Hey guys, I hope to post more here and contribute but I thought I'd start by asking for some help.
Lately I've been really interested in producing "deathstep", essentially dubstep with aggressive, dark, metal-influenced basses.

Here's an example:
http://soundcloud.com/187deathstep/1-8-7-deathstep-the-purge-free

I have some experience making harder dubstep basses but I was curious if anybody here might have some helpful advice on achieving this sort of feel.

Looking forward to any input, cheers!!

 

hello, BlastBeats,

did not even know that such genre exists, my failure, supposedly, but certainly one for wide open possibilities in experimental solutions, for such excellent starting base... *yes*

with layering the sounds, the elements, the building blocks, the results might give more variation (not that these are without all their impact, but then again)... *yes*

just one small idea, for example, when you have your bass drum patterns, your kick line, ready, put this, plus your bass line (with one quite dull timbre, even with near sine waves) through some really wicked saturation, distortion, effects, chain, bounce this mixed stuff into one new track, bounce one kick only version too, flip the phase of this kick track, mix it back with the bounced track containing both instruments, this way you can subtract the impact of the kick from the mixed track, but depending on the mixing levels you will have parts of the impact of the kick line in it, use this in parallel with the original tracks with the required dosage, perhaps at drop times, at structural peaks, your choice... *yes*

wish you loads more wild ideas, plus the usually written, namely, all the best...

 

Hello, thanks for the response! That is a very interesting idea, I think I will give that a try and see what happens. I think the results will be quite interesting!

 

NI massive has tons of dubsteb presets, check it out: massive dubstep basses

 

What I'd do:
- Add overdrive/saturation/distortion to shape the tone - Compress until the distortion evens with the bass freqs
- Use cab simulation - EQ it/Slightly boost the 'oomph' freqs/Those that make the room shake a bit but sound solid and tight (not booms), Compress more
- Gate/glitch the bitch Or use syncopated MIDI patterns if you want less automation (This one actually sounds driven through the same glitch as the noise/whatever)
- Add a melody/lead (lel)
- Granulizer
- Use portamento/glide
- It sounds mono/very thin
- Layer the synth bass with actual electric bass - Lo-pass the real bass - Narrow Qs
- Compress 'till the speaker channels electricity through my ears
- Check my hearing after doing that

 

Not trying to be rude, but can someone point me to the similarities to metal basses at all in the example?
It sounds pretty good actually, but i just can't see any metal influence at all tbh.

 

Haha, true. At the first listen I thought there was no bass at all. Just the kick and noisy synth (Probably because I turned the gain down like 60%). I expected to hear some crazy, processed electric bass. But I thought it didn't really matter and focused on the actual sound that was there. Since you mentioned it though... I don't hear any "death". And the bass sounds like an afterthought to be honest. I'd turn it up/give it some more love. The one that plays right after sounds more coherent.

He probably meant "noisy//tight/pronounced attack" bass.

 

no offence to the OP but that demo track is really a load of crap...

i was hoping for some new metal/dubstep fusion...i can see why Dubstep is dying a death real fast...

dooof whack waaaaaaaaaa dooof whack waaaaaaaaaa dooof whack waaaaaaaaaa dooof whack waaaaaaaaaa

 

It's metal influenced not so much because it *sounds* like metal but because it *feels* like it. It's aggressive and dark and the rhythmic aspect is similar.
You guys don't have to like it, different strokes for different folks. As a metal fan I personally enjoy it but I'm not offended if other people dislike it!

Thank you all for your input (by the way that track is not mine) and I would like to see some more input on this kind of sound design if anyone has any to offer. Cheers!

 

To each his own, no judgment here man. You should investigate Industrial which was the inspiration for more aggressive sounds in the first place. Industrial metal would be right up your alley.

 

I was listening to this when I read your post:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9OOMYnI_xU

What is the universe trying to tell me? Oh, maybe this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kmlbAfunsQ



But, if I was trying to mimix an aggresive, PHAT (bass) sound, this would probably be the one:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaXS4nAx0jU

Or this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yzH8cQTuRk / http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zT0WKJKADd4

Again, no judging, just throwing out ideas you could build upon if you feel like it.

Edit: Just saw that I created a proper word by mistake: 'mimix' It sounds like a keeper. *yes*

 

Thanks for all of the helpful responses guys, lots of inspiring stuff in here. I really like this community, if I had posted this thread somewhere like Dubstepforum it would just be filled with insults and elitism :p
I'm enjoying this industrial music too, very aggressive and heavy stuff!

 

Gramofon
You changed up your name mofo, I was wondering how is it that there is someone here since 2012 with 200+ posts. WnZ you had me confused.

I think the universe is telling you that you're on the right forum.

Blastbeats
Yeah man we pride ourselves on being above that, not that it doesn't ever happen but I get up in someone's face over that kind of elitist bullshit. We're all here for the same thing so it's best to work together to the same end. I actually started some test pilot genre specific production sections a while back but people haven't been as active there as I'd like. For example I really wanted to make this a unique forum for Industrial music production since unlike something like Dubstep there aren't many learning materials out there. In the future though I really want to push people to share interesting processing chains that they like to use and how they treat their elements for different genres. Things like that, nikon already posts regular videos with his sonic experiments in different genres and I want more people to do that. I will also be looking for more genre specific material out there and when I put some stuff together I will post it in that section.

Here's another track to check out. The production here is tight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQWLz9eJXvI

 

comb filters and a fm yoy bass simple and also distortion