How to add variety to my tracks?

The Kombine

New Member
Joined
Nov 6, 2013
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Seattle, WA, USA
I have been wondering this because when I listen to all these big nuerofunk artists I wonder how they make their breaks fit. I then listen to mine and think "Wow, I didn't put a lot of effort into creating variety." When I'm saying this I'm mostly talking about the bass. It rarely involves the drums, pads, atmosphere. Everything else but the bass is usually fine.
How do I make it feel like I actually put effort into it and didn't just slap bass samples into the track?
 
well, id have to say, automate. filter sweeps, pitch bends, w/t position. if your basses are synthesyzed play around with the settings and figure out which settings sound good when played around with. if it feels right make an automation of it... cant really help you in case your sampling bass sounds though xD
 
Well I'm only using Fruity Loop's 3xOsc for making the saw part. Along with an equalizer and a filter.

However I do resample my bass through Harmor so if anybody has advise on that it would be awesome.
 
Bare tuts on Youtube for Harmor bro.

Or Seamless how to bass series too.

To the OP: I also have some difficulty whe it comes to resampled basses. But I'm getting the hang of it. You just need to play around. I think 3xOSC isn't that good in terms of reeces. I normally create (or use a preset with tweaks I make myself) on massive, and then resample it into Harmor.
 
Or Seamless how to bass series too.

To the OP: I also have some difficulty whe it comes to resampled basses. But I'm getting the hang of it. You just need to play around. I think 3xOSC isn't that good in terms of reeces. I normally create (or use a preset with tweaks I make myself) on massive, and then resample it into Harmor.

Yeah bounce down your sounds from the 3xOSC then mangle it, put in a sampler and rinse and repeat. Phetsta was a god at doing it for ages.
 
Every once in a while, pan one osc left, one right and keep one centered.
The sudden stereo width adds a lot a variety to any fill.
 
Or Seamless how to bass series too.

To the OP: I also have some difficulty whe it comes to resampled basses. But I'm getting the hang of it. You just need to play around. I think 3xOSC isn't that good in terms of reeces. I normally create (or use a preset with tweaks I make myself) on massive, and then resample it into Harmor.

Ya you really just gotta practice and fiddle about with things until you start getting sounds you like, then remember your process and figure out WHY certain combos worked and others didn't then experiment from there. And, side-note, I feel like Seamless' videos anymore are really "How To Make That Same Bass: Version 420.69.69"
 
Ya you really just gotta practice and fiddle about with things until you start getting sounds you like, then remember your process and figure out WHY certain combos worked and others didn't then experiment from there. And, side-note, I feel like Seamless' videos anymore are really "How To Make That Same Bass: Version 420.69.69"

To be honest, Seamless newest videos are just showing different ways of doing the same basses he did back then. I usually stick to his videos just to understand a bit more about Harmor (and sytrus, maybe?) as Harmor is, IMO, a pretty complicated plugin to mess with. There are so many buttons that I'm always getting lost!
 
Or Seamless how to bass series too.

To the OP: I also have some difficulty whe it comes to resampled basses. But I'm getting the hang of it. You just need to play around. I think 3xOSC isn't that good in terms of reeces. I normally create (or use a preset with tweaks I make myself) on massive, and then resample it into Harmor.

I don't have the money for any of the Native Instruments, that's why I use 3xOsc. But seamless's resampling video has helped me a lot. It was actually somebody else's videos that helped me with actually making the standard bass.
 
I don't have the money for any of the Native Instruments, that's why I use 3xOsc. But seamless's resampling video has helped me a lot. It was actually somebody else's videos that helped me with actually making the standard bass.

Massive is worth the money fo sho man, it instantly increased the quality of my bass. Maybe it's just because I'm shit lol
I've got Harmor too and it seems amazing, probably has more potential than Massive with its image synthesis and resampling features, but I still don't know how to use it at all so better start watching more seamless I guess
 
Massive is worth the money fo sho man, it instantly increased the quality of my bass. Maybe it's just because I'm shit lol
I've got Harmor too and it seems amazing, probably has more potential than Massive with its image synthesis and resampling features, but I still don't know how to use it at all so better start watching more seamless I guess

Unfortunately, when I search anything related to resampling in harmor, I only find Seamless videos (at least that have some quality). I guess nobody else uses Harmor for that.
 
When it comes to learning harmour, its good to read the manual and study the synthesis behind it, instead of just getting one person's take on the plugin.
As with any plugin, the more you know about what you can do with it, the better the results will be. So if there are a couple buttons that you don't know anything about, and Seamless doesnt cover them, then find out what you can do with them.

Image having Massive, but knowing what the Mod osc does, or how how to use macros. You would miss out on a big chuck of its potential. And that's the same for all other plugins.
Ive had a good look at granular synthesizers and have heard a lot of really good things, i'm sure you guys could learn a lot more about it with your own research.

Back on topic, different kinds of modulation like flangers and phasers can vary your sound in a very nice way, and compliment filtering very well.
Something a lot of the top neuro guys do, and this is common knowledge, is create basslines with choppod up bass samples. These bass samples usually contain a few bars of a heavily modulated phrase, which is then chopped and placed withing the rhythm of the break to create a working bassline. Making good basslines involves a auditioning and creative placement, and requires a good understanding of the 'question and answer' methods of chorus structure. A good thing to do is just take out a decent 8bar break loop and experiment with different basslines to see what works and help yourself get a better understanding.
 
When it comes to learning harmour, its good to read the manual and study the synthesis behind it, instead of just getting one person's take on the plugin.
As with any plugin, the more you know about what you can do with it, the better the results will be. So if there are a couple buttons that you don't know anything about, and Seamless doesnt cover them, then find out what you can do with them.

Image having Massive, but knowing what the Mod osc does, or how how to use macros. You would miss out on a big chuck of its potential. And that's the same for all other plugins.
Ive had a good look at granular synthesizers and have heard a lot of really good things, i'm sure you guys could learn a lot more about it with your own research.

Back on topic, different kinds of modulation like flangers and phasers can vary your sound in a very nice way, and compliment filtering very well.
Something a lot of the top neuro guys do, and this is common knowledge, is create basslines with choppod up bass samples. These bass samples usually contain a few bars of a heavily modulated phrase, which is then chopped and placed withing the rhythm of the break to create a working bassline. Making good basslines involves a auditioning and creative placement, and requires a good understanding of the 'question and answer' methods of chorus structure. A good thing to do is just take out a decent 8bar break loop and experiment with different basslines to see what works and help yourself get a better understanding.

When I watched that Noisia video, where they are explaining a little how their production works, they're covering how they've done the soundtrack for DMC. At one time, one of them (I don't know his name, shame on me) showed that one of his basses was, originally, a sampled synthesized trumpet sound. I couldn't believe how they could achieve a good bass sound out of a trumpet.
 
When I watched that Noisia video, where they are explaining a little how their production works, they're covering how they've done the soundtrack for DMC. At one time, one of them (I don't know his name, shame on me) showed that one of his basses was, originally, a sampled synthesized trumpet sound. I couldn't believe how they could achieve a good bass sound out of a trumpet.

It was a synth horn sound played in a low register like a tuba, not far off a reese, but no biggie lol. Still, the results were very impressive.
 
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