KVR Audio

jontah · Post by **jontah** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 4:51 pm

Hi,

I'm searching tips and tricks about making your electronic tracks funkier with basslines. I notice for example that Avicii uses alot of offbeat basslines, such as in this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjp4fKvpmpo

(the title is wrong btw in the video)

@ 0.36, the offbeat comes in. how do I do this to make it tight and play along with the kick? I tried to layer a subkick and EQ the highs off a sawwave, but I just couldn't get the feel/groove the same as in this track. It's probably a really simple trick but I can't seem to get it fit right.

Am I right if my ears hear a kick on the 1 and the bass/sine on the offbeat?

How would you achieve this sound? any eleveopes involved? it sounds almost like ONLY a subbass/sinewave but when doing it myself it sounds plain booring.

Thanks.

Nightpolymath · Post by **Nightpolymath** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:51 pm

Those sound like an offbeat sub bass. Try two waves, one saw and one sine (but detuned an octave), and mix at 50/50. Set the amp envelope to 100% sustain and the rest to zero. Then use a low pass 4-pole filter at about 180 Hz. You need to play with the mix level and cutoff, obviously, since I don't know what synth you're using. No LFOs or modulation required.

jontah · Post by **jontah** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 6:57 pm

Nightpolymath wrote:Those sound like an offbeat sub bass. Try two waves, one saw and one sine (but detuned an octave), and mix at 50/50. Set the amp envelope to 100% sustain and the rest to zero. Then use a low pass 4-pole filter at about 180 Hz. You need to play with the mix level and cutoff, obviously, since I don't know what synth you're using. No LFOs or modulation required.

Do you know what notes that are played in this bassline?

Yeah I tried just like u said, but I dont get it as tight. Also, detuned you say? how do you mean? just pitched down an octave?

I've tried using sylenth1 only so far.

thanks

Nightpolymath · Post by **Nightpolymath** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:08 pm

No idea what those notes are, kind of like A-C-F-G in C major.

Yes, just pitched down an octave for the sine only.

Deep Purple · Post by **Deep Purple** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:15 pm

Generally groove comes from lots of practice until you get the feel right. Groove is very hard to get right with sequenced drums as the tendency is to make it too tight and you lose the groove.

jontah · Post by **jontah** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:37 pm

Nightpolymath wrote:No idea what those notes are, kind of like A-C-F-G in C major.

Yes, just pitched down an octave for the sine only.

This is what I get when I follow the instructions u gave me

http://www23.zippyshare.com/v/jh9DgkUN/file.html

Nightpolymath · Post by **Nightpolymath** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 7:43 pm

jontah wrote:
Nightpolymath wrote:No idea what those notes are, kind of like A-C-F-G in C major.

Yes, just pitched down an octave for the sine only.
This is what I get when I follow the instructions u gave me

http://www23.zippyshare.com/v/jh9DgkUN/file.html

That's a good start.

jontah · Post by **jontah** » Tue Mar 31, 2015 8:59 pm

Nightpolymath wrote:
jontah wrote:
Nightpolymath wrote:No idea what those notes are, kind of like A-C-F-G in C major.

Yes, just pitched down an octave for the sine only.
This is what I get when I follow the instructions u gave me

http://www23.zippyshare.com/v/jh9DgkUN/file.html
That's a good start.

sure, a good start but not good enough. How does he handle his lowend such as this sub? any secrets or any other layering?

nineofkings · Post by **nineofkings** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 1:32 pm

If I'm being entirely honest, I don't think of Martin Garrix as being someone who's meticulous about groove. He probably pencils in most of his parts into the piano roll. Most of it probably comes from the sound design - the bass is punchy.

Try setting the sustain to about half and the decay very low, so there's a "snap" at the start of each note.

TIMT · Post by **TIMT** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 3:16 pm

I agree with the guy above me,there's nothing groovy about that at all,it's completely quantized and on the grid.there's a slight envelope on the offbeat sub which makes it sound like it's abit swung and that's about it.also little pet peeve of mine lol,the sidechain doesn't release with the rhythm properly,sounds very late probably because the trigger is too long or there's alot of bass on the key signal for the sidechain

liv · Post by **liv** » Wed Apr 01, 2015 3:46 pm

The offbeat sound you refer to are two sounds layered (at least in my ears). One sub and one pluck/short organ. You can hear the character of the "pluck" around 1:10 (and other places) where the bass stops if you want to try copy it.

neoncortex · Post by **neoncortex** » Sat Apr 04, 2015 11:16 am

I made a Sylenth patch for you, it's pretty close I think. Grab it here:
http://s000.tinyupload.com/index.php?fi ... 6946341462

It helps to make a steep lowpass at around 200hz when analyzing subbasses. You can hear the sub is very punchy at 0:36, so there's definitely a short decay on it. In the patch I also used multiple voices with retriggering to accentuate this. Then again at 1:14 you'll notice the sub has a slow attack, obviously from sidechaining. So add some sidechaining if you want that flavor of bass.

Getting that groovy bassline feel?