Desperately need help creating jump up sounds with massive

T3chnicuz

T3chnicuz

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Jul 15, 2017
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Hi,

I'm producing and a massive user for over 8 years now, and I still can't get any jump-up type of sounds out of it. Yet when I approach any of the jump up producers they all state that they used massive to create their sounds. And in the last 2 years some have been using Serum.

All these jump-up sounds from artists that are signed to a label sound very similar to me. They just use a different base sound/wavetables and envelopes. But what they all have in common is two things

- Some ring'y sound, which I can reproduce pretty good by now by using a delay of about 24ms with a good amount of feedback. This can also entirely reshape the sound you get out of the synth/massive.
- Some sick curves to the base sound which make the sound less straight/sustained and make it bouncy and sounding like "Wah" "Womp" or "Wub/Wob"

I've not spent hundreds of hours fiddling around in massive and with FX chains, but litterally THOUSANDS of hours. I've tried almost anything that I could think of over the years. Like FX chains with Distortion, EQ, Saturation, Delay, Flangers, Phasers. In massive I tried stuff like pitch bends, freq shifter, sample & hold, phase modulation and all kinds of envelopes/LFO's/Performers/steppers on all the different osc's/effects/amp/filter etc...

Also most producers say they use basic wavetables like Square or Saw, but they keep sounding basic to me, there is no way for me to reshape them into a clean sound that sounds different from a standard Square/Saw.

Another problem I have is that while phase modulation, sample and hold and freq shifter do transform the sound pretty cool, they also add mud and distortion/grit to the sound, which I don't want. I want my base sound to be clean so I can add in distortion on my own with the plenty of plugins I have (camelphat, Saturn, trash2 etc)

So here's my questions

- How do you get a jump-up'y base sound from basic Square/Saw/Triangle shapes and how do I made it sound clean/not so distorted?
- How do you apply special curves/envelopes/pitchbends or whatever to make the sound not so straight/sustained?

If you don't want to share your secrets with anyone you can always PM me ;) I feel like I've put in enough hours of messing with the massive and FX to earn some good help from anyone :D

Practice and then practice more is not the answer i'm looking for. I can't do it on my own :(

Thanks! and sorry for the long read.
 
Yo man, sounds to me like you're trying to make all the bass come from a single source (Massive) and failing? If so then start working in different layers; Low-Mid, Mid, High etc.
 
I've tried layering synths in the past, but didn't give me good results. I did for example Low-mid in serum, mid in massive and then massive/sylenth1/predator for highs and stuff like that, and tried messing with different envelopes on the layers but meh, didn't work out.

But I'm gonna give it another try. I only started layering synths like 4 months ago so haven't really spent that much hours fiddling with all possible settings
 
pretty easy, most my synths have came from the 'Nu elements synth tutorial' on youtube

but i normally change the wave table to ones in the 3rd row think there called digital. the drop down menu from the wavetable where it says 'spectrum' i normally change to format or bend - and from there fiddle with the intensity (get good results from this)

from there it's all about fx vsts. i like 'CMT Bitcrusher' 'chorrosive' flofi' camelphat' and if you have fl studio 11+ defiantly use effector.

also make sure your cutting the lows out of your synth and putting a sine sub underneath.
 
Thanks! I will look up some of the VST's you use for the FX chain! I have the Nu elementz ganja man patch but can't get good results by changing wavetables or parameters though. Whenever I change something the sound becomes more bass'y/guitar'y. I'm more after those higher pitched, screechy/ring'y type of sounds with some curve to it so it's not so straight sounding.

For the bass/low-mid I tend to use reese basses in my tracks. I like to alternate between a low-mid reese sound and a higher pitched screechy type sound both with a sub bass layered underneath. Reese basses are pretty easy to create with massive and some FX chain.

Thanks for your help

more tips are welcome! :)
 
learn synthesis. get back to back basics

Even if you think you are taking step back,

this might be obviously stupid but seriously, why try to paint a masterpiece when you don’t even know how to blend 2 colours, thats why its taking you 8 years. also i bet you didnt make music everyday /week constantly for 8 years. i bet it was more off than on?

for the long approach what it seems you are taking you need to keep on doing it over n over. experimenting and failing (mostly every time)
Understand how sound works 1st, and then you know know what each thing dose without even touching it.

Once you get the basics of making ANY sound design you will be able to get close to what you are after by listening.
but not if you give up
 
Thanks! I will get back to the basics. It does indeed sound stupid as I've made loads of tracks in lots of genres over the years and I feel like I know all the basics of sound design. But yeah maybe I lost some of the basics by making too much kids music (neurofunk, electro, dubstep, etc...) and everything became obvious and a standard workflow.

I did produce a lot over the years, mostly 1-2 weeks per month with sometimes some off time for 2 months or so. But yeah those genres I produced before were too easy. First of all those standard massive wavetables all lend themselves pretty well for a neurofunk reese bass or an electro/dubstep lead. You don't even need extensive FX chains to get something good for those genres.

Jump up is new for me because those sounds are not standard. I'm farily new to doing big FX chains, synth layering etc. Jump up sounds seem much more complicated and technical to create.

But the main thing I'm struggling with is bouncy curves in those sounds so it doesn't sound so straight. I tried using basic sound design principles like some attack and decay etc but that just isn't the effect i'm after.
 
T3chnicuz said:
But I'm gonna give it another try. I only started layering synths like 4 months ago so haven't really spent that much hours fiddling with all possible settings
Click to expand...

Personally layering is farrrr easier to get big sounds so I'd stick at it (Y)
 
Found a neat little trick to add curve/detune to my sounds. The trick is using "Vibrato" in massive. It takes off the rough guitary sound of any osc wavetable and adds detune and bounciness to it ;)

More tips are welcome, obviously with 1 good sound I can't make a full track :D
 
. i’m still learning myself man, non the less i’m in the same boat.
At the moment i’m striving to get my kick and snare layering down. using presets i’ve made in serum layering with samples.
 
yea the same here, still struggling with the snare as well. Jump up snares that is. for neurofunk I got quite a good one. But for jump up my vengeance sample packs just don't fit for a good snare.
 
T3chnicuz said:
yea the same here, still struggling with the snare as well. Jump up snares that is. for neurofunk I got quite a good one. But for jump up my vengeance sample packs just don't fit for a good snare.
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right same here i hate vengeance because i can never get anything that fits. thats why i make my own.

watch these


 
So, I bought another pack of presets and it's useless again. It seems the synths the big boys are getting out of massive only are all stuff that I can easily create myself

I got in contact with an artist and he is saying that it's all about what you do with it in FX chains. Distortion, EQ, Saturation etc.. is what he said. But that still doesn't give me any clue on how to create a bouncy curve in my sounds.

Because well, distortion, eq and saturation just work with the frequencies that are there, and doesn't add any bounce or curve to the sound.... I don't get how FX chains can totally reshape the sound coming out of massive other than adding some grit through distortion/EQ/Saturation.

Obviously I have also tried other plugins and audio effect like frequency shifter, chorossive, flofideluxe, etc...
 
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I have the same problem myself. Got a bit frustrated and revisited the 'how to bassline' thread on this page. It really kind of put things into perspective as to how much work comes into it and I'm finding out that a lot of it is resampling and putting the sounds through the ringer with FX and what not to get some of the desired results.

https://dnbforum.com/threads/how-to-bassline-thread.71837/
 
T3chnicuz said:
yea the same here, still struggling with the snare as well. Jump up snares that is. for neurofunk I got quite a good one. But for jump up my vengeance sample packs just don't fit for a good snare.
Click to expand...
my advice for getting a good snare is too not use vengeance for one. I found that finding one snare that is fat on its own and then adding a layer withevrything cut below about 6-700hz and high cut at 3000 and then find a snare with a nice high and cut below about 3000. then obviously use eq and compression to glue them all together. also boost the most important part of each layer and take them frequencies away from the main body snare.
 
what do you mean by bouncy curve ? surly that would be made in the synth, since i bough serum i dont use massive. my results are a lot better
 





Mostly the macky gee sort of bouncy feeling i'm after, but macky's sound is probably too ambitious for anyone on this forum :D

And jaydan has got a nice ring'y sound

And Stretcha has got some nice detuning curve in his sounds

I guess it's mostly a straight massive bass with a bouncy higher pitched sound layered on top with a lot of FX to give it a ring'y feeling
 
T3chnicuz said:





Mostly the macky gee sort of bouncy feeling i'm after, but macky's sound is probably too ambitious for anyone on this forum :D

And jaydan has got a nice ring'y sound

And Stretcha has got some nice detuning curve in his sounds

I guess it's mostly a straight massive bass with a bouncy higher pitched sound layered on top with a lot of FX to give it a ring'y feeling
Click to expand...

pretty sure the ringy sound is a comb filter
 
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