Jump to content

Classic Goa Trance basses/leads/FX recreated in modern software


Recommended Posts

7 hours ago, recursion loop said:

Fxb is the universal preset bank format for VST/VSTi

Look for "load bank" in the plugin's GUI or put the fxp files into the same folder where the the fatory banks are stored.

Yeah I figured this already, in case of THEBLUE there is no folder at all, just the dll,dat and fxb file, which I unzipped in the VST folder. And there seem to be no menu to load presets: I like the kind of warm, nostalgic and rough sound of this one, this is why I really want to have the presets (like said, there is only 1 in the menu - which the Logic interface provides, not the synth itself!)

TheBlueV2.0.jpg

 

In the case of Audiorealism Bassline, this one seems to have only the options to load patterns and rebirth songs (at least this is the file ending = .rbs). But I downloaded an .fxp file which says are presets for ARL-B. But I see no way to load them, also putting in the "patches" folder does nothing. Also it will not load the .rbs files, however the patterns work (there are 4 folders with patterns for different styles)

EDIT; SOLVED:P one needs to use the host application to load these (means the DAW itself!)..if VST itself has no menu.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I have solved the issue above and while experimenting with the ABL I got already 1/3 of a new track (means another began and not finished *sigh*). I ran into trouble with the 303 sequence together with kick and main bassline. Seems frequencies got themselves into the way. I learned how to make room to a certain decree but when I cutoff/lower too much of the low of the 303s it becomes too thin. How do you deal with this? Perhaps lower the main bassline in volume while the 303 plays or put a sidechain on ? I made a track with lots of sidechain and a mastering engineer (=AP fromt his forum) told me it was way overboard, so I am now careful with that...

I recon many use the 303 also as the main bassline, which I do not do. I have a regular synthbass for that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

yeah, 303s need to be highpassed aggressively (if you're not doing acid techno where the 303 takes the place of the bassline). at first it may seem as if you cut all the meat off the sound, but if you compare to your favourite acidlines, you'll notice that they're all highpassed pretty harshly.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

46 minutes ago, Multi-Media said:

As I have solved the issue above and while experimenting with the ABL I got already 1/3 of a new track (means another began and not finished *sigh*). I ran into trouble with the 303 sequence together with kick and main bassline. Seems frequencies got themselves into the way. I learned how to make room to a certain decree but when I cutoff/lower too much of the low of the 303s it becomes too thin. How do you deal with this? Perhaps lower the main bassline in volume while the 303 plays or put a sidechain on ? I made a track with lots of sidechain and a mastering engineer told me it was way overboard, so I am now careful with that...

I recon many use the 303 also as the main bassline, which I do not do. I have a regular synthbass for that.

I'm not a mastering engineer just yet, but I did think it sounded very much too pumpy, and it took too much focus. Don't get hung up on that though :)

The 303 isn't suitable for a psy bassline, I don't think it goes deep enough. But in the 90's, acid trance had it as the bassline too, iirc same as alot of the acid techno. 

Saturation is probably your best bet in beefing up the 303, after you high-pass it 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just now, astralprojection said:

The 303 isn't suitable for a psy bassline, I don't think it goes deep enough. But in the 90's, acid trance had it as the bassline too, iirc same as alot of the acid techno. 

i would agree (for modern psy basslines at least), but i remember an old video by cosmosis saying that he sometimes uses abl2 for basslines. so it seems it is possible (or was possible for 00s fullon).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Cosmosis used the "Bass Station 2" which is a hardware device IIRC

I really do not know which style my tracks are really - I make what I like - guess it is not even 90% psytrance. My trial in the "commercial trance" genre which I had sent to @astralprojection is not anymore one of my fave tracks - he just identified also that it is not that cool.

This new one started could go to EBM if such vocals were added (with steady 4/4 beat which original EBM did not use too often - more "modern EBM" I mean, which is oth more often than not is not "EBM" anymore LOL This sentence is confusing :)

Yes, EBM used 303ish stuff too, see live performances by Front 242 very prominent there.
The main problem is that music needs to sort in to genres at last anyway, as soon one wants to "release" it..

I do not like the ABL2 as a MAIN bass synth so far...I often use the ES2 (quite old and not CPU hungry at all) for this task it seems good at Juno like basses

Link to comment
Share on other sites

32 minutes ago, recursion loop said:

Before

Satruation after hipass may add the unwanted low freq content back.

Also try more gentle hipass slope (e.g. 12 dB/oct instead of 24) and higher cut

I'd still use the hp first, then whatever the saturation might bring back would be pleasant and also its up to you what you do with the saturation. But I wouldn't say one way is right another is wrong. I would also like to hp before the compressor and not after :)

I'm not saying you're wrong or I'm right but it's probably fine both ways depending on what you plan to do with it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, astralprojection said:

Well. Don't take it so literal and harsh, it's just one guys opinion ^^

Do whatever you like to do mate! 

I made a mix without much sidechain, do you want to take a listen? :)
Edit, uploading as private to SC now, will send you the link - if you have time...
Nope I am not going to spam my music in this thread haha

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, recursion loop said:

Before

Satruation after hipass may add the unwanted low freq content back.

Also try more gentle hipass slope (e.g. 12 dB/oct instead of 24) and higher cut

There may be saturation devices with which to select a certain frequency range to saturate - I have only ones that saturate everything. 
The same is true for Exciters (which I guess are some kind of saturation too?) 
Btw. I sometimes just use the "channel strip" low or high cuts as it is very fast to use.. I guess this may be a bit harsh to CUT instead of filtering? Opinions?
 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, astralprojection said:

I'd still use the hp first, then whatever the saturation might bring back would be pleasant and also its up to you what you do with the saturation. But I wouldn't say one way is right another is wrong. I would also like to hp before the compressor and not after :)

I'm not saying you're wrong or I'm right but it's probably fine both ways depending on what you plan to do with it. 

Using HP first can make sense too, sometimes you don't want to overload the saturator with the bass frequencies, especially if it's not frequency selective. But then you may want to check at the end of the signal chain if your processing doesn't add to much lows and maybe use another HP.

 

I used to have a persistent problem of lower midrange muddiness in my mixes, it turned out this was largely due to that I was using a HP first in the chain

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15 minutes ago, recursion loop said:

What do you mean? It's the same thing.

Never mind, I found an answer here:

https://www.logicprohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26603

I always thought that a CUT in Logic is "harsher" sounding... here an answer from above thread:
"You shouldn't EQ just so there's "less chance" of things muddying the mix. EQ filters shift the signal phase and add artifacts, even to the audio band you're not directly affecting with the EQ. The steeper the slopes and bigger the cuts or gains and the worse it gets. You get a few of these stacked up in the mix and it starts to become very audible." (by "Fader8")

Link to comment
Share on other sites

34 minutes ago, recursion loop said:

Using HP first can make sense to, sometimes you don't want to overload the saturator with the bass frequencies, especially if it's not frequency selective. But then you may want to check at the end of the signal chain if your processing doesn't add to much lows and maybe use another HP.

 

I used to have a persistent problem of lower midrange muddiness in my mixes, it turned out this was largely due to that I was using a HP first in the chain

Yes, those are very valid points. Perhaps an additional hp afterwards would be a great idea in those cases. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, recursion loop said:

Before

before and after :)

phoscyon -> distortion -> eq -> saturation ( -> another eq only if necessary).
but i think i've already outed myself as liking to make things unnecessarily complicated by eqing different bass notes in pretty much all circumstances ;)

 

3 hours ago, Multi-Media said:

Cosmosis used the "Bass Station 2" which is a hardware device IIRC

I often use the ES2

not exclusive as far as i know. and he made the switch to mostly software comparatively soon i believe.

another logic user :). for classic psy basslines you should try es1.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Multi-Media said:

Never mind, I found an answer here:

https://www.logicprohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=26603

I always thought that a CUT in Logic is "harsher" sounding... here an answer from above thread:
"You shouldn't EQ just so there's "less chance" of things muddying the mix. EQ filters shift the signal phase and add artifacts, even to the audio band you're not directly affecting with the EQ. The steeper the slopes and bigger the cuts or gains and the worse it gets. You get a few of these stacked up in the mix and it starts to become very audible." (by "Fader8")

correct, but logic has a linear phase eq aswell, which would be the recommended option for filtering basslines; since linear phase gives you much more definition in the lows, and doesnt cause a phase shift (instead it adds latency and some pre-ringing in the first few ms.).

  • Thanks 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

55 minutes ago, Padmapani said:

another logic user :). for classic psy basslines you should try es1.

Psst... don´t tell that you can make decent basses with such an old "built in cheap softsynth"....let it be our Logic secret ;)... I use both 1+2 in fact cause I found they do the job good enough so I do not need any "bigger" VST for it..(or expensive analogue gear YES it will be better but is it worth the cost)

Btw. I found this here which includes a "linear phase EQ" too and they say it is free and can be used in other DAWs:

https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/

And this, cost 29,-

https://photosounder.com/splineeq/

Btw. What is the name of the Logic build in linear EQ?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

theres a great video from dan worall; where he goes toe to toe with Pro-Q vs ReaEQ. TLDR; Pro-Q wins, but only slightly. 

However I dont think you can go much better than your daws native lin phase eq. no sense in buying anything else, imo. Fabfilter is the king, if you really want the best, but its really only workflow improvements, and slightly better filters (can go up to 96db and even brickwall should you so desire) but theres no difference in sound quality.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Multi-Media said:

Psst... don´t tell that you can make decent basses with such an old "built in cheap softsynth"....let it be our Logic secret ;)... I use both 1+2 in fact cause I found they do the job good enough so I do not need any "bigger" VST for it..(or expensive analogue gear YES it will be better but is it worth the cost)

Btw. I found this here which includes a "linear phase EQ" too and they say it is free and can be used in other DAWs:

https://www.reaper.fm/reaplugs/

And this, cost 29,-

https://photosounder.com/splineeq/

Btw. What is the name of the Logic build in linear EQ?

tbh i normally use third party plugs for my basslines.  with es-1 it's easy to get it sounding good, but not quite as good as i'd like. i want to look further into alchemy. so far i've gotten something decent but nothing to rival hive or zebra yet.

 

linear phase eq.

it's under eq right below the channel eq. you don't need any third party eqs when you have logic. channel eq is perfect for normal eq-ing, linear phase eq for linear phase obviously and the vintage eq collection has you covered when you need colour and saturation.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Padmapani 
Guess these ES1/ES2 basses are good enough for me, I process them of course a bit... also my system is not the newest so I am glad to have the low CPU/RAM consumption of these built-in Synths. Well I just realized that my music might be too far away from true Psytrance anyway, so I better post not here in the thread anymore  ;) 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Restore formatting

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...