JustinTodd
a.k.a Spinlock
Location: Vancouver, Canada AIM: VancityJunglist
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How to Make Twisty bass in Cubase SX3
- Justin Todd (AIM: VancityJunglist)
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First of all, everything within this tutorial has been discussed on the grid many times. I'm just re-iterating it my own words and adding a few additional techniques.
You'll need some samples before you get started, so if you don't have any, there's going to be some prep work. Basically, any type of sample can be used but for my example I used:
- 2 distorted 808's
- 1 stabby and punchy bass hit with lots of fx and filter modulation ('uhmwaaaa')
- 1 reese at constant pitch
- 1 reese sample with a pitch-bend (+7 or +12 will do)
Step 1: Set up a Cubase Project Template
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I've recently discovered that Cubase project templates really speed up your work flow! This is the hardest step, but luckily it only needs to be done once. Start by making a "Twisty bass" project template:
- Set the project bpm to 170-175
- Create 3 group channels and name them low (150hz lowpass), mid (150hz hipass + 3.5Khz lowpass), high (3.5khz hipass). On the first insert of each channel, add an EQ (I use Sonalksis) and filter each channel appropriately.
- Create another group channel and name it BassMaster. Send low, mid and high to it (0db, prefader). Optionally, you can just send the lo-mid-hi channels directly to your master buss.
- Create 5 audio channels and route each of them to low mid high (0db, prefader). To do this quickly, create 1 audio track with the routings and "Duplicate" it 4 times.
- Create 1 or 2 midi channels. add a couple instances of your favorite bass vsti's (Massive, Z3ta, etc) and route the midi channels to them.
- Save this big mess as a Cubase template.
Here is a diagram to help you visualize whats going on:
Step 2: Make an Initial 4bar "Massline"
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I'm not sure who coined the term "Massline" (FeedingCone?) but I love it! Using all of the samples you collected, start sequencing them. I'm all about melody, but try to forget about it when doing a twisty bline. Think of the bline as if it where a 4 bar percussive loop. You'll need to use volume and eq automation to blend everything together.
During this phase, go f'ing crazy with effects!!
- Phaser+flange+reverb+waveshaping on the High channel,
- chorus+distortion+compression+modulation(antares filter, camelphat3, psp nitro) on mids
- minimal processing on lows. mabye some l2 and compression
- and don't forget individual processing on each of the audio channels
- Once you're done, go back and automate the parameters!!
Now, add some pure sub with your vst. I use it to reinforce any melodic content I may have inadvertently created. Make sure it doesn't clash too much with your existing sub-bass.
There's a good chance you'll sit there looping these 4bars for a while. It'll sound totally sick, but if you give your ears a rest for an hour and listen again, it might sound totally ridiculous! Don't worry about it!! Overcome your fear and just export that beast
Step 3: Use Recycle to Slice your Massline
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Fire up Recycle and slice your freshly exported massline. Try to isolate 808 hits, bass stabs, etc. I've just created a "Masslines" subfolder under my bass sample folder. I'm going to start building a collection of rx2s (excellent source of individual basshits, which can be used to sequence future masslines :) )
Step 4: Create a song using your Massline Rex
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Create a new song using your massline.rx2. Much like drums, you can resequence it for edits to keep things interesting. And if your inital massline sounded shite, you can correct that with a bit of clever resequencing.
Hope this mini-howto helped you!!
Last edited by JustinTodd on 01-29-2007 at 08:52 PM
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Dogs On Acid > The Grid > I think i figured out how to make *FILTHY* bass! (without kontakt!)
01-29-2007 03:25 PM
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