Bass Sound Design

In this session we will explore some basic tools of sound design using additive synthesis with Operator.

Part A - Setting the basic waveform

Drag the Operator instrument into a midi track. 

Select horizontal row that uses additive oscillators.

Use Saw D waveforms for all four.
Turn the Level of the oscillators approximately to the same level.

Detune three of the oscillators by something between 10-20 cents

Listen to the resulting sound and report what your hear: Turn on and off the three additional oscillators and notice the effect of adding a detuned waveform.

Part B - Shaping the sound and note transitions

In the Filter box select frequency of 400-500 Hz.

Make the instrument monophonic by changing the Voices parameter to 1.

In the Pitch settings select the G option that stands for Glide.

Part C - Creating a Sub-bass in a Rack

Right click the instrument and select Group.

Drag another Operator in the rack.

Use one oscillator with a default Sine waveform

Make coarse adjustment of 0.5 (octave lower)

Add a Saturator effect after the rack

Open the rack's Macro controls from the left panel buttons

Using the Map button on top assign Filter Frequency and Saturator's Drive to knobs.

This is a recreation of Reese Bass.

Other Bass Sounds:
Deactivate the Sub-bass operator in the tack
On the main bass operator: 
Activate the Pitch Envelope and set it up to about 50%
Change the Decay value to about 600ms
Assign these parameters to the rack controls and test out some other values 

This should produce something like Electro-Bass sounds. Some example are:
Dada Life "Happy Voilence"
808 State "Flow Coma"

Assignment 3 (Due May 1):

 1. Follow the steps above to create a bass sound using operator. Choose a sound of your choice and save the preset to show in class. Record a bass line and a drum track of your choice and post on soundcloud. 

2. Recreate the Reese Bass sound using Simpler: In order to do that, create the various triangle and sine waveforms using a synthesis method of your choice, such as Operator with single waveform or Audacity. Load them into a rack with multiple Simpler instruments containing the relevant waveforms. Note that only two waveforms are required. Use the Detune function in simpler to adjust the roughness, same as in Part A of the operator bass design.
Add similar effects to those with operator. Record the same song as in 1 but this time using the new bass. Show the solution in class.