How to Create Heavy Synth Basslines with NI Absynth

Evan Sutton from DubSpot brings you a great NI Absynth video tutorial showing you how to design some killer heavy bass instruments, with a lot of other helpful information while he’s at it.

Evan Sutton always kicks down some great knowledge in his videos, and this one is an awesome look at some of the capabilities of Absynth as well as his sound design skills. He’s shooting for a nice and heavy, funky synth in this lesson and I think he nails it. Each step of the procedure, as well as the different features of the synth, are explained well along the way and moves at a nice even pace throughout.

He starts out by giving a quick overview of the Patch screen and how audio flows through it so you have an easier time following along if you are new to the synth. After loading a sawtooth wave into the first oscillator module, we quickly jump to the Envelope screen to see the shape of the oscillator envelope and adjust it to provide a smoother delivery. The oscillator module is then set to operate as a double oscillator, which introduces a second oscillator and is set to a smooth saw wave. These two sounds are then blended together and slightly detuned for a bit of movement.

Next step is the addition of a lowpass filter. He then creates a new envelope to modulate the cutoff frequency of the filter. Once the envelope curve is tweaked a bit, the funky character of the bass really begins to come develop. Now a waveshaper module is added to create a bit more crunch and buzz in our sound.

A second oscillator module is added toward the end of this sound design session to show how a deep sine wave can introduce some serious supporting low end to the bass. A second waveshaper is tossed on, but this time it will affect the entire sound, rather than just a single oscillator module. And to wrap things up, Evan activate the third oscillator module and loads a square wave tuned up a couple octaves. An envelope is created to modulate the pitch of this last oscillator to make it fit a bit better.

The sound he ends up with a really quite funky and digital, pretty unique stuff. Id you have a sound you have designed in Absynth that you want to share with the rest of the community, send us a message and let us know. We’d be happy to talk with you about how to make it happen. Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,
OhmLab