Dubstep/Downtempo Bass Tutorial Using Free Tube Distortion

This sound is basically 2 sine waves 31 semitones apart going through distortion. That distortion is what adds in the extra harmonics. The tremolo (LFO 1 β†’ Osc 2 level) pushes the sound harder through the distortion, giving the sense that our sound is pushing against a barrier, like Brian Eno mentioned in the quote at 1:04. The equalizers tame the sound a bit by cutting out unwanted frequencies, including the sub frequency. I add the sub frequency back in with osc 3, bypassing any effects so that the sub stays at the same volume (no tremolo) and doesn’t get an reverb (this clutters the mix). To customize the sound you could play with the macros for a different balance. You could turn up the volume on osc 1 to get more distortion from that frequency. You can also change the wavetable position of osc 2 so that the higher sine wave is at a different harmonic/partial. You could also raise the cutoff of the post-eq on the distortion module for a brighter sound.

2 Likes