You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host , mark Matthews . Hello and welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast . I'm Mark Matthews , your host , musician , producer and mix and mastering engineer .
You've come to the right place if you want to know more about your favorite synth music artists , music engineering and production , songwriting and the music industry . I've been writing , producing , mixing and mastering music for over 15 years and I want to share what I've learned with you . Hello , folks , and welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast .
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So I was recently interviewed or had a chat with UAP on the let's Talk Synth Seriously podcast , which is going to drop on October , the 4th . So by the time this episode goes live , it would have dropped , so I'll put a link to that in the episode description .
In my chat with UAP , we talked about sound synthesis and sampling and how I got started , and I haven't done that really for quite some time and it inspired me to dive back in . So I was recently working on a project where I wanted to create this evolving sub bass sound in the middle eight and I thought you know what ?
I'm going to use Alchemy and Logic Pro to see what I can come up with . So in this episode I'm going to demonstrate how I created a really basic sub bass in alchemy , in logic pro . So let's dive in . We're in logic pro and I'm using the native synth alchemy in logic pro and we're going to go from this initialized default setting to this .
So let's start right at the beginning . I've got this sub-bass software instrument track and I've got a MIDI region on there with some MIDI notes and I'm going to find the instrument and I'm going to go to Alchemy . So let's add that as an instrument on here and I've opened it and I've got the default preset .
If that doesn't ever open , if you want to go back to the initialized preset , if you go to file and then you can select initialized preset and then you get this , which is just a sawtooth wave , right ? Not what we want , but we're going to build on this . We need to be in the advanced view and if you're not in the advanced view .
At the top left it says advanced , so you can click on it because you've got simple and you've got browse . There are some great patches in here that I've only really scratched the surface . I was playing around with it earlier and there are some fantastic ones , particularly the soundscapes and the evolving soundscapes , some really good stuff in there .
I'll highlight one that I found earlier . Where is it ? So we've got Soundscapes Evolving and if I go to , I've got one saved in here somewhere . I'm going to find it . It's called Sub Aquatic Dreams . In fact I'll play it because it just sounded incredible . I mean , how nice is that ? It's giving me Limp Bizkit my Way vibes at the beginning of that track .
If you're into new metal , you'll know what I mean . I'll play it again . Anyway , I deviate from the demonstration here , so I'm going to go back to file and I'm going to go back to initialize presets .
So we're at the beginning and with the advanced view , I'm going to highlight a really useful and free frequency analyzer and it's by TDR and it's called Prism and I like to use this so I can have a look and see what these oscillators are generating when I'm doing sound synthesis and sampling , so what the synth is generating essentially .
So at the moment I've got a sawtooth wave in this A source or this oscillator , and I'm going to change this to a sine wave . So I'm going to go to basic and sine . Now , when I play this , you'll see and I'll describe this for those who are listening you'll just see that sine wave on the frequency analyzer in PRISM .
So I'm going to add another oscillator , or source as it's called in Alchemy . So I'm going to click on B and I'm going to use the drop down menu and select sine . Again , you can select more complex sine waves so you can experiment with those . For example , you've got sine , add 12 , add another octave , and the list goes on .
But in this instance I'm just gonna go with basic and hit sine and I'm actually gonna detune this one by 12 steps . So I'm gonna detune it . I'm gonna go down an octave . Now this all depends on where your MIDI notes are . So my MIDI notes are in the range of C1 , and if they were lower than that then I wouldn't need to detune the second octave .
So you've got to think where your MIDI notes are in terms of where you're tuning . So in this instance , because they are in that C1 range . I'm going to leave the first oscillator as it is and this second oscillator , or source , I'm going to detune by minus 12 .
So when I play this and we look at the spectral , the frequency analyzer rather you will see those two discrete sine waves . Now we're going to move on to some filtering to sculpt this sound . So in the filter section make sure it's on there's a dropdown menu and I'm going to use the band pass option . There are low pass , high pass and others as well .
And I'm going to use steep slopes here because I want to create resonances around those frequency cutoffs at either side of this band pass filter . And I'm going to go with edgy to begin with .
There are others that you can trial , so I'm going to click on edgy , then we're going to use the cutoff parameter to move that band pass around until we hit the sweet spot where the sub is sounding right .
And I'm going to use the frequency analyzer , tdr prism , because I want to get to a point whereby I'm seeing the upper octave is at approximately the same level as the lower octave . So we're using our eyes and our ears in this instance . So we'll play it and then I'm going to bring this cutoff down .
It's probably going to be around 50 Hertz in this instance . So we'll play it and then I'm gonna bring this cutoff down . It's probably gonna be around 50 Hertz in this instance , but obviously depending on your MIDI notes and the key you're in , this will change . So just sweep around until you find that sweet spot . So let's give it a go .
So we're gonna be looking at prism and also listening as well . I've settled on about 60 hertz here , but what I'm actually going to do is I am just going to bring the volume down of the upper octave sine wave by .
I'm going to bring it down by about minus 1 dB and now I'm going to play it because I want them to be about even on the frequency analyzer . Maybe a touch more . Let's go down to minus 7.5 . I mean , I'm being really pedantic here . We'll leave it like that for the time being .
I'm trying to get them as even as possible in the sub-frequency ranges or the lower frequency ranges . So I'm just going to play it once more . Yeah , about 30 to 40 hertz , it's about there . I mean we could go lower , but in this instance the notes I'm using aren't that low . But you could trial this yourself .
So when you're creating your sub-bassion , you really are delving into those low-frequency notes . Just play with the position of that band pass filter and the relative volume of each of your oscillators . Then what we could do is we could add some . Let's add some drive to this as well . Let's add some overtones .
So I'm gonna play it and gradually increase this drive parameter in the filter section . So I've settled on about 45% there and if you're watching you'll see on the frequency analyzer you'll start to see those overtones represented on the frequency analyzer itself . And then a bit of resonance as well .
So we're adding resonance at the cutoff frequencies of this bandpass filter . Let's have a play around with that . So I've gone for about 18% . With that I might bring the drive down . Actually I'm going to bring the drive down to about 40% . I'm just going to play it again . Okay , so I'm going to bring it down to 27% . I'm happy with that .
Next , we are going to manipulate the volume envelope and I've got the attack , hold and decay set at 0% . The sustain is at 100% and the release I've just tailored to attenuate any clicks at the beginning of the MIDI notes . So when I play this now you'll hear that it transitions between notes a lot smoother .
I mean , there's still a bit of an artifact in there , so I could play around with it a bit more . But that's what you would use the release for , and at the moment I've got it set to 0.0385 seconds , basically , and then just to add a bit more girth to this sub bass .
In the effects section , under distortion , you've got the bass enhancer and I'm going to enable fat and I'm just going to drag this up probably to about 20% , just to add a bit more girthiness and fatness to this sub bass . I'm going to play it and gradually increase the amount . In fact , I settled on about 26% .
One other thing that I sometimes do is I do add a sawtooth and I just sort of like tuck this underneath the two sine waves just to add a bit more richness in terms of texture . So I've enabled this , I've left it at zero in terms of tuning .
Suppose you could experiment and make it an octave up or maybe a couple octaves up , and what I'm going to do is I'm going to drag it all the way down to zero , essentially where it says infinity on here , and then I'm going to drag it all the way down to zero , essentially where it says infinity on here and then I'm going to drag it up , just so it's
tucked underneath the two sine waves , just to add a bit of richness . So we'll play that and I'll gradually drag it up . We'll probably get to about I don't know minus 12 , minus 14 dB , but let's have a play and see what happens . So I settled on minus 14 dB , which is probably a bit too much , but I wanted you to be able to hear it effectively .
And it's just an optional extra . It's a third oscillator or source . It's using the C source in Alchemy here and it just adds a bit more richness to the sound . But you don't have to add it , it's just an optional extra . If you want just pure sub bass and roll with the sine waves , you could try other waveforms as well and see how they sound .
But that is essentially it , folks . So let's have a quick play of the finished sub bass patch in Alchemy . Let's do a quick recap of how we put this together . We're in Alchemy and we're using the advanced view . We went to File and we got Initialize Precept .
We've got three oscillators in this instance , but at the very core it's two oscillators or sources , both sine waves . One of them was detuned 12 steps so it went down an octave . Then we use the band pass filter , the 12 dB edgy slope for this band pass , and the actual cutoff is around 50 to 55 hertz .
Resonance , 28% Drive I've actually boosted the drive here , so it's at 70% , so it's a lot more than what I did earlier . And then , with the volume envelope , attack , hold , decay all the way slow , 0% , sustain at 100% , release tailored to get rid of those artifacts , those clicks at the beginning of a note .
We then use the bass enhancer and I've got it set to 26% with the fat setting to add a bit girthiness . And then I added the additional oscillator or source using the saw and I tucked that underneath the two sine waves just to add a bit more richness to the overall sound . And that is a really quick way to put together a sub bass patch in Alchemy .
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