Making a Huge Reese Style Bass Synth in FM8

When it comes to this type of sound design many people turn to just about any program besides FM8, but it can help you make some very impressive Reese style bass synths!

A lot of folks still think that FM synthesis is only good for sounds that are not typically thought of as things signature sounds in modern popular music, but artists like Skrillex, Octane, DLR and many others are helping to change this view of FM8 in particular. This quick sound design tutorial is a good example of just how easy it can be to make a nice sounding synth that can be used in music projects ranging from Dn’B to Dubstep and even House music. And this sound is very flexible and friendly when it comes to adding effects and modulation once you take the sound outside of FM8.

To get this sound started two operators are routed to the output, and each one is modulated by an operator that is fed back into itself for added grit and distortion. Next each oscillator is set up with a waveform and has the pitch value offset to create natural phasing between the two sounds.

Operator C is set up as a modulator, feeding back into itself and loaded with a 5th Formant waveform. The pitch value has been detuned to 0.5001. It is then routed directly into Operator D as a modulator. Operator D is set up with a 3rd Formant waveform, the pitch Ratio is set to 1.0042 and is routed to the output channel. Operator E is set up with a 5th waveform, the pitch ratio is dropped to 0.5001 and routed as a modulator into Operator F after being fed back into itself. Operator F is set up with a 10th Formant waveform, the pitch ratio is changed to 0.2500 and routed to the output.

The next step is to add some of FM8’s effects to get us closer to that signature sound we want. Some reverb is added to give the sound a bigger space to move around in. Next the envelopes are set up to adjust how the sound is delivered. The plugin Sausage Fattener from Dada Life is then inserted to introduce some serious fat saturation. Ohmicide is also used to add multi-channel distortion to the mix. Decimort is a sweet bitcrusher plugin, that really roughs this sound up. A quick stop to the Master window in FM8 to increase the voices, detuning, panning, digital and analog parameters, and transpose the pitch down two ticks wraps this session up.

If you have a request for a future tutorial, whether is procedural, technical or sound design in nature, shoot us a message and let us know. Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,
OhmLab