I’ve been struggling to get the good hollow “donk” of UK Bass / Garage Bass. All of my attempts have lead me into fuzzy & distorted territory, which is nice in some songs, but not others.
This largely comes down to a lack of knowledge with FM Synthesis. Fun in some sense, but not when I’m trying to approximate a specific sound.
Anyone have any recipes, or success?
Use algo 7 that outputs all operators as carriers - use syn 1 page only so no operators are modulating any other - env amounts on syn 2 all zero.
With this approach your gonna hear 4 distinct carriers all outputting their own pitch.
Turn the harmonics param until you get Square waves on the C or B1 carrier - experiment to taste on best choice here.
Try a 3:2 or 1:3 ratio on one pair which I think will give you a fifth. You can make both pairs fifth or go for an octave 1:2 on one pair as some uk bass has a higher pitch above the deep bass. Blend using the x/y fader to taste.
Also use detune just before it hits dissonance - adjust by ear.
Then it’s all about the amp and filter. You want a snappy straight up attack then adjust decay to suit. Or try a high sustain on/off approach. Start by filtering all the way down and using the filter env to get the tone you need. Some uk bass styles have long attack so make some variations of the env to taste.
You’ll want a decent amount of decay to get a nice Donk.
Put the whole thing through the Chorus with hpf applied to lower freqs - not too much chorus depth or it will muddy up.
Thanks so much for the write-up! Lots of good thoughts. I’ll try this out this evening.
I wrote this without my machine in front of me so they are literally just Ideas but might get you in the ballpark.