Create Acoustic Bass Sounds in U-he Zebra

This week we are looking into creating a upright bass in Zebra, although this is a difficult topic and it might take some time, the results can be great!

Creating real world sounds is a whole other thing than just making fat digital sounds, there are a lot of things that you need to keep in mind. First off its recommended that you emulate a sound that you have on your computer rather then something you hear in you head. This way you can listen a lot better to all the details and switch between your sound and the original constantly. Things you should listen for generally are; What is the shape of the sound? The attack, decay, release, etc. How long does the sound last, what frequencies do you hear, what function does the sound have? Once you answered some of these basic questions you can start designing your sound! For this example I used a lot of envelopes to make the shape more complicated. I also used lots of modulation detail, for example I might modulate the filter cutoff with velocity by 2%. All these little changes make the sound a more realistic in the end. Also don’t forget the easy things to do, like using a bass amp and a bit of reverb, these are great and easy and it makes the sound a lot more realistic. Don’t forget that your performance also needs to match the sound that you are making, so for example, you can’t play chords on a bass guitar, or you can’t do glides on a acoustic piano! So make sure the melody that you make is actually playable!

– Jorgalad