sort audio automation audiofinder bass drums synth

You may also want to EQ the Devil Loc signal to emphasise the harmonics. This is definitely a case of blend to taste, but if the effect is intentional you’re likely to end up with more of the obliterated signal than the original. The signal will be very loud with these settings, so it’s worth placing about -15dB of trim afterwards so you can maintain finer fader resolution when blending. Wind the darkness knob way down to around seven or eight to get rid of the ugly top end that will almost certainly be introduced. I’ll set this up in parallel with the clean signal and dial in both the Crunch and Crush until I’m getting a toneful and brickwalled signal (typically between three and five on both dials). If so, Devil Loc is your one stop shop for obliteration. Sometimes you want to take it completely over the top and make it sound like a broken speaker. When bypassed it should sound different, of course, but not in a clean vs metal-zone kind of way! You don’t want it to sound like an overdriven guitar amp, just more like the original sound is gaining focus in the low-mids. I’ll start driving the signal until I hear it ‘fur’ up, then fine-tune from there. The bias control is incredibly useful for tuning the distortion to the signal the deeper the signal the lower I set the bias, usually starting around three or four on the dial.

With Culture Vulture I’ll usually opt for setting T, or for P1 if I want to take it over the edge a little more. In terms of generating harmonics so it can be perceived on smaller systems, my favourite tool for this is Thermionic’s Culture Vulture, but Decapitator also works if that’s what you have.

Rely on your fader position and using high pass filters to carve away unwanted low end from surrounding elements to create a large bottom end. I rarely EQ these except for removing noisy top end or excessive sub energy that might be eating up headroom. Getting the volume right of any deep bass line such as this (or an 808, as explained below) should be 90% of the work. This could be something like a Moog, which we want to feel ‘deep’ but we also need it to be perceived on smaller playback systems that don’t have great bass response. In this issue we’ll explore the various types of bass sounds commonly used in Synth Pop and some techniques to mix them, individually and together. Synth Pop does a fine job of crossing genres so it’s not unusual to see deep bass lines, 808s, electric bass and more all in the same mix – but getting them to work together can take a bit of finessing. Having explored techniques for mixing drums in part one of this series, let’s take a look at mixing bass.

Sort audio automation audiofinder bass drums synth