would post it cause it came out kind of cool I think
Soundcloud

Dope. Mind tossin' a bit of your knowledge down? Would like to know how ya got this.

[mthrfnk]

What amuses me is that Knife Party made their first EP "100% no modern talking" and constantly tweet about how shit MT based bass tracks are.... yet they used to rinse that Tolouse track in their mixes/live sets. Just goes to show, if the general public likes it - it doesn't matter how you make a track or even if other producers like it.

[ephyks]

Not sure if anyone else feels the same, but Modern Talking is possibly the shittiest wave form for growls. Not because it's overused, simply because you can get a tighter vocal sound from literally any other waveform, and a bandreject.
A modern talking osc pitched down to -12 just sounds like muck. Not sure if anyone has ever actually made a good growl with modern talking. I'd say the culprit for overused growls is the WOW filters vocal filter.

[mthrfnk]

Not sure if anyone else feels the same, but Modern Talking is possibly the shittiest wave form for growls. Not because it's overused, simply because you can get a tighter vocal sound from literally any other waveform, and a bandreject.
A modern talking osc pitched down to -12 just sounds like muck. Not sure if anyone has ever actually made a good growl with modern talking. I'd say the culprit for overused growls is the WOW filters vocal filter.

WOW is good if used right.

I keep seeing people just slap it on in tutorials, without any thought. They'll have standard vowels (O > I), and LFO automating like 1/4, a shit ton of resonance and a high wet % which makes it so obvious because it actually kills a lot of the original sound. If you use it right and in moderation, it really can sound great.