FM8 Techno Bass tutorial

This FM8 Techno Bass tutorial is a good look at a basic layering of an instrument created in FM8 to achieve a bigger and wider sound, which is a common technique in professional music production.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r6s9nxjCQI[/youtube]

This is the first NI fm8 techno video tutorial from YouTube user soundsLogical and he starts off with a good subject. Not only is he sharing a nice sound and how he made it, but he also shows how he goes about creating a much larger and wider sounding bass instrument.

This is an area of focus for most producers out there, how to achieve a bigger sound without muddying up the mix and over-driving the overall sound of the instrument and losing dynamic range.

When layering an instrument it is important to have a specific goal in mind before you begin. This will keep you on track and also make it a bit easier to stay from experimenting with parameters and effects you simply do not need to be playing with at that time, as this often leads to frustration and a rather messy sound. You will also have a general idea of when you need to stop making adjustments, and this is a very good thing because it is too easy to go overboard and pass up the perfect balance without realizing it.

Turning one layer into a higher tone and one into a lower tone is a nice way of creating a more complex sound as well as producing a more ‘mix friendly’ bass. It allows you to leave a lot of the bass in the middle of the instrument without too much of the highs getting in the way.

This makes is very easy for you to spread out the higher pitch sounds in your other layer, adding reverb or various other effects to build a much large presence in the stereo field. It also makes it easier to bring out more subtle elements of your original sound design, like feedback and harmonic resonance.

Of course, there are many many ways to go about making your sounds bigger as well as layering sounds in general. Getting to know your arsenal of plugins, effects, etc and how frequencies work with and against each other in a mix is essential to achieving the professional sounds you are after.

If you have an idea or fm8 techno method you would like to share with the community or make a request for a specific topic to cover in a tutorial, please leave a comment below.

Cheers,
ΩhmLab