Drum & Bass patches

[Jason]

I am currently working on a Drum and Bass tune that I am really enjoying. Now I just need some huge bass line or sometimes referred to as 'roller' patches I guess though I am not sure how specific that term is.
Often in this context I hear sometimes some sorts of pitch modulation over time on the envelopes or something too. I havent had much luck creating my own though. Anyone have any time and care to post a simple example perhaps? I have found a few patches in the archive that were just more of the distorted pad type and not as much on the deep bass side. Or if anyone has ideas of where to start that would be cool too! Thanks

[mosc]

What about the factory patch SlowBass FM4

It's 1:22 on my machine.

[Kassen]

I think the basic "roller" sound is based on long notes with a big envelope on the filter cut-off but also a BPM synced lfo to the cutoff.

The envelope's attack should probably rise about as fast as the AMP envelope, decay fairly quickly for a brief (16th note or so) bright start followed by the pulsing modulalation of the lfo that slowly die out thanks to the filter envelope's decay.

Further evolution inside of the sound can be acomplished by more envelopes set do modulate parameters like the relative volume of oscilators.

The thing that probably needs most care is the syncing of the LFO and how it relates to other rithmic elements in the song. Setting it to the same timing as yout highhats gets a more militant feel while offsetting it to go inbetweent he hats maight make for a more bouncy vibe. Of cource that can be varied over the cource of the piece and forms inbetween might create a lot of drive. The relation between the Attcak and decay settings of the amplitude and filter envelopes on one hand and the exact shape and period of the lfo will also be quite important. LFO sync is absolutely nesicary but you might want to go as far as mapping some CC to the phse offset for musical developments.

[Jason]

Thanks for all the info , yes mosc that is a good patch to start with thanks, just need to add some pitch mod to it maybe not sure.
Well Kassen thanks for all that info, though I am looking more for a pure sine bass tone that doesnt depend on sync in terms of lfo in this example of a very simplified 'roller', but this is also very good info you give here thanks, and I totally have to experiment with that too. I should have been more specific, but there are really many DnB tones I am after not just this. There are so many aspects of DnB I have always loved but it is hard for me to create my own original sounds at times.

[Jason]

hmmm but maybe the LFO sync is what is needed for the pitching of the sine tone? Or you could use the envelopes to do this too? For that initial pitch from high to low? Not sure.... Must experiment more. Thanks again!

[Afro88]

Try 2 saws detuned a fair amount, maybe with a little bit of fm for that beating effect. Filter this down a fair way with a little or no rez and then saturate this to taste. Now, after distortion take out the sub frequencies completely with a 48db highpass set to 70 or 80. Then you want a dry sine wave tuned down into the sub frequencies, to mix in with the distorted sound right before output. The reason for this is to keep the bottom end clean, but still with the character of the rest. It's hard to get the balance of these right, so play around a bit. I know Kassen doesn't like the idea of a big subby bottom end , but if it's going to be played in a club with a decent system, you'll definitely be able to feel/hear the subs and you don't want your track to be missing these, especially with drum and bass, as it will sound alot weaker than the other tracks being played. Drum and bass is allll about the bass.

Also try adding in a couple more filters (band or highpass) with their own distortion and envelope sweeps. LFO's can be nice... maybe turn kbtracking on 100% or 75% to keep that beating effect accurate to the pitch. Also, depending on what kind of sound you want, you don't necessarily have to sync the lfo to tempo. I find it syncing looses any kind of groove you could have gotten from the lfo. Play with the frequency until you find something that works well the bassline itself, that makes it drive harder or work better with the drums. You can also try hooking up the keyboard module's gate to the reset of the lfo every key stroke to maintain some kind of predictability when you're still playing around with it.

Hope some of this is useful...

[Jason]

wow afro88, that is very helpful!
Here is my first attempt. Keep in mind modular stuff is very new to me so my patching may not be logical etc... lol
The saw detune trick is really important for some of these patches ,
I think I was mistaking this sound
for pulse width modulation though surely that is used at times as well.
This patch seems like an ok start though it still is a ways off I think.
Anyway , if you could give me some feedback on this patch I would really appreciate it! Thanks folks

[General Elektrick]

this is a bass patch I used in some tracks.

Why not make a pimp my "drum n bass" bass collection.
Everybody gives one and we will have a nice bass moster library.

Anybody?

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bassmonster.pch2
Description:	Heavyly pimped bass sound - evil 8 varis some us the weel ....	Download
Filename:	bassmonster.pch2
Filesize:	3.74 KB
Downloaded:	1553 Time(s)

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[Afro88]

Jason, you're right, pulse width modulation can be used too, just depends what kind of sound you're after.

That's a really nice patch Elektrick! Clean and squarey, I like it

Here's my attempt from a while back...

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D+B Bass-fixed.pch2
Description:	fixed version	Download
Filename:	D+B Bass-fixed.pch2
Filesize:	2.22 KB
Downloaded:	1500 Time(s)

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[Jason]

Afro88 thanks again so much for the tips and this nice patch too, its awesome! It is really a great deal of help. General Elektrick , I like your patch alot too. It sure would be cool if people posted some more DnB patches here. If & when I make more I will post some. Some drums too would be nice. I think that the G2 should be able to make some nice snares too for DnB.

[General Elektrick]

Nice one,
Afro

I like it !

[Afro88]

Ouch! Sorry, I uploaded the wrong version - the sine wave should be tuned to -36. The post is updated above with the fixed version

[General Elektrick]

Hey afro,
thats even more D&B Style

[BSE|Milan]

Still dont have a g2, but that will change soon !

Not sure if this is the bass sound you are looking for ... but i like em dirty :X
this is a more or less a jump up style bass and it might even give you a good reece too

made a few variations check em out

enjoy


Milan

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Jump Up.pch2
Description:		Download
Filename:	Jump Up.pch2
Filesize:	2.12 KB
Downloaded:	1014 Time(s)

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[Afro88]

FAT! Variation 4 is my favourite...

Get yourself a G2 asap and keep the patches coming dude!

[General Elektrick]

Cool!

[mother misty]

[BSE|Milan]

thanks