Dubstep with FM8 Part 2: The Bass Stab

This time around, Jonny shares how you can use FM8 to make killer bass stabs for use in music genres like dubstep and electro house. It all starts in the FM Matrix, where our Operators are set up and routed to build up the core of our sound. Notice that all of the Operators have the Key Sync feature turned on. This helps to ensure an even and consistent delivery of sound every time a note is played. Once you have you FM Matrix looking just like what you see in the video you can go ahead and start working on the Master window. Here the total number of Unison voices is increased to two and the Digital Quality parameter is used to introduce a sharp grit to this instrument.

Next thing to get set up is the Envelope window. Here the Operator envelopes are shaped to affect the delivery and development of each Operator’s sound. For this particular sound, this step is very simple! Just activate the Link feature on each of the envelopes used (Except Operator Z!)and when you shape on you should see the same exact changes being made to all the other envelopes as well. Now you can set up Operator Z’s envelope (this is the filter envelope), engage the Tempo Sync feature and fine-tune the filter parameters.

Finally, the Effects window is set up. A Tube Amo is used to give this bass a bit of distortion. A Peak EQ is used to accentuate some of the mid to high-mid range frequencies to help bring out more fo the distortion character. And a Reverb unit is added to give  our sound some more room to move around and develop in. That’s it! You can experiment with soem additional processing outside of FM8 in your DAW to really make this sound gel with your projects.

Cheers,
OhmLab