emusonacid!

Hey quick question, perhaps its stoopid but i dont know.

So I decided to make a Drum and Bass tune, and Im trying to get those low and clean sine wave bass note tones ala LTJ Bukem. So I have a sinusoid sample loaded up in the EMU. However after trying to get a nice clean tone for hours I realized that the filters do not go low enough to make an audible sound past C1. Is there a way to push the filters lower? (I have no problem going that low on my ION) I think need a LPF cutoff around 40hz. Even if i have the filters set at 83hz, when i turn up the resonance it just makes the sound quieter. Of course I can easily make the D1 note so loud it distorts but I just need to get that extra bit lower in order to hear my A0 which is currently much too quiet b/c the resonance cant amplify those harmonics. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Drew

The lowpasses go down to 57hz. That is the lowest freq for an EMU filter. The Z-planes (I THINK) only go to 83hz. There's really no reason that you would need a z-plane for subs so why not use a lowpass? Doesn't quite make it to 40hz but its a hell of a lot closer.

If you're using sine waves, why not just generate a 40Hz sine wave? Sine waves have no(in theory)/very little (in reality) harmonics, so you wouldn't need to filter a 40 Hz sine wave for that tone...

Try using a wave with more harmonics, and take the LPF cutoff all the way down - that will get you pretty low.

yes, what kalseed said.

try lpfing a square, triangle or saw wave. that should get something that you can use. even at a really low cut you should still have roll off that will give the lowend frequencies some clearity.

i always thought the lowest cut off in the lpf was 69... perhaps i am wrong.

you really don't want to use q on a sine wave. hell even filtering it with a lpf doesn't have much effected on the sound. all you are doing when filtering a sine wave is removing noise and reducing the amount of notes that you can play. what i mean is, if you set your lpf at 110 hz, once you hit A2 you will start to hear the roll off of the filter and by A3 or 4 (depending on the poles of the lpf) you will have almost no signal at all. adding q just makes the note or notes around the center freqency louder. q just accents the frequencies around the cutoff. so with a sine wave that has no harmonics all you are really doing is making the note or few notes prior to the cut off sound really loud compared to what is the rest are doing. if you were to look at this as a graphical rep. it would look kind of like half a bell curve... sort of flat until you get near the cut off, a raise then a fall at the cut off down to infinite.

one other suggestion is, take your bline and program the velocities as you need. so if one note is really quite, because of hearing sensitivities or monitor issues, make that the loudest note then scale the rest to that note. so if another note sounds louder, tweak the velocity of that note so that it appears level to the note that you need louder.

you may want to look up the fletcher munson curve on line. that will show you that certian frequencies appear to be louder or quiter even though they are have the same energy. As humans, we don't have consistant hearing.

one other thing, perhaps try using the 2 or 4 pole lpf's. that is about all i have for ideas.

sampleandhold wrote:one other thing, perhaps try using the 2 or 4 pole lpf's. that is about all i have for ideas.

Great idea about using a sine, guys. That would def work.

To get subs, I usually take a "blank" synth tone and throw a 6-pole LP on it and tune it to 57-150hz, depending both on the notes that I'm playing and the freq distribution of me kick drum.

And then I sometimes double up the voice and slightly detune to get a bit of "beating" - purposeful phaze cancellation/addition - cos I think that it's more interesting than a straight tone.

Then it's out a mono channel and into the tube ...

I always have found that a 6-pole makes for a much "tighter" sounding sub then the 2 and 4-poles. Damn I love that 6-pole ... mmmmmmm ...

yeah, the 6 pole is tighter then the 2 or 4. i actualy like to use the 2 or 4 for more of a vintage sounding, old skool analog synth type sound. i think the first moog had a 3 pole lpf. the reason i suggested the lower pole lfp's was so that more of the over tones would go throught. what is it, a six db roll off per octave for the 2 pole, a 12 db roll off per octave for the 4 pole, and 24 db roll off per octave for that nice 6 pole filter?

detuning is the way to go. a fine tune detune of like 2 or 3 gets a really nice buzz.

Those Bukem Subs are Bass Drums sampled from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. I think u will waste too much time with sine waves with varying results that will never satisfy u.

download the 808 samples from here

http://machines.hyperreal.org/manufactu ... 8/samples/

The different characteristics of the sub sound u hear eh 'boom, dong, bong' etc are created by manipulating the 'Attack and Release' parameters on a compressor.

Good luck

sampleandhold wrote: i think the first moog had a 3 pole lpf.

No, 4 pole ont he moog (24dB/octave).

The only unit around that time that had the 3 pole (18dB/octave) filter was the Roland TB-303 !!

i wasn't thinking early 80's, i was thinking like the sixties...

but you are right, the tb 303 has the 3 pole, giving it the strange acid sound along with the freaky q on it... however they did it.

xyc