Sound Design w/ Icicle Part 3: Monster Basslines in FM8

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Watch Icicle design a monster bassline from scratch using NI's FM8 in the third and final part of our video series.
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[@shayeasy]

I just got FM8 for 10 bucks because that price is a steal and I’ve always wanted to dive deeper into FM synthesis, having spent most of my life on the subtractive side. turns out it’s one of the best synths i’ve ever used. I love my virus TI snow but there is something so simple and immediate about FM8, very quickly getting you to insane and truly unique sounds. thank you for the awesome tutorial!

[@DJCouchKing]

That is probably the most concise explanation of how frequency modulation works in existence.

[@gustavojaxton7877]

you all prolly dont care but does someone know of a way to log back into an Instagram account? I was dumb lost my login password. I appreciate any tricks you can give me.

[@tonyjuan1726]

@Gustavo Jaxton instablaster :)

[@gustavojaxton7877]

@Tony Juan Thanks so much for your reply. I found the site on google and Im in the hacking process now. Takes quite some time so I will reply here later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@gustavojaxton7877]

@Tony Juan it worked and I now got access to my account again. Im so happy! Thank you so much, you saved my account!

[@tonyjuan1726]

@Gustavo Jaxton Happy to help :)

[@Robert-po2il]

Didn't realise how mental FM8 was, those envelope loops!

[@anhumblemessengerofthelawo3858]

yeah, it's one of the best in the world

[@barbosa8498]

LESSONS FOR LIFE LEARNED!!!! THANK YOU POINT BLANK AND MR. ICICLE TO SHARE YOUR KNOWLEDGES WITH US, THANK YOU!!!!

[@herrfrohlich3264]

Enjoyed this series alot! just wished there would have been a 4rth video going on with the resampling and showing further steps of processing/fx until the finished sound and arranging it in a project together with the drums which have been created. a finished dnb bass will often have more movement and morphing in the final state due to further processing which I would love to have seen in a 4rth video.

[@ShadowLawDNB]

This tutorial is super useful!! Thanks so much Icicle and great to see you on the Drum and Bass Movement documentary from Drum & Bass Arena. We use this method in Kontakt already, but learnt a thing or two here. For anybody new to this way of working... Our biggest recent discovery when resampling in Kontakt, was selecting Time & Pitch Pro 2 under the Source box, where you can then keep the sample time constant at any pitch and speed it up or slow it down, which enables you to get some serious Womps if you slow down a pre-modulated sample, but also allows you to control the speed of a short sample loop which could be used to create a Noisia Shellshock style Slide. Hope that helps somebody...

[@dcodex2376]

thanx sounds just like sampler in ableton

[@basho5493]

one of the best tutes out there esp for the genre, learned so much, thanks!

[@RamilAbasov]

amazing tutorial, really useful! Thanx to Icicle and Point Blank

[@jafkn]

Thank you so much sharing your professional experience!!!!!!! It helps me tons

[@samwu1836]

The first 4 minutes look and sounded like a glorious science experiment.

[@AboveEmAllProduction]

this is dope, learned alot about fm from this

[@rokthatsun]

I’ve been struggle trying to find the sound that i want, with serum, massive, nothing, until last night i try this fm8 just tweak here tweak there, i got the sound that i wanted for long, worth it

[@xxxMOTHExxx]

I would like to see some producing tips for Drum & Bass, like the intro track

[@pointblankmusicschool]

+MattW These are producer tips for drum and bass. Check the other videos in the series for tips on drums

[@IMANU]

+MattW The guy in the video made the intro track lol

[@IMANU]

+MattW The guy in the video made the intro track lol

[@ConnorTostevin1]

+MattW Icicle is kind of a big deal in drum and bass

[@lawrencebachell9167]

+SignalDNB what's the intro tune called bro?

[@blake8894]

This is a fantastic walkthrough. Thanks dude.

[@pau1_r3d61]

Absolute G. What a pro. TY

[@mpunkth]

Massive Video about FM8 ;D That really helps me a lot!! Thanks so much

[@pointblankmusicschool]

+Martin Hölzer No problem!

[@djhalo]

That was cool, a few settings didn't match what I was using, but any how I got round it. NEED FAB FILTER STUFF!

[@nicholascohen3226]

such a good tutorial, still get value from this over three years later!

[@JacksonSwaby]

Nice stuff! Thanks for these guys!

[@dev-lw4tp]

Serum effect section seems to be inspired from FM8

[@sethalexanderr]

awesome!! I learned a lot from this

[@Hartekist2France]

this guys is talented

[@armandolara1290]

Fire.

[@humoud6667]

Bring skrillex to do a fm8 advertisement

[@Hexspa]

fabulous

[@azfiu]

PB comin thru!

[@50_Pence]

more of these please - v good

[@sayhellotoroy]

great stuff

[@JonasMorgan]

yes

[@KCinSD84]

Awesome.

[@ballistic-zink-1254]

What was the song at the beginning

[@Indias351]

big uo. Nice tut

[@AlexG-wk3nh]

Im doing exactly what hes doing in FM8 and it just sounds like the basic sine wave he uses at the very beginning

[@grubbytron]

you have to right click between the 2 operators in the matrix to draw the white line. That's what I wasn't doing, hope it helps.

[@AlexG-wk3nh]

cheers dude, yeh i found this about 3 seconds after posting the comment lol

[@grubbytron]

+Alex Grant I just got this working and been tweaking it for an hour. this sound is badass. reminds me of this bludgeon song.

[@AlexG-wk3nh]

Im going back and watching older tutorials, dude send me some of your stuff maybe we can collab?

[@massimoforni5280]

ok

[@jefegangrecords6915]

thanks for your like and comment you have our information let's link up

[@dcodex2376]

sick.

[@MattDoesSound]

5:12 what are the notes you're playing coming out at such low octaves?

[@edmartinezdj9034]

Did you just assume we know everything about the FM8 envelopes? How do we loop them?

[@edmartinezdj9034]

Found how, still... this is a bit unstructured for a class

[@itchydez]

Go read the manual.

[@buildwithbigelli]

nice and damn, anyone know what that track right at the end before the video fades out?

[@tanchwa3740]

can you use an external vocoder as the envelope for an operator?

[@not-_-substance1713]

thank you god

[@screamartsdnb]

song in the beggining ? :)

[@eimaj9780]

Icicle - Will You Be Mine ft. Sarah Hezen

[@bluename4]

how would fm8 compare to dexed?

[@zombiemachines]

Intro song?

[@JonBrowning760]

Great tutorial thanks. I listened to an Icicle track, thought I heard obvious sub bass though he mentions not layering subs. What gives?

[@1811can]

Is there something wrong with my fm8 i cant hear the second oscilator although i send it to direct master

[@1811can]

I got it right click on it :D

[@yourstrulyrichie]

is there any reason to use kontakt as your sampler over stock plugin samplers or is it just preference?

[@banana1132]

It's got a lot more features for manipulation and high quality algorithms on the filters, stretch etc... But for what he is doing with the bass in the video, the short answer to your question is not really.

[@REVERSE_BIAS]

Thanks for 'ya know'...posting this 'ya know'...tutorial...'ya know'.

[@JigglyPinez]

This is just similar to sytrus in FL Studio

[@WillyJunior]

Yeah but with a less autistic interface

[@Milo-vc6lb]

Articulation

[@greedokenobi3855]

NL? Kan Bijna niet missen lol!

[@nonexistent]

I thought Icicle had a british accent??

[@AlexG-wk3nh]

nah hes dutch

[@robquinn9999]

You're both right...sort of. He's Dutch, but Europeans tend to learn English with an English accent, for obvious reasons. I know a few Germans and Danes who sound quite British when they speak English.

[@uhis1686]

lol this guy seems to think the only synthesis next to fm is subtractive :D while some of the coolest stuff is done with additive

[@Supergeckos1000]

+Toine „UltraHawk“ van Vorstenbos For this kind of stuff FM is probably the best to use - crazy modulation possibilities.

[@gothfrog69]

What are some good additive tutorials ? What are your favorite additive synths?

[@mirrorengine]

pc is dying :,D

[@susanadiaz8819]

Your not very aspiring

[@WillyJunior]

you're not even into music production are you

[@basho5493]

lmao dude icicle is a top dnb producer both technically and musically speaking, plus this is one of the most clear/concise fm8 sound design and post-processing tutorials on youtube