dj kartwillz
New Member
- Joined
- Nov 2, 2009
Drum and bass & dubstep engineers / producers will at some point want a speaker bustin' Reese bass sound for there next dance floor smasher. The Reese bass or lead is the uber-classic 'gritty bass' sound. From the more subtle terrorist types of Reece to the bonkers alien girl Reese they all have one thing in common. The legendary saw tooth wave.
Firstly, get a multi oscillator synth (ideally 3 or 4 oscillators - quick hint you can always pair up synths to get 8 or even 16 oscillators running for exponential madness) for example the NI massive, ES2 by Logic or reasons 'maelstrom'. You will want to set the number 1 oscillator and all the other oscillators to a saw tooth wave. The saw tooth is rich in harmonic waves, The normal waves ramps upward and then falls. There are also saw tooth waves where the wave ramps down and then rises sharply. That kind of saw tooth wave is called a 'reverse saw tooth' or 'inverse saw tooth'. As audio signals, the two orientations of saw tooth wave sound identical until paired together
Once you have got your multi oscillator synth running with 3 oscillators or more, the next step in the process is to detune one or 2 of the oscillators by around +/- 25cents (1 detune by +25, 2 detune by -25, 3 leave in the middle), this is very effective for drum and bass and dubstep. This gives the reese a very deep edgy dark sound, rather than just a buzzy electro kind of sound.
After setting up your initial saw tooth with De-turning, (this is essentially the basis of the Reece) - You can go ahead and start manipulating and shaping the noise for your type of music, dubstep or drum and bass. If you have 'unison' switch on your synth now is a good time to turn it on! Also if you have an analogue knob you can turn that up too. Here are some of the main parameters you can use:
ASDR on the filter
A interesting method to get a movement on the Reese bass is to add envelope to the filter section, Reese bass noises are extremely sensitive to filters and using a high pass you can get a very nice sounding lead, or use a low pass and get a very fat bass. try using around 25% of filter attack for dubstep and 35% for drum and bass. A fast attack will give an almost LFO effect when the notes are played fast. A long attack is good for long held notes.
Phaser effect.
Because of the harmonic phases all ready occurring due to the multiple oscillation, adding an external phaser effect can and does work very well. It's better to use a sparse amount of phase to subtly enhance the sound rather than extreme amounts. This effect also adds movement so your sound is not just a static note.
Flange
The flange process can add a nice bit of subtle metallic rasp to the sound, this helps gives you a big bad dubstep sound.
Delay
The delay effect can make a Reece sound massive! Try using a delay just before the drop.
Reverb
Again light applications of reverb can act very effectively on your sound, Guitar amp reverbs tend to work well with Reece bass and also come packed with distortion for extra bite.
Other plug-in's that add madness to your Reese include: Distortion, compression, LFO and auto filters work especially well with dubstep.
Quick Tips: Try using a synced tremolo with about 50% of effect for some crazy wobble. Using reasons combinator you can make 2 maelstroms play at the same time and have the same LFO settings for a massive Reese sound. The Reese is the core of most drum and bass and dubstep productions. Learn it well young sky walker!
In summary, it is best to effect your Reese line a lot for dubstep and drum and bass music production. It's a well used if not over used sound, so to make it stand out you will have to be creative with your engineering skills. Filters act in a massive way and reverb is a must!
