on a whim i reread what i posted yesterday and realized i left out some important tips. but first, a little more theory:
1. One of the most characteristic parts of any sound is it's volume envelope. For example, chop off the attack and decay off of a piano noise, and notice how it sounds almost like a "synth" noise. Chop the attack of an 808 kick drum and you essentially have a bass sound. A large part of what allows our mind to register these sounds as a "piano" or "drum" is how the sounds travels- how it rises and falls.
2. Remember , a sound is really a COMBINATION of sounds (harmonics), except for a sine wave, which has no other harmonics except for itself . The lowest frequency part of any sound is the most important part of it- called it's FUNDAMENTAL. The fundamental is also the loudest part of the sound, and is what the mind will "read" the sound as. (ie a high pitched distortion plus medium pitched resonance plus LOW PITCHED bass sound will read as "BASS" sound; since the bass sound is the FUNDAMENTAL).
So, the key to getting good results when layering upper harmonics to a pure bass tone like a sine wave (remember, go about 80hz-100hz), involves:
A) Messing with the attack and decay of the "upper harmonic" samples you added, to rid them of their distinguising character- for example, lets say you layered a piano noise with a 90 hz sine and your "sick bass" still sounds like "a bass note played at the same time as a piano note". That's partially because your mind is catching the piano's envelope and associates "piano" with it. Altering the attack/decay will give you a better result, as the piano becomes more like just a bundle of frequencies. Mind you, what also reads as "piano" is the samples special proportion of frequencies, but a bass sound that feels a little like a piano noise is a GOOD thing- alot of the old classic rave stabs were made this way. Filtering out some of the piano's frequencies (high low or otherwise), is also a good way to go.
B) Getting the "proportions" right between upper and lower hamonics. The fundamental (your true bass sample) should always be the loudest part- if your new sound feels unnatural, (ie like two different sounds), use your low pass filter (over the whole sample if you can) to slowly "shave off" some of the upper harmonics, stopping when you feel you got a good convincing "blend" of the bass frequency and the wierdness you put on top.
C) A volume envelope or filter (as mentioned above) over the entire sound will also help tie it together into something that has character, but still reads as a single "bass noise". Since the envelope travels across the entire sound, the listener's mind is more apt to be convinced it came from the same source.
Mind you, none of these techniques are anything new. There are tons of synthesizers out there that allow you to use a sample as a sound source, and layer it with pure waves from the synth's oscillators. Essentially all the above is doing is showing you HOW CLOSE YOUR SAMPLER REALLY IS TO A SYNTHESIZER. If you have the tools to combine, filter, and envelope sounds, you have the tools to do sound design and create new and interesting noises. All thats needed is the most basic understanding of the nature of sound- which at heart is about the fact that a "sound" is essentially just a bunch of frequencies played at the same time.
Finally, someone compained that getting the exact sound you want is the toughest part of this all. While its clear that experience will bring conception and excecution closer, I'd argue that most DnB innovations werent discovered that way anyway. A better way to work is:
1. Spend a day or two or three just SOUND DESIGNING. Go nuts creating tons of new and interesting noises that NOONE ELSE HAS. Save all this stuff on your hard drive or synth or sampler, put into categories like "bass" and "sound fx"
2. Now when you produce, you can draw from that library. Your sounds are YOUR OWN , and so your one step closer to making tracks that sound fresh and original and actually CONTRIBUTE TO THE ART FORM rather than just taking from it. You can either be the guy that's trying to repicate a famous sound or the guy people are asking "that sound is sick- how the fuck did you do that"? The choice is yours...
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