KVR Audio

rottu · Post by **rottu** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 4:11 pm

Hi to all,

I would like to ask you some help in reproducing this plucked bass used by Ian Carey. (http://www.speedyshare.com/582360714.html)

I love this tipical sound and i often use these but I don't know how make that particular bass.

I tried some squares and saws but everytime I obtain a bass like Deadmau5.

What notes and what waves should I try?

Thanks for your help and sorry for my bad english.

Edit: I'm usying Massive

soul_junkie · Post by **soul_junkie** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 6:04 pm

Hi.

It's funny I actually did a remix of this a while ago for Ian. Anyhoo...

Try Albino for this sound. I know Ian uses it alot, and this is a very achievable sound in that synth (and many many others)

What you're gonna want is at least 3 OSC (a fourth would be nice). All SQUARE / SAW mixes - but leaning more towards the square. Set the 1st 2 OSC to 0 and the 3rd +7 semitones. The 4th OSC could maybe be +12 or even at 0 or -12 for added bottom end.

Where this sound really takes shape is in the filtering. You can hear in that example when it opens up....that's what you're shooting for.

You want to play 1/4 notes so it's very staccato, and you want your ENVELOPES something like this:

AMP:
A = 0
D = 0
S = 100%
R = 20%

FILTER
A = 0%
D = 20% (but use this to open up the filter when required)
S = 0%
R = 100%

Set you're filter to Cutoff = 0 RESO = 0 ENV/AMT = 90-100%

Now just use the FILT DECAY to open up the filter, and if needed add a bit of AMP RELEASE if you want the notes to all flow together.

Then after all that's done, HEAVILY COMPRESS and EQ and you should be getting close.

I've uploaded you a preset for Albino (hope you that!) and the MIDI from Get Shaky (came with the parts) so you can compare / get fiddling. Should be a good enough base point for you to work from.

http://www.speedyshare.com/315261988.html

Hope all that helps!

SJ\\

rottu · Post by **rottu** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 8:06 pm

Awesome, I'm very thankfull for your help.

I think that's a very good reproduction of ian's bass and it's a perfect starting point for create a personal sound.

I thank you for your time and for your explanation that I'm sure it will helps other people that love that style too.

Thanks and bb.

Sorry for my english.

Thirteen · Post by **Thirteen** » Mon Jan 05, 2009 10:47 pm

thanks for providing such an indpeth explanation and not just posting a patch. Really helped me also

Nick Cenik · Post by **Nick Cenik** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 9:18 pm

Thirteen wrote:thanks for providing such an indpeth explanation and not just posting a patch. Really helped me also

+1

ZenPunkHippy · Post by **ZenPunkHippy** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 10:45 pm

Thanks soul_junkie for a nice and simple tutorial!

Albino is great for bass. Works well with Predatohm!!

Peace,
Andy.

paulc_dj · Post by **paulc_dj** » Tue Jan 06, 2009 11:09 pm

Thanks dude for helping us lesser mortals lol!

PC

soul_junkie · Post by **soul_junkie** » Wed Jan 07, 2009 4:03 pm

No worries guys!

If i can answer the question, i'm happy to unload my knowledge

MOK19 · Post by **MOK19** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:02 am

Good write up - Looks like getting the waveform + 5th interval is the key to it. Otherwise straight forward. Sometimes its frustrating how the simple stuff can elude us...

MOK19 · Post by **MOK19** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:44 am

Woops, total necropost.

I have one question, actually.... why heavily compress it? Whats so important about that in this general sound?
When I throw on a compressor(I use C4's built-in), and drag down the threshold + make-up for the gain, there's no significant difference in sound. There's a slight one, but I don't perceive it as important. Just now, I tried out bringing down the threshold as far as -45db, and after make-up, it's just not making a palpable difference to me.
So what's your take on it, SJ?

soul_junkie · Post by **soul_junkie** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 8:53 am

nah necro-posting's fine if it's a legitimate question!

I think the heavily compressing I was referring to was just for that specific Ian Carey sound. He does over-compress alot of his stuff.

It's not a pre-requisite for the sound as a rule, but maybe for achieving the same Carey vibe

(Although compression on a bass usually ends up as a must)

Now, as for your compression issues, I don't use Waves stuff so am not so familiar with the workings of the C4, but from memory it's a multiband?

Try just a simple compressor, with some settings like this:

Threshold: -15
Attack: 3ms
Delay: 60ms
Ratio 3:1
Knee: Hard-Medium

Let me know how you go with that. The idea is to still keep the dynamics in the sound, while getting the bass to punch as a whole.

finalfragment · Post by **finalfragment** » Tue Nov 10, 2009 7:12 pm

soul_junkie wrote:

I've uploaded you a preset for Albino (hope you that!) and the MIDI from Get Shaky (came with the parts) so you can compare / get fiddling. Should be a good enough base point for you to work from.

http://www.speedyshare.com/315261988.html

Hope all that helps!

SJ\\

Could we please get a re-up on the preset?

Thanks! =D

MOK19 · Post by **MOK19** » Wed Nov 11, 2009 10:14 pm

Oops, clarification - when I said C4, I meant Cubase 4's built-in basic compressor. I certainly see the point of compressing a bass in general. And I suppose that this proposed 'Ian Carey vibe' might need equally big compression if everything else is crammed in there.

By the way, I'd be curious to hear your stuff, SJ. Some good house sounds appealing right now.

Finalfragment, have you tried out making this preset yourself yet? It really is pretty easy to get right on target.

soul_junkie · Post by **soul_junkie** » Thu Nov 12, 2009 5:25 am

finalfragment wrote:
soul_junkie wrote:

I've uploaded you a preset for Albino (hope you that!) and the MIDI from Get Shaky (came with the parts) so you can compare / get fiddling. Should be a good enough base point for you to work from.

http://www.speedyshare.com/315261988.html

Hope all that helps!

SJ\\
Could we please get a re-up on the preset?

Thanks! =D

Sorry mate, don't have it anymore. I think I must have saved it to the desktop or something.

Have a try with those instructions though, it shouldn't take you too long to get up & running

Plucked Bass