KVR Audio

PaulSC · Post by **PaulSC** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 5:44 am

The bassline that kicks in near the beginning of Royksopp's "Vision One" is a pretty spectacular sound. They seem to think so, too, because that track basically recycles the instrumental part of their earlier remix of Eri Nobuchika's "Sing a Song," with a new vocal track grafted on the top.

Here's a link to the Nobuchika remix; the bass enters 0:44. It's basically a squeaky, overdriven, 303-on-steroids type sound, the likes of which I've heard many times, but this one seems especially chewy. (If you've heard it all before and feel this is nothing special, you really should at least fast-forward to the break at 2:45, where a decaying "bounce" settles back into the bass sound -- it's a nice touch!)

I can get pretty close to this sound by sending a saw wave through a highly resonant filter followed by a waveshaper,* but if anyone has tips on how this sort of thing is done, I'd love to know!

*In fact, my best results so far are from the following:

saw --> highly resonant BPF --> waveshaper
same saw -> mildly resonant LPF
the two filters (BPF, LPF) mixed about 50/50
slow LFO modulating both filters

deastman · Post by **deastman** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 5:53 am

To be sure, its a very nice squeaky bass sound. I have no idea what kind of tools Royksopp uses, so I can't be of too much help. I've been on more of an analog hardware kick lately, so the first thing I'd probably try is a Livewire AFG into something like a Plan B Model 11 or Model 12, and like you said, maybe a waveshaper.

blortblort · Post by **blortblort** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 6:35 am

that IS an awesome sound. really, it sounds like there are two main *related* components:
1- probably a highly resonant bass note sample set up in a sampler or maybe even something like Live's Simpler. There is some definite 'granular' type manipulations going on in conjunction with....
2- a nice smooth band pass type resonant filter sweeping around.

sounds like sample loop/buffer size is jockey'd about in places during the breakdown section from 2:49 to 2:57...
both together give it some really beautiful rubbery chewy sound.
I honestly wouldn't mind if this is the "new 303" sound to be overused

I may have to do some experiments based on this now

PaulSC · Post by **PaulSC** » Mon Apr 13, 2009 7:36 pm

Thanks for the tips, will probably help me get closer than THIS. (LOL my first attempt is not even close.)

blortblort · Post by **blortblort** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 2:57 am

sounds in the ballpark to me, but there is still a lot more meat on *your* sound than on the original, PaulSC. That said- I really dig what YOU came up with as well!

Elfen · Post by **Elfen** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 3:42 am

Thanks, I got no help for how they've made the bass sound but man you made me discover a great band and song. Vision One is really good.

Tx

Cheers

someone called simon · Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:21 am

yeh sounds cool. a bit vocal-like, where you make a really low vocal sound and kinda slow down you vocal chords till your almost get a clicking sound. its kinda organic.

its funny, in the context of the song it takes over from everything else. the song becomes a vehicle for the sound.

PaulSC · Post by **PaulSC** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 4:28 am

So I've learned that the bass riff is taken from Stevie Wonder's "Too High", off Innervisions. (Royksopp's seems to be a new performance rather than a sample -- .)

MadPsyance · Post by **MadPsyance** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 4:41 pm

Infected Mushroom are notorious for those sounds..don't know about other psytrance acts but IM use it a lot.

ZenPunkHippy · Post by **ZenPunkHippy** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:24 pm

Another band I've heard use a similar effect is Acid Mothers Temple - at one gig, they had an ulta-slow LFO with almost the same sound running through a 20 minute song, just not tuned to the vocal. They generally use older analogue style effects, if that helps. Given that they are are very free and open collective of musicians, I imagine that if you contacted them they would be happy to share the secret.

The sound is also used a lot by Simon Posford (Hallucinogen, Shpongle, Younger Brother). I'd always associated it with a phaser for some reason, but in the example Paul posted it is very vocoder-ish.

Anyway, it's one of my favourite sounds too and I'ld love to know how it's done!!!!

Peace,
Andy.

Shy · Post by **Shy** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:31 pm

It's just a TB-303 with a phaser effect on it. Some of the transitions from note to note use its distinctive "accent" feature. You can't reproduce it exactly nor its wobbly fat sound.

justin3am · Post by **justin3am** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:42 pm

Shy wrote: You can't reproduce it exactly nor its wobbly fat sound.

This kind of statement has always struck me as odd. I would never presume to know what anyone but myself (given proper motivation) is capable of.

Who knows? Wouldn't you look silly if Paul was able to reproduce that sound exactly with something other than a TB-303?

It might be more accurate to say "I can't reproduce it exactly nor its wobbly fat sound." but then I wouldn't presume that to be true either (given the proper motivation).

Shy · Post by **Shy** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:50 pm

I can't see how you can exactly reproduce something like this with any other synth, like you couldn't possibly reproduce the sound of one piano with another. As for "getting close", maybe, but my experience says it's not possible. As for "you can't", it's just a form of speech. I can change that to "I don't think it's possible to".

dirty oscillators · Post by **dirty oscillators** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:57 pm

PaulSC wrote:So I've learned that the bass riff is taken from Stevie Wonder's "Too High", off Innervisions.

god i love that song.

dirty oscillators · Post by **dirty oscillators** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:58 pm

Shy wrote:I can't see how you can exactly reproduce something like this with any other synth, like you couldn't possibly reproduce the sound of one piano with another.

http://www.ladyada.net/make/x0xb0x/index.html

This is my favorite sound at the moment...