Creating a Complextro Bassline with Native Instruments FM8

Complextro is yet another sound design-centric music genre that is absolutely blowing up right now on the club scene and this FM8 video tutorial shows you how to go about making just once style of bass for this killer style of music!

As it’s pointed at at the very beginning of this video, it does not go into any of the functionality or navigation of FM8 itself, for for those of you just getting started with it I highly encourage you to spend some time clicking around our site and getting to know this incredible synth a little better. There are almost no limits to what it can do and sounds like this one are still breaking on the scene, as they continue to evolve alongside the artists leading the charge. If you do have specific question pertaining to this particular video, feel free to leave them as a comment below.

To get this sound started, we will set up the Master window first. He we will first select Mono mode and increase the number of Unison voices to a value of five. Also adjusted here ar the Detune, Pan and Analog parameters. Next we head to the Expert Ops window, where we can focus on setting up the FM Matrix. It is made up of a total of four sounds, three of which are all routed through the Mod wheel. This gives you the ability to reveal them through the use of the mod wheel either on a MIDI controller or through automation in your DAW of choice. Offsetting the Pitch Ratio of the different operators is what provides the bulk of the movement in the sound, as well as the difference in the audible pitch.

There are also several effects added at this point. Of course, this being a genre of music that is wide open to interpretation and use of innovative use of sounds not commonly accepted by other genres, all of these effects are only necessary if you feel they fit the kind of project your producing. Same thing goes for the modulation and automation settings, and a sound this dynamic can potentially be used in more than one track as well. The effects shown in the video are the Cabinet, Shelving and Peak EQs, Talk Wah and Chrous/Delay.

Do you make complextro style music? Was this tutorial helpful in showing how you might be able to use FM8 in your projects? Do you already use FM8? We’d love to hear from you, as this is one genre that is represented in far fewer tutorials online right now compared to just about any other. If you happen to have a request for a future or post, or would like to share one you made yourself, we want to hear from you, too. It’s community involvement and participation that keeps that has made this the fastest growing online community of FM8 users in the world. Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,
OhmLab