Making a Combo NI Massive Dirty Electro Bass Synth

This lesson in how to create a combo NI Massive dirty electro bass synth is really about sharing how you can design instruments that are flexible enough to be used in multiple genres of music, as well as play different roles in the same song! It’s not a sound specific to any one style of music, but it definitely features qualities and characteristics similar to sounds commonly heard in hard electro, dubstep and even trap music. With a few quick changes this same patch can be used in countless genres and the best part is just how easy it is to make! Let’s take a look at how it’s done.

The first step to making this NI Massive dirty electro bass is to get the oscillators set up. A Pulse-Saw PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) wavetable is loaded into OSC1, the pitch is dropped about one octave and the oscillator is routed directly to the Filter1 panel. Next, a Bass Pulse wavetable (Found by selecting the Guitar Pulse wavetable and then clicking the next arrow on the oscillator panel.) is loaded into OSC2, with the pitch raised up about one octave and the oscillator is routed directly to the Filter1 panel. Finally, a Square-Saw I wavetable is loaded into OSC3, with the pitch value dropped about two octaves and the oscillator is routed just a touch more to the Filter2 panel vs the Filter1 panel.

Now an LFO is set up and assigned to modulate several parameters across all three main oscillators. This provides movement and interest to our NI Massive dirty electro bass.

Now the Filter panles can be set up. First, the filters are set up to run in Serial mode rather than the default Parallel mode and the output is set fully to Filter2. This means that the core sound of our NI Massive dirty electro bass will pass through the Filter1 panel frist before hitting Filter2. A Scream filter is loaded into Filter1 and a Comb filter is loaded into Filter2.

Next a Modulation Envelope is set up and assigned to control the Cutoff parameter of Filter1 and the Feedback parameter of Filter2. This helps to shape the delivery of our NI Massive dirty electro bass synth.

The Modulation OSC panel is used to introduce Ring Mod to the OSC2 panel.

Some Brown Noise and Feedback are added.

On the Voicing tab, the total number of Unison voices is increased to two and the synth is set to run in Monophonic mode. The Pitch Cutoff feature is used to detune the synth slightly and introduce some added phasing. The Pan Position feature is used to widen this NI Massive dirty electro bass just a touch.

Now a Brauner Tube Amp unit is loaded into the FX1 tab, which gives us a bit of distortion and drive. A Dimension Expander brings more width and depth to our sound. And the EQ is used to boost some of those mid-low frequencies.

A Sine Shaper and a Bitcrusher are added as insert effects to bring more grit and dirt to our NI Massive dirty electro bass.

Below is the routing schematic for this synth.

And here is a small audio example of our combo NI Massive dirty bass synth in action. You can hear it changing between stabs and sustained notes and how it affects the perception of the instrument. It can easily be used as two distinct elements in a song.

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,
OhmLab