Dubstep Wobble Bass

Hello Guys,

I'm looking for a way to create a dubstep wobble bass on my MPC 1000 with OS2XL. I have tried creating a bass program with a Sine Wave and fiddling with LFO on filter or amplitude and I can get it to wobble a little bit, but can't figure out a way to change the rate of the wobble in realtime. So far the only way I've been able to reproduce this effect is to sample a bass with a quick filter sweep and retrigger it at different rates using note repeat. This gets the job done but is not ideal for my purposes.

I've searched the forum and I haven't found any solution. I also have a korg electribe EA-1 that I have connected to midi out. If it's impossible to do on the MPC1k, does anyone have experience with the EA-1 who can tell me how to make it wobble?

Thanks
~Quest

the EA1 has no LFO, so you'll struggle to get it out of that alone. But maybe you could use the EA1 to make a nice bass sound and use the MPC's LFO to wobble it, and resample that.

Pastor-of-Muppets wrote:the EA1 has no LFO, so you'll struggle to get it out of that alone. But maybe you could use the EA1 to make a nice bass sound and use the MPC's LFO to wobble it, and resample that.

or do it manually instead of with an lfo... but you might wear out the volume knob lmao. Okay if there was a low pass filter it would be better but the ea-1 doesn't have that either.

OK, The EA-1 has LFO in the effects section but it is only to control the delay/chorus/flange I'll experiment with that to see if i can get anything that resembles a wobble and let you guys know.

You say I can use the MPC's LFO to modulate the EA-1 How would this be done? Did you just mean resample the bass tone then use LFO inside the MPC? Or is there some secret way to modulate external synths with the MPC's LFO?

Ok here's a new idea, I can assign realtime midi CC on q-link to control the cutoff of the EA-1 and make it wobble manually by tweaking the q-link but my fingers won't move much faster than 16th notes, I'm thinking slow down the sequence to half time and record my q-link movements then turn the tempo back to normal and resample or........ is there any way to program q-link movements with grid edit or step sequence? Ex. I would move through my sequence in 1/32 note increments and input a value of 127, 0, 127, 0 etc. on the appropriate midi CC to get those 1/32 or 1/16th triplet wobbles?

I had a read in the original AKAI manual and it says I can enter a CC# + value with step edit. Then I read JJ's manual and it says the same can be done in midi grid edit so I think this is tedious but possible. I'm willing to go the extra mile to keep everything on hardware, I'd hate to have to fire up a computer just to get a nice automated wobble. I'm wondering if I could program this information in an empty sequence (no sounds just CC data) and save that sequence to copy the data from and apply it to projects at a later date. Is it possible to copy CC data from one sequence and paste it to another sequence without overwriting the note data in the new sequence?


Thanks

~Q

yeah man, try that and see how it sounds... maybe you will come up with a new wobble bass that nobody has done yet!

It works, but the electribe needs really weird midi commands. They have to be sent on CC#6 and the electribe's midi out needs to be hooked to one of the MPC's midi inputs and the cutoff knob needs to be twisted one time so that it knows it's recieving data for the cutoff, kind of a pain in the but, but really the only way I've found to control the cuttoff from external midi device. Can anyone explain what's going on here? When I read the midi CC chart in the electribe manual it says cutoff = 3/8 ??

TribeCalledQuest wrote:It works, but the electribe needs really weird midi commands. They have to be sent on CC#6 and the electribe's midi out needs to be hooked to one of the MPC's midi inputs and the cutoff knob needs to be twisted one time so that it knows it's recieving data for the cutoff, kind of a pain in the but, but really the only way I've found to control the cuttoff from external midi device. Can anyone explain what's going on here? When I read the midi CC chart in the electribe manual it says cutoff = 3/8 ??

I haven't tried it, so this is just from my limited understanding ...

I think CC #6 controls the "active" parameter, and moving the cutoff knob makes that active.

I think the 3/8 are the values you need to send in CC #99 and #98 to select Cutoff as the active parameter without having to touch the knob.

See the Appendices in the EA1 manual, 5. Using NRPN messages to edit

a sine wave is the simplest waveform u can create, so ,in fact, it has no superior partials (harmonics).
this means that using a filter on a sine wave has not a great effect.
it is better to layer one sine for the low end and a square or saw for the midrange, and make the filter wobble on that one. or use the lfo on amplitude instead of filter.

btw, aren't u tired of all those wobllings in dubstep? i think there is more than wobble to explore in it.
think burial , shackleton , clubroot, zomby and many others...

hyena wrote:a sine wave is the simplest waveform u can create, so ,in fact, it has no superior partials (harmonics).
this means that using a filter on a sine wave has not a great effect.
it is better to layer one sine for the low end and a square or saw for the midrange, and make the filter wobble on that one. or use the lfo on amplitude instead of filter.

btw, aren't u tired of all those wobllings in dubstep? i think there is more than wobble to explore in it.
think burial , shackleton , clubroot, zomby and many others...

I am actually an infant to dubstep, I know it's been around for years, but I seem to catch on to all the electronic genres pretty late. I have been producing hip-hop and funky jazzy grooves for many years and I have always loved to take bits and peices of electronic music and put them in my productions, so I might bedoing a hip-hop track with a wobbling bass at 95BPM, and every now and then I like to double the tempo and throw some jungle/dnb style breaks in there. I appreciate the info on sine waves and the names of a few dubstep artists that you provided. I will definitely check them out.

Thanks!

Pastor-of-Muppets wrote:

TribeCalledQuest wrote:It works, but the electribe needs really weird midi commands. They have to be sent on CC#6 and the electribe's midi out needs to be hooked to one of the MPC's midi inputs and the cutoff knob needs to be twisted one time so that it knows it's recieving data for the cutoff, kind of a pain in the but, but really the only way I've found to control the cuttoff from external midi device. Can anyone explain what's going on here? When I read the midi CC chart in the electribe manual it says cutoff = 3/8 ??

I haven't tried it, so this is just from my limited understanding ...

I think CC #6 controls the "active" parameter, and moving the cutoff knob makes that active.

I think the 3/8 are the values you need to send in CC #99 and #98 to select Cutoff as the active parameter without having to touch the knob.

See the Appendices in the EA1 manual, 5. Using NRPN messages to edit

Thanks for the explanation, I think I might hook up my electribe to the laptop running MIDIOX so I can monitor exactly what information the tribe is sending and try to replicate it with one of my midi controllers. I don't think the MPC is capable of sending NRPN values, and I'm guessing that I've already found the workaround for using q-link to send this data (by twisting the cutoff knob to initialize)

hyena wrote:think burial

+ 10000

The man is a genius. If you're feeling him check out the following too:

Synkro
Martyn
2562

TribeCalledQuest wrote:Thanks for the explanation, I think I might hook up my electribe to the laptop running MIDIOX so I can monitor exactly what information the tribe is sending and try to replicate it with one of my midi controllers. I don't think the MPC is capable of sending NRPN values, and I'm guessing that I've already found the workaround for using q-link to send this data (by twisting the cutoff knob to initialize)

Yeah, the Electribes are not as MIDI-friendly as, for example, an MPC, so they use some weird conventions, and to communicate properly with them you might need to use a computer or something else that can send highly customised MIDI info, to get exactly the messages you want.

I love my Electribes, but sometimes they seem like they only want to play with other Electribes, not a more conventional MIDI setup.

Hey dubstep afficionados,

I'm checking out shackelton right now, diggin' it so far.

Since JJ just gave us q-link control over LFO, I'm reviving this thread because I saw someone else asking about the "womp womp womp"

I haven't had a chance to play with this feature yet because last week I found out my girl is preggo and I've been working like mad to keep from losing my mind.

anyways, tonight I'm gonna make some bass programs that penetrate the womb, and I'll keep you all posted.

Im excited about a lot of things. Ableton live was like my weapon of choice for years, but it feels so lame to draw automation with a mouse these days. JJ keeps liberating me from the PC.

Peace
~Quest

TribeCalledQuest wrote:Hey dubstep afficionados,

I'm checking out shackelton right now, diggin' it so far.

Since JJ just gave us q-link control over LFO, I'm reviving this thread because I saw someone else asking about the "womp womp womp"

I haven't had a chance to play with this feature yet because last week I found out my girl is preggo and I've been working like mad to keep from losing my mind.

anyways, tonight I'm gonna make some bass programs that penetrate the womb, and I'll keep you all posted.

Im excited about a lot of things. Ableton live was like my weapon of choice for years, but it feels so lame to draw automation with a mouse these days. JJ keeps liberating me from the PC.

Peace
~Quest

Keep me posted. I just came back from Burning Man and am officially hooked on the wobble bass. I couldn't help but think dubstep when I read JJ's newest update,,,,,,

elevated wrote:Keep me posted. I just came back from Burning Man and am officially hooked on the wobble bass. I couldn't help but think dubstep when I read JJ's newest update,,,,,,

I went to my first BM this year and as a London boy was pleasantly surprised by all the dubstep (and dubstep lite )... at times there was almost nothing else playing!