Drum 'n Bass with FM8 Part 4: Modulated Synth Hook

Welcome back to the fourth and final instalment of this series on designing sounds for Drum n’ Bass music with FM8. This time we look at creating a modulated synth hook patch.

In this series, Jonny has shown us how to create a nice lead synth, a solid Drum n’ Bass bass line, and a morphing bass patch. In this tutorial he continues to create sounds for the Drum n’ Bass genre, but this time he demonstrates how to create an awesome Modulated Synth Hook.

This synth patch has a lot of movement, and is great for keeping the listeners intrigued. What makes this Modulated Synth Hook unique, is its creative use of envelopes and LFOs. Operators A and B play a pivotal role in the sounds movement. Jonny takes advantage of this by Linking and Tempo Syncing their envelopes, and then creating a customized envelope shape that allows them to slowly modulate the sound. As the attack of the envelope rises, it modulates the rest of the operators and creates movement.

Jonny finishes off the sound by adding LFOs 1 and 2. Allowing LFO2 to modulate Operator B, and LFO1 to modulate the overall Pitch. The opposing LFOs increase the dynamics, modulating even more over time. That extra bit of modulation really helps to make this patch shine.

We hope you have enjoyed this Drum n’ Bass series. If you have any further questions, comments, or request feel free to send them our way. As always, have fun experimenting with sound, and we look forward to having you back for more great tutorials next week!