How do you make "those" dubstep sounds?

[Bjørn Felle]

I know dubstep is seen as a bit of a fad genre but I have always been fascinated by the sonics. I am particularly drawn to those sounds that are like a glitchy vocal tone. I'm not sure how best to describe it, so here's an example:

there's one about 02:02, and several more throughout the track. I've read and heard that FM is used in a lot of dubstep, but it's not a method of synthesis I am familiar with and the tutorials I found were all using presets. I'd love to understand how the sound is made.

[jam-s]

I think you can find some tutorials on this with the keywords dubstep growl (bass sound).

[NDKay]

First for Fun :

now more serious :

its old, but good and "reason"

[Bjørn Felle]

Thanks dudes, so are those short bursts of weird vocal-ish inflections actually extreme modulations of the wavetable position etc?

[NDKay]

could be !

maybe take a lool at this

or search further on youtube

[aeox]

Thanks dudes, so are those short bursts of weird vocal-ish inflections actually extreme modulations of the wavetable position etc?

There are various methods to achieve a vowel bass sound. Format filter, Frequency modulation, EQ modulation (similar to format filter). These are the methods that come to mind, but there are more. You can achieve desirable results even using a vocoder. You could even do it with a wavetable.(if you have the correct wavetable)

The sound is also processed with a bit crusher (downsample) Which gives it that robotic voice quality.

Thor and europa are both capable of vowel sounds, which come standard in Reason.

[Bjørn Felle]

There are various methods to achieve a vowel bass sound. Format filter, Frequency modulation, EQ modulation (similar to format filter). These are the methods that come to mind, but there are more. You can achieve desirable results even using a vocoder. You could even do it with a wavetable.(if you have the correct wavetable)

The sound is also processed with a bit crusher (downsample) Which gives it that robotic voice quality.

Thor and europa are both capable of vowel sounds, which come standard in Reason.

Oh dude, check it. I took your advice and explored the wavetables in Europa (which is my go to synth, I love it). I used a formant sweep wavetable layered with a vocal cord wavetable with a key triggered envelope on the shape of both, then on insert fx I used a bitcrusher and a formant filter. This is how it sounds already. Still loads of tweaking that will be done, like really working the formant and EQ to get it really gnarly, but this is a great start. Thanks so much everyone!

[Bjørn Felle]

I made an even better one using my own voice through bitspeek, stock unison and bitcrush

[Ninjadog]

Formant filter for that sound you speak of. In a nutshell it makes vowel sounds

[scratchnsnifff]

I know dubstep is seen as a bit of a fad genre but I have always been fascinated by the sonics. I am particularly drawn to those sounds that are like a glitchy vocal tone. I'm not sure how best to describe it, so here's an example:

there's one about 02:02, and several more throughout the track. I've read and heard that FM is used in a lot of dubstep, but it's not a method of synthesis I am familiar with and the tutorials I found were all using presets. I'd love to understand how the sound is made.

Send drop box link Iv made plenty of this particular sound

I’ll send effect and bass patches that showcase the filter peak method

fm method

And another little fun method using any Synth
Do you have reason 11?
Do you have expanse? That’s the perfect candidate for these sounds
Lmk what stock or Re you feel most used to and I’ll showcase this method for ya . Can send a vid explaining but I would like to Dropbox you some easy toolboxes (etch red is my favorite for Re filters like this as it’s a dual filter with many options)

If not I’ll just use stock stuff or what ever just DM me

[Bjørn Felle]

Send drop box link Iv made plenty of this particular sound

I’ll send effect and bass patches that showcase the filter peak method

fm method

And another little fun method using any Synth
Do you have reason 11?
Do you have expanse? That’s the perfect candidate for these sounds
Lmk what stock or Re you feel most used to and I’ll showcase this method for ya . Can send a vid explaining but I would like to Dropbox you some easy toolboxes (etch red is my favorite for Re filters like this as it’s a dual filter with many options)

If not I’ll just use stock stuff or what ever just DM me

Hey man thanks! I found a couple of methods which work but it's always good to learn new techniques! I use Reason 10.4. I don't have Expanse but I use Europa a lot and that looks to have similar functionality to Expanse (waveshaping, epic envelope generator, wavetable etc). I have quite a few other REs so if you let me know what REs you're using to make these sounds I can let you know which I have. I have a 2TB dropbox so can easily share a folder though it might be nice if you have Reason project files or patches if you can zip them up and attach them here as that way other people can use them too if you're cool with that. Thanks again man!

[scratchnsnifff]

Send drop box link Iv made plenty of this particular sound

I’ll send effect and bass patches that showcase the filter peak method

fm method

And another little fun method using any Synth
Do you have reason 11?
Do you have expanse? That’s the perfect candidate for these sounds
Lmk what stock or Re you feel most used to and I’ll showcase this method for ya . Can send a vid explaining but I would like to Dropbox you some easy toolboxes (etch red is my favorite for Re filters like this as it’s a dual filter with many options)

If not I’ll just use stock stuff or what ever just DM me

Hey man thanks! I found a couple of methods which work but it's always good to learn new techniques! I use Reason 10.4. I don't have Expanse but I use Europa a lot and that looks to have similar functionality to Expanse (waveshaping, epic envelope generator, wavetable etc). I have quite a few other REs so if you let me know what REs you're using to make these sounds I can let you know which I have. I have a 2TB dropbox so can easily share a folder though it might be nice if you have Reason project files or patches if you can zip them up and attach them here as that way other people can use them too if you're cool with that. Thanks again man!

I’ll DM ya

[aeox]

There are various methods to achieve a vowel bass sound. Format filter, Frequency modulation, EQ modulation (similar to format filter). These are the methods that come to mind, but there are more. You can achieve desirable results even using a vocoder. You could even do it with a wavetable.(if you have the correct wavetable)

The sound is also processed with a bit crusher (downsample) Which gives it that robotic voice quality.

Thor and europa are both capable of vowel sounds, which come standard in Reason.

Oh dude, check it. I took your advice and explored the wavetables in Europa (which is my go to synth, I love it). I used a formant sweep wavetable layered with a vocal cord wavetable with a key triggered envelope on the shape of both, then on insert fx I used a bitcrusher and a formant filter. This is how it sounds already. Still loads of tweaking that will be done, like really working the formant and EQ to get it really gnarly, but this is a great start. Thanks so much everyone!

Looks like you've got things under control

[Bjørn Felle]

Looks like you've got things under control

Heh yeah thanks man. The version I made with bitspeek sounds fucking rad and I used both in the end. And I can make more very easily by experimenting with different vowels and noises through Bitspeek. I really love that RE

[Jagwah]

Looks like it's sorted but if anyone didn't mention it that sounded like a typical dubstep 'yoi' bass to me, you can search tutorials on that.