How to make the trademark Neelix Bassline?

[rexone1]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6G6Fi1CVawU
I'm not entirely sure Neelix deserves all the credit since most of the other producers he associates with use an identical sound, eg. Day.din, Fabio & Moon,V.Falabella ect. It sounds huge on the dance floor; it's so punchy and energetic. I've spent hours trying to replicate it, and I just can't crack the code. It sounds to me as it is layered.

Sub Bass - square wave
Mid Bass - saw wave tb-303ish (don't own one just guessing)
High Bass - saw wave resonance

Can anyone please help me?

[rexone1]

Sounds a bit like this with tons of layering and sine underneath:

http://www.freesound.org/people/pitmusic/sounds/8542/

please share any tips on getting a similar sound to neelix?

Thanks,

rex

[boomblip]

I got a similar bass just using two saw waves one an octave above another, with a lowpass filter and a bit of an envelope sweep on the filter, most basslines like these are super simple, whats key in my mind is the pumping sidechain compression.

[rexone1]

Please post up what you created, what synth did you use? what filters? How did you get the resonance and drive? ect. , I'd love to compare.

I'm after a fairly descriptive explanation instead of a hack response:

"pull out any old vst and slap a saw wave on top of another saw wave filter it and sidechain it and bingo".

Thanks,

rex

[boomblip]

I used Zebra, running two oscillators, both with 12db low pass filters running in parallel mode, both oscillators as saw waves with envelopes mapped to the cutoff, I'll try and recreate it in the next day or two and post an example or upload the patch if you have zebra. In my experience almost all bass for progressive psytrance or any kindof trance is staggeringly simple and I have oftentimes found myself thinking it was way more complex than it actually was. Also you absolutely need decent side-chain compression to get that pump that Neelix does so well.

I am also downloading the song you posted in lossless audio so that I can give it a good listen on my monitors and see if there are any details in the bass I am just missing in my headphones.

[rexone1]

I used Zebra, running two oscillators, both with 12db low pass filters running in parallel mode, both oscillators as saw waves with envelopes mapped to the cutoff, I'll try and recreate it in the next day or two and post an example or upload the patch if you have zebra. In my experience almost all bass for progressive psytrance or any kindof trance is staggeringly simple and I have oftentimes found myself thinking it was way more complex than it actually was. Also you absolutely need decent side-chain compression to get that pump that Neelix does so well.

I am also downloading the song you posted in lossless audio so that I can give it a good listen on my monitors and see if there are any details in the bass I am just missing in my headphones.

Thanks mate, really appreciate that.

Rex

[boomblip]

So after relistening to the bass sound I hear two separate bass sounds in the track, one comes in later on. The first one seems to have a saw wave bass frequency with a band pass filter running parallel to a lowpass filtering some high frequency "noise" out that pulses in with slow attack with each bass note.

So what I have in this zebra patch is a saw wave running dual oscillators, the waveform is set to play from the same place with each hit doing a sort of wavetable synthesis that prevents variance between each bass note, so make sure you are using some sort of wavetable style synthesis. I have a 12db lowpass filter running and parallel to that a bandpass filter that is letting only very high frequencies pass though, with that filter I have an envelope with a slow attack that pulses in in parallel to the side chain compression.

The bass sound changes later on in the song, if you have zebra I can send you the patches I have made.

[Nesslex]

So after relistening to the bass sound I hear two separate bass sounds in the track, one comes in later on. The first one seems to have a saw wave bass frequency with a band pass filter running parallel to a lowpass filtering some high frequency "noise" out that pulses in with slow attack with each bass note.

So what I have in this zebra patch is a saw wave running dual oscillators, the waveform is set to play from the same place with each hit doing a sort of wavetable synthesis that prevents variance between each bass note, so make sure you are using some sort of wavetable style synthesis. I have a 12db lowpass filter running and parallel to that a bandpass filter that is letting only very high frequencies pass though, with that filter I have an envelope with a slow attack that pulses in in parallel to the side chain compression.

The bass sound changes later on in the song, if you have zebra I can send you the patches I have made.

Hey Boom,
I've tried to figure out how to create a Patch from your explanations but i failed!...
I would be very pleased if you could send me the mentioned Patch so that i could comprehend what is going on there an create an own patch...

Best Regards


Alex

[Ascendant]

Right what your referring to as the high saw wave resonance is actually high frequencies brought in by a bitcrusher. Try making a patch in sylenth with one saw wave and a sine wave an oct below relatively low passed. Chuck the sylenth bitcrusher on it about 35/40% wet. You should hear what I call the grasshopper tone which is key in the Expect What bassline. I take it youve got some understanding of the envelope settings for a psy offbeat? No attack then decay amount depending on the timbre your after, same again for the sustain and I personally would have no release. You also need to set up some cutoff modulation via the mod env, just fiddle with increasing the decay setting until it sounds right to your ear (about 20/30% I reckon). Put an EQ on the insert of this channel we've created and scoop out from 2khz to about 6khz allowing the 'grasshopper' tone to remain in the high frequencies (could still have a little low pass cutting above 17/18khz. Whats important to remember is that every subtle change with these types of bassline will make a significant difference to the timbre so its almost impossible to pin point an exact sound even if you can get close or similar. For instance Expect What's root note is G# so if you want to make what we've been talking about start with a G# and then once the patch is created try moving the bass note and youll soon see that itll change the sound dramatically depending on how youve EQ'd it etc. Ill post an fxp of one of my attempts at it later.

[emptywheelchair]

I would like to know how he makes his kicks. I have been trying to recreate that sound without success.
Can anyone give me a tip?

[ZenPunkHippy]

I would like to know how he makes his kicks. I have been trying to recreate that sound without success.
Can anyone give me a tip?

Check out this thread:

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=5035844

The 2nd post has a lot of good info, I think it's probably the same kick - or at least it sounds really, really similar.

Peace,
Andy.

[Henrik H]

I just made a tutorial on this one : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x7Edz4N ... e=youtu.be

[Henrik H]

I had some problems with the video, here is a new link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbVcZm8haJI

[aMUSEd]

I don't recall seeing Neelix play bass

[Henrik H]

Good one haha!