Designing a Morphing NI Massive Acid Bass

This style of morphing synth is ideal for electronic dance music and various forms of electronic and digital genres that are gaining popularity off the dance floor. The rates of modulation used are easily tweaked for your specific timing needs, and the sound itself is highly flexible, giving you a depth and width not normally heard in this type of bass. In fact, this NI Massive acid bass is able to be pushed even further in stereo spread, but may become more difficult to deal with in more complex projects. If you have a simple song, this sound will work beautifully. It is not exactly the kind of sound that will be easily layered with other bass sounds, nor is it meant to take up a smaller frequency range. This is a bass that is meant to be a focus of attention, a force in the mix, an irresistible and infectious bass that completes a groove without the need of much help. Let’s see how it’s made.

It starts off with a Reducer wavetable loaded into OSC1, running in Bend- mode. Then a default Square-Saw I wavetable is loaded into OSC2, with the pitch dropped two octaves. And lastly, a Square-Saw II wavetable is loaded into OSC3, with the pitch dropped an octave.This gives us our core sound for the NI Massive acid bass we are making.

Now an LFO is set up. It does not have to be the 6LFO tab, I just happened to click on it first. Pay close attention to the settings on each of the modulation controllers that are used in this NI Massive acid bass tutorial, as the smallest of changes can result in a different sound, or a change in the sound’s development.

That LFO is now assigned to modulate the Wt-position parameter of all three of the main oscillators. This provides the rhythmic feel of the NI Massive acid bass.

Now two filters are set up. First, a Lowpass 4 filter is loaded into the Filter1 panel. Then an Acid filter is loaded into the Filter2 panel.

Two more LFOs are set up. One with a synced 1/16 ratio and a gradual build, made possible by the use of the Internal Envelope controller modulating the Amp know. And the other LFO is a very basic sine wave operated LFO with a slow rate for longer modulation applications.

The synced LFO we just set up will be assigned to contro the Cutoff knob of the Lowpass 4 filter, while the other LFO is used to modulate the cutoff knob of the Acid filter. Now we have the basic rhythmic and modulating elements of this NI Massive acid bass complete and it’s time to move on to really making it something special.

On the Voicing tab, the total number of Unisono voices is increased to two and the synth is set to run in Monophon mode with a Legato Triller trigger. The Pitch Cutoff feature is used to introduce a gentle phasing effect by spreading out the voices. This is also how the Pan Position feature changes the perceived width of this NI Massive acid bass.

A Hardclipper is inserted to give the sound an edge and a Bitcrusher is inserted to provide some subtle analog character.

The same LFO that is used to modulate the Wt-position knobs of the oscillators is also assigned to control the main amp panning parameter for a bit more excitement as the sound develops.

Lastly, some effects and EQ are added. A Brauner Tube Amp is added to give the NI Massive acid bass soem drive and grit, while a Dimension Expander is used to increase the width and depth of the sound. And the EQ feature is turned on and used to finish shaping the sound and attenuate some of the muddiness in the mid-low frequencies.

Below is a small audio sample of this NI Massive acid bass in action, playing alongside some drums to give you an idea of how it may sound in a mix. No processing of any kind has been added outside of Massive.

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Cheers,
OhmLab