Rapture - Dynamics behind a fat bass

I'm listening to the following Rapture sample that was posted in the P5 forum:

http://www.totcproductions.com/download/mp3/FG-RaptureFATintro-NoDrums.mp3


I'm trying to understand the dynamics behind this bass sound so I can learn and use the technique in the future. Can anyone give me some tips on how to construct something like this? Just lead me in the right direction and I'll research the rest.... Are there any 'tricks of the trade' to make a fat bass sound?

Thanks,

Adam

Thanks! I look forward to it. Due to my lack of experience with all of this, I find reverse engineering the existing presets the best way for me to learn.

Thanks again!

Adam

Tear it apart.

Sounds good, Frank. Thank you.

But just to clarify for anyone following through: I didn't see any notch (band reject) filters in either patch. Two low-pass filters in series, with different pole configurations. LP & HP, I could undertand. Not in the sense of an EQ notch, either, except in the Global of the parent patch. Maybe I missed something, but I just want to solidify that for the reverse engineers. I'm not trying to be a thorn.

One more thing to point out to those who grab this: if you download this patch 'outside' of the subfolder structure in Rapture (I favor that approach), the patch won't show up immediately in the Program Browser. You can drag & drop the patch in (Cool!), but you need to then save it from within Rapture's internal program file handling.

I guess that I do have one question, Frank. More of a fine point. Pitch LFO's are sync'ed to tempo. In effect, different 'vibrato' speeds that are dependent on current BPM. I never do that myself with this parameter. Do you mind if I ask about the decision-making process behind that?

Now, to get the sound in the clip, I first adjusted the length of the filter sweep (via the cutoff 1 envelope) for each element to match the timing of the songs introduction.

Now here's your point of attack, Dale. From the (non-sync'ed) flank.

Here come the BPM Police!

I thought that I asked very nicely.

Now here's your point of attack, Dale.

Not one, but two:

I actually find that most of our customers at Pro-Sounds like everything to match up perfectly with there tempo without having to dive into the patch themselves.

Keep 'em coming Frank (both the BPM survey data & the patches). I'm sure René doesn't want your customers having to do manual BPM to seconds calculations either, right René?

Thank you, Frank!!! I see you are using all 6 elements for this one.

Hi Lawapa,

Honestly, no. hehe. We don't have any immediate Rapture plans at the moment. This is just because we're currently working on some updates to our soundset range, a new documentation standard for commercial presets (our own at least), and some additions for our own synthesizer. However, I am working on a small collection of presets for Rapture in my spare time that I plan on making freely available to all registered Rapture owners. I'll most likely be submitting them to Rene so they can be released through Cakewalk as a free addition. As far as Pro-Sounds doing a Rapture collection, it's something that will definitely happen (I love working with this synth, the possibilities for it are virtually endless), just not within the next 2 months at least, as I have to work it into our release schedule for the year.

Peace,

Frank

please give us the "Jump"

I'm thinking that's close. Off the bridge.

"Jump" OB Brass. That sound alone, with a bit of editing here and there, could be the genesis for a whole generation (early-mid 1980s) of synth sounds

I was a little short in my middle-of-the-night reply, Rick. Sorry: out of character. I've stated before that you could probably construct that patch sound in just about any subtractive-style synth. I'll lay out my take on that approach for anyone interested in trying this out for themselves.

Two or three square .wav oscillators; preferably with a variable pulse width. Vary the PW in each one progressively, like 15%, 50%, and 65% duty cycles. Leave one at concert pitch, and fine-tune the other two +/- 10 cents in different directions. Globally detune those by 3-5 cents. Add some fixed-time portamento; say 120 ms, but leave that un-enabled by default, and fly it in for effect. All oscillator levels are equal.

I'd select an OB-style 2-pole lowpass filter to run it through, and set the Cutoff Frequency just about at mid-range. If you're going to add some MIDI variation [more on this later], set the Resonance a bit above mid-point. Otherwise, leave that alone. In the Filter envelope, use a somewhat rapid Attack (~ 10 ms.), a long Decay time (even 30 seconds), an exponential slope to Decay (if you can), and a Hold-type Sustain at about 80% of full level. Release time is also rapid; somewhere around 40 ms.

The Amplitude envelope can be almost the same organ-like shape, but I'd vary that to mix it up a little. Perhaps an Attack time of 6 ms., a Decay of 20 seconds with linear slope, yet the same Sustain setup and Release time. Now this one is important: you want a quick little "blip" of pitchbend to accompany every Note On attack. Set up a Pitch envelope with a quick 20 ms. Attack, a 5 ms. Decay, and some long Sustain time (20 seconds) with a very rapid release (2 ms.). The Sustain level hovers near zero. It's a characteristic part of the original patch, from what I'm hearing.

That's about it. It's not that difficult to reproduce with a little quick programming. "Might as well jump-JUMP!" <g>.
To add some change-ups via MIDI:

Tie an LFO sine wave at around 6 Hz. from your Mod Wheel (to set the depth) to all three oscillator pitches in a MIDI/Modulation/MIDI Learn matrix of sorts. A little depth goes a long way, but EVH doesn't have the most subtle of vibrato techniques; on either keyboards or guitar. YMMV. With another controller (slider, wheel, etc.), bind that to the filter Cutoff Frequency and Resonance for some sound variations. Careful with the Resonance: I might have the CF control subtract 25% or so from the original base frequency, but only add up to 25% more to the base Resonance setting.

Really, I hope this helps. If you don't like the results of this patch, it's probably within the filter you're using. That's the potential bottleneck in this patch.

Edit: I'll confess that I did a quick run-through in hardware, and a fast test in PSYN to come up with this reply. I was looking for transferability. I didn't have much time, but then again it didn't take much time, either.

Rapture fans: you can use the square .wav or pulse variations in Multisamples instead. I got some great results in a hurry with 3 "square ober" Multisamples and varying the Phase of two of them. Construct your Pitch, Amp, and Cutoff Envelopes once, and copy & paste those to the other two Elements. Don't forget to turn on the LP 2p filter in each one as you go.