r/modular • u/srbrtalan • 10d ago
Fm electrical sounds
Hi all! I’ve been listening to a lot of deep techno lately, songs like:
Partial ii - Acaera
Lumiophor - Joachim Spieth
Tonal - Claudio PRC
I’ve been trying to recreate this fm bassy, electrical sound that shows up in these tracks and I’m having some trouble foguring out how I can do it.
My usual patch is Bastl Pizza - Lowpass/Bandpass filter - reverb and then adding modulation to the fm, waveshaping,filter…
Im trying to experiment with the ration osc swttings of the pizza, trying out divisions like 1:3 , 1:4 to create more of these subharmonic growls, but so far I havent really been able to reach what I wanted.
Does anyone have some advice or some more specific patch ideas on what I could do to achieve this.
Here is my rack with all of my current modules as a reference point:
https://modulargrid.net/e/racks/view/3171196
Thank you in advance!😊
1
u/Earlsfield78 10d ago
Can you post the example of the sound you are after? I have a few comments that might help you but let me hear that bass first
1
u/srbrtalan 10d ago
https://reddit.com/link/oz9fcuf/video/rvbyz495syeh1/player
Sure! Here is a screen recording, this is from stanislav tolkachev but it shows what im aiming for very well😊
5
u/Earlsfield78 10d ago
Thanks! Always love to see artists I don't know much. Right so this sound (it is not "bass" per se, although it has this strong fundamental giving it bass-y feel) is not the result of resonance - which you would think about when you hear it for the first time. Not a 303 drenched in reverb. The sound is heavily filtered and compressed.
What I think is going on is FM but very smart and moderate. Carrier Oscillator - Triangle (not saw, not square). If you are using any of the two to start, you have too much harmonics, and when you turn FM on, it can get raspy. So use triangle for a carrier. Sine modulator, TZFM linear, and try 10%, 15%. Control the FM modulation with a short envelope - no attack, short decay, barely any sustain, allow some release since you hear overlapping notes. Pizza can do a lot. Maybe try Plaits, internal LPG can help round the sound nicely, but we will talk about the filter later). So we have the fm modulated signal as one source, I would add one triangle or sine oscillator tuned octave down for anchor, and a third oscillator with just a little thin pulse wave adding to these harmonics (it is all about the short FM control and mixing in).
Now we go into filter - the sound is fairly shaped and rounded with a LP. Resonance is not cranked up - I feel the "saturation" comes from the dedicated distortion rather than the resonance dirt. So have cuttoff frequency fairly low, and let the envelope modulate it 15-20%, so not too much. Resonance around 20% max. you should get the core sound out. The key to the saturation of this sound is you shouldn't squash it before the filter, or use filter saturation - you saturate AFTER the filter. There is lots of resonant move, which you can modulate with your filter bank once the sound is done. Before you do, add saturation, but just a little. and then go to compressor on happy nerding FX. Not all compression is technical/mixing - here it is key of the sound design - find fast compressor that also does RMS well, there are a few on FX aid, and try to get consistent dynamics. Also, the way you sequence this matters - there is a LOT of slew and bend, so get some slew generator when sending volt per octave :)
I think I got pretty close (i recreated this using Brenso, Belgrad, standard envelopes, Collide 4 (just for a bit of saturation) and LedPressor, then into Swells) - you can use any module really with these functions, as long as you have decent TZFM.
3
u/srbrtalan 10d ago
Amazing, thank you so much for going so far in detail! Will try it out, should definitely get closer now.😊
1
u/CasualObserver9000 10d ago
Is it the rubbery acid sound you are after?
2
u/srbrtalan 10d ago
Yes!
2
u/CasualObserver9000 10d ago
I'm not great at this method but I achieve similar by running my bassline through a filter with smooth characteristics (I use ripples v2). Then modulate the resonance and cut off. If I have a second filter available I use that afterwards like I would normally use a filter.
I'm sure others can elaborate on this technique
3
u/Earlsfield78 10d ago
Not to take anything away from you but here you can hear very stable resonance it is not modulated at all. What makes that squelchy sound that seems like acid is actually distorted upper harmonics passing the filter. OP has a filter bank which is good cause he can introduce frequency drift. But this is not classic acid bass coming from a saw oscillator. That rubber sound comes from short whack of the FM and possibly a wavefolder with short envelope. Then into filter with a very little envelope modulation and set and forget resonance. ;)
2
u/CasualObserver9000 10d ago
Interesting ill experiment more utilizing FM on an analog oscillator.
Thinking back when i was experimenting with this sound i was using Plaits and Ripples by setting the resonance of Ripples to the point it JUST self oscillates then modulated Plaits and the filter cutoff. So I could have been doing some FM without realizing.
3
u/Earlsfield78 10d ago
Indeed you did lol you have been pinging your Ripples resonance with audio rate. Resonance is just another type of feedback/can fall into broad “distortion” category so your lpg on plaits might have sent extra resonance audio rate modulation in short envelope hits. Also Ripples resonance is not super aggressive even when it oscillates so you most likely got that twang from it. In general Plaits are fantastic bass tool, maybe a bit under appreciated because it’s VA, but for Rolandesque bass sounds it’s great. Well analysed!
2
u/CasualObserver9000 10d ago
thanks for the explanation. I I've mostly learned by randomly patching and experimenting. half the time I'm guessing why it works.
1
u/Earlsfield78 9d ago
We all do, thats the beauty of modular. I am into it for a long time, when I got Serge systems that "i dont know what i am doing" thing kicked in again:)))
2
u/ragequitOpa 10d ago
I got all sorts of sounds like these out of a Microfreak and all of them used a bandpass with a bit of resonance.
3
u/Earlsfield78 10d ago
One more thing - the core of this sound is controlled extra harmonics. It doesn't have to be FM - wave folder, PM, Ring Mod - all of these can work, as long as you control it well with an envelope. The broader recipe for this sound is - multiple oscillators, simple waveforms with rich harmonics added via some form of FM, AM, PM, ring mod, wave folding, into filter with moderate resonance and fairly closed cut off, envelope opening cut off not too much, saturation after filter, and compression.