Kontakt Bass Processing

[joncarr]

Totally noob, and no, this isnt my first week of producing either, but I was just curious as to how many people use Kontakt to process their basses? I have just discovered kontakt as a new and interesting way to play with bass samples but my problem is I can't really make anything that sounds thick enough with just kontakt. Maybe sample processing is only part of the holy grail bass search. The LFO's inside kontakt don't seem too amazing to me as the sync feature is rather weird. Would anyone agree?

I guess all this rambling is just to get to a basic question of layering. Do you peeps tend to layer after all your processing? Do you layer square waves with sine waves and saw waves? I'm not looking for the age old "how do you make noisia bass" I'm looking for a process answer as opposed to an end product answer. I know there is no one way to process your bass samples but how do you know when too much is too much?

If you got aim, you can hit me up there too at [j3cdnb] (without the brackets)

Thanks in advance,

Much Respect

joncarr

 

[bite and gouge]

Hi Joncarr,

Can't say I've tried Kontakt for basses myself, I have tended to use it for more classical stuff and I find it carries some serious weight with kicks and snares. My gripe with kontakt is that its a little overcomplicated for good work flow. I would guess most would simply build their basses as audio directly in the sequencer these days but there is plenty to be gained by involving a sampler. We have hardware samplers for the same reason, although we would nearly always use the convenience of software first to write the track. This allows us to be clinical with the hardware due to the effort involved.

On the processing side, it really does come down to your ears and personal choice. Layering for me is standard but nearly different in approach every time. There is nothing wrong with involving more than one instrument to make a part, so why not run a synth alongside kontakt to beef it up?

Respect for the style of your question, you're right it is refreshing from the "I wanna sound like..." posts. For waveforms I tend to stick with sine or triangle for the sub but then anything goes in the mid... originality being the goal. I would tend to write the track before committing to bouncing the layers together as sometimes taking just one of the layers away can produce good results. Layering tends to be more about the frequency stages to create space for everything else, so I guess too much processing is when there is no room left.

Keep up the good work bro!

Peace

 

[joncarr]

Thanks bro! That was a very informative reply man, and I truly appreciate it very much. It seems though in the last couple of days I have moved away from Kontakt and went back to the standard sampler which comes with Ableton. Using quality samples I have been able to develop a sound which I do like, also having spoke with Inward Phase, he has helped me to realize that creating huge basses doesn't always require layering. I guess it does just all come back around to practice, but it seems like some people CONSISTENTLY make HUGE basses without an issue. This seems to imply that there is a standard chain that these artists tend to follow. As an example, please think of the following as a way to "process" your sounds:

1. Select your bass sample, or create your bass using vsti/softsynth/whatever
2. Separate your sample/synth into three frequency ranges (low, mid, high)
3. Apply saturation and eq to lows for deep sub.
4. Apply your fx chain to mids
5. Apply your fx chain to highs........


....you get the idea I think. I'm not trying to figure out WHAT FX people are using, and in what order they are using them, that's where your own personal creativity come into play. I just am looking for a way to streamline my process by hearing yours as the above excerpt is modeled slightly off my own may. I do realize it takes time to make the perfect mids and gritty, raw highs, but I find it hard to believe that it takes people hours upon hours to create an 8 bar HUGE BASS loop. Considering the fact that some people send me two or three wip clips a day. I know these people are out here, but not a lot of them are willing to type a novel to explain their ways.......