Dubstepforum.com

Hi there,

First off all, you'll probably go "oh another noob wanting to make brostep" let me tell you, your right. I've been playing around with Ableton/FL Studio for about 3-4 months and have learnt as much as i can on producing Dubstep. I originally produced hiphop and i'm now wanting to move onto this. Don't get me wrong, i love OG Dubstep[Benga, p0gman, 50carrot] as much as i do like Bare/Arkasia/AFK and etc, but the more "grimey" side appeals to me when i am producing. I know quite a bit on distortion and what effects i can play around with but i'm struggling on getting some decent patches[Massive/FM8] going. I've downloaded a sample pack of patches and they were terrible, i've also tried Youtube Tutorials but it's "Another Wobble" tutorial which i'm sick off. I would really appreciate it if you were able to help me out with this, i can even provide a few examples of basses i like if needed. I hope not to get any flame from this and yes, i've used the Search function and i wasn't able to find anything so i've created a new topic, i've also been browsing here for a good 2-3 months.

Thanks guys.

I know it seems like you never make progress when learning how to produce, but you do.

Best tip I can give, which you're not gonna like, but practice. Take it step by step at a time. Produce regardless how shit your result it. Overtime you will learn. Sound design is by ear, and over time you develop a level of music theory. I've tried myself to learn and produce some high quality bass patches when I was taking my early step in dubstep. You can try this, but you must keep building upon what you learn. Everytime I think I've reached my limit of skill in sound design, a month later I look back at my old tunes and think, "wow, I was shit back then".

Tl:dr, just mess around. Nothing you will make from the get go will be anything good. trust me even if you try REALLY HARD, anything you start out producing will be shit. Learn, adapt, and recreate. Eventually you'll pick it up fluently.

Good Luck man. It's a long but very self rewarding journey.

My advice is just keep chipping away at it, I suck at making huge basslines too. I have no idea how to do it and I feel like I've watched thousands of tutorials on it, but it never "works" properly. That's what I like to think anyways, clearly I know I'm just doing it wrong.

Until I know what I'm listening for in each layer, I'm doomed to create crappy baselines haha.

aqutic wrote:Hi there,

I've been playing around with Ableton/FL Studio for about 3-4 months and have learnt as much as i can on producing Dubstep.

sorry but that is a ridiculous statement.
I've been making tunes for years and still don't think i've scratched the surface of whats possible when making music.
try reading the actual manual for these synths and learn them from the ground up, inside/out.

Don't rely on other people making the patches for you

ephyks wrote:I know it seems like you never make progress when learning how to produce, but you do.

Best tip I can give, which you're not gonna like, but practice. Take it step by step at a time. Produce regardless how shit your result it. Overtime you will learn. Sound design is by ear, and over time you develop a level of music theory. I've tried myself to learn and produce some high quality bass patches when I was taking my early step in dubstep. You can try this, but you must keep building upon what you learn. Everytime I think I've reached my limit of skill in sound design, a month later I look back at my old tunes and think, "wow, I was shit back then".

Tl:dr, just mess around. Nothing you will make from the get go will be anything good. trust me even if you try REALLY HARD, anything you start out producing will be shit. Learn, adapt, and recreate. Eventually you'll pick it up fluently.

Good Luck man. It's a long but very self rewarding journey.

Thanks alot, i appreciate it, a lot.

Volatile Psycle wrote:

aqutic wrote:Hi there,

I've been playing around with Ableton/FL Studio for about 3-4 months and have learnt as much as i can on producing Dubstep.

sorry but that is a ridiculous statement.
I've been making tunes for years and still don't think i've scratched the surface of whats possible when making music.
try reading the actual manual for these synths and learn them from the ground up, inside/out.

Don't rely on other people making the patches for you

*Sigh*
You obviously read me wrong, i was implementing that i've read the most i can regarding what i'm looking to produce, i understand that there is 100000x more things i can find out and that's why i've come here asking for help, maybe someone can point me in the right direction. I also didn't state that i wanted someone to make patches for me, i'm looking for a pointer in the right direction, like the guy above who actually helped instead of trying to sound like "l33tz dubs4p pr0duc3r out". I also know how Massive works,

Fuck head.

aqutic wrote: *Sigh*
You obviously read me wrong, i was implementing that i've read the most i can regarding what i'm looking to produce, i understand that there is 100000x more things i can find out and that's why i've come here asking for help, maybe someone can point me in the right direction. I also didn't state that i wanted someone to make patches for me, i'm looking for a pointer in the right direction, like the guy above who actually helped instead of trying to sound like "l33tz dubs4p pr0duc3r out". I also know how Massive works,

Fuck head.

Sorry but its easy to 'read' you wrong when you open with a statement like that.
And i did try to help, i said read the manual.
I know it sounds laborious (i used to think the same) but when you dig into them they can really help you learn what every knob and parameter does to the sound. Therefore theaching you more than any youtube vid that just tells you what to do as opposed to why to do it.
It'll take longer but serve you better in the long run.

Fuck head out

Its all about layering my friend,people will tell you about frequency splitting,resampling......and loads of other techniques that will get you to these big tunes but i have found no matter what,to make big massive sounds and big sounding tunes layering is the key.Filling out the frequency when making sounds will make them big no matter what but at the same time leaving room for all other elements is just as important.
I made a sound recently with fm8 that had no resampling or spitting done on it atall just simply sent to 3-4 busses and then layered with different effects from there and it sounded evil.Also getting the sounds as big as possible just coming out of the synth is a important factor,massive and fm8 are not magic wands,create shit sounding tones straight from them no matter how much processing you throw at it you will still get shit sounding tones at the other end.I learned massive and fm8 completely by reading the manual and practice so patience my friend you will get there just stick at it.

he said the "M" word....

The only way to really learn how to make decent patches in a synth is to sit down and learn the synth itself. Take a patch you like, deconstruct it then try and build it again from scratch. Listen to the changes in sound each dial makes etc etc and just practice. 3-4 months isn't that long at all, you just need to spend longer at it.

Patience + practice = talent.

Volatile Psycle wrote:

aqutic wrote: *Sigh*
You obviously read me wrong, i was implementing that i've read the most i can regarding what i'm looking to produce, i understand that there is 100000x more things i can find out and that's why i've come here asking for help, maybe someone can point me in the right direction. I also didn't state that i wanted someone to make patches for me, i'm looking for a pointer in the right direction, like the guy above who actually helped instead of trying to sound like "l33tz dubs4p pr0duc3r out". I also know how Massive works,

Fuck head.

Sorry but its easy to 'read' you wrong when you open with a statement like that.
And i did try to help, i said read the manual.
I know it sounds laborious (i used to think the same) but when you dig into them they can really help you learn what every knob and parameter does to the sound. Therefore theaching you more than any youtube vid that just tells you what to do as opposed to why to do it.
It'll take longer but serve you better in the long run.

Fuck head out

Fuck me you're patient. Good response.

Also +1 on what wub said. Keep at it. Make sure you understand synthesis blah, blah. If you want an awesome patch for your bass or whatever, make it yourself.

aqutic wrote:Fuck head.

Damn 2 posts in and youre already droppin the fuck head!

His response wasnt even offensive. As for the topic, I find myself struggling in the same areas (ive been producing for just about the same length as you). One thing I found was that detuning different oscillators up different octaves help fill out the spectrum and give that big sound you are looking for. That combined with filter envelopes can make some killer leads. Try not to do this too too much for things other than leads though or they will hog up your headroom (possibly).
Edit: Also check out the production bible and sound design portion. More specifically look in to reese basses.

Volatile Psycle wrote:

aqutic wrote: *Sigh*
You obviously read me wrong, i was implementing that i've read the most i can regarding what i'm looking to produce, i understand that there is 100000x more things i can find out and that's why i've come here asking for help, maybe someone can point me in the right direction. I also didn't state that i wanted someone to make patches for me, i'm looking for a pointer in the right direction, like the guy above who actually helped instead of trying to sound like "l33tz dubs4p pr0duc3r out". I also know how Massive works,

Fuck head.

Sorry but its easy to 'read' you wrong when you open with a statement like that.
And i did try to help, i said read the manual.
I know it sounds laborious (i used to think the same) but when you dig into them they can really help you learn what every knob and parameter does to the sound. Therefore theaching you more than any youtube vid that just tells you what to do as opposed to why to do it.
It'll take longer but serve you better in the long run.

Fuck head out

Thank you, this is the response i was hoping for rather than telling me to use a User Manual. I normally find people who troll or are dickheads on posts around here so i expected another one on this thread. That's all i was asking was just a couple tips on what i can do right.

lloydy wrote:Its all about layering my friend,people will tell you about frequency splitting,resampling......and loads of other techniques that will get you to these big tunes but i have found no matter what,to make big massive sounds and big sounding tunes layering is the key.Filling out the frequency when making sounds will make them big no matter what but at the same time leaving room for all other elements is just as important.
I made a sound recently with fm8 that had no resampling or spitting done on it atall just simply sent to 3-4 busses and then layered with different effects from there and it sounded evil.Also getting the sounds as big as possible just coming out of the synth is a important factor,massive and fm8 are not magic wands,create shit sounding tones straight from them no matter how much processing you throw at it you will still get shit sounding tones at the other end.I learned massive and fm8 completely by reading the manual and practice so patience my friend you will get there just stick at it.

I see! I know about resampling but i've never really tried to layer it with different effects, i'll try that soon and see how it turns out. Thanks again!

wub wrote:The only way to really learn how to make decent patches in a synth is to sit down and learn the synth itself. Take a patch you like, deconstruct it then try and build it again from scratch. Listen to the changes in sound each dial makes etc etc and just practice. 3-4 months isn't that long at all, you just need to spend longer at it.

Patience + practice = talent.

Yeah, i'll try doing that now, i normally focus on the tune itself rather than the synths so i'll give it a go. Thank you Wub.

Immerse wrote:

aqutic wrote:Fuck head.

Damn 2 posts in and youre already droppin the fuck head!

His response wasnt even offensive. As for the topic, I find myself struggling in the same areas (ive been producing for just about the same length as you). One thing I found was that detuning different oscillators up different octaves help fill out the spectrum and give that big sound you are looking for. That combined with filter envelopes can make some killer leads. Try not to do this too too much for things other than leads though or they will hog up your headroom (possibly).
Edit: Also check out the production bible and sound design portion. More specifically look in to reese basses.

Yeah, i expected someone to reply with a witty comments so i thought the F Bomb was necessary . Thanks a lot for the tips, i'll also check out the Production Bible shortly and give it a read, thank ya!



Thank you too all who replied to me and was able to assist me, this is what i've been looking for and i believe this is going to help me out a lot more with my production. Thanks again to the people who gave me good tips and a descriptive view of making those heavy basslines.

Appreciate it a lot!

Aqutic