Logic Pro X - Modulate a Synth Bass with Pitch and Compression Side Chain Effect Video Lecture | Logic Pro X: A Practical Hands-on Course - Music

hello this is music tech help guy and
welcome to this Logic Pro 10 video
tutorial on modulating a synth bass line
with pitch sidechain effects compression
sidechain effects as well as the bit
crusher let me just show you what I've
got so far I've got sort of this rhythm
idea from alchemy this arpeggio ting
idea from alchemy just a drone base on
e-flat and then just a basic drum
pattern that I built with just some drum
samples right now you're not gonna hear
the bass at all because there's no
there's no software instrument on it
whatsoever
alright so let me meet up the sense for
now the bass idea that we want to point
out here is literally just a long drone
base on the key of the song which is E
flat minor so this is just a long drone
base on e e flat rather it's nothing
really that's special I'm gonna use the
e s2 for this because one of the things
that we're going to do this bass line is
we're going to modulate the pitch of the
oscillators within the synthesizer with
a sidechain source which to my knowledge
only the e s2 and the exs24 can do in
logic so I'm gonna use the e s2 for this
I'm gonna use a patch under synth leads
called trance lead it's right here by
itself it just sounds like this
nothing special I'm gonna turn off all
of the modulation sources use hold
option and click on the target it'll get
rid of those let's hear it what our raw
sound sounds like yeah it's all sub so
let me
looks like we're using filter 2 over
here quite a bit
the blend is all the way to the right so
we're pretty much just hearing
everything going through filter 2 I'm
gonna pull the cutoff up a bit so we can
hear those oscillators a little bit
better I'm gonna pull the fm depth up a
little bit get a little grit on it okay
and I'm also going to take oscillator
number 1 I'm gonna pull it down an
octave just to give it more of a sub e
sound
cool so the first thing we're gonna do
is we're gonna use this kick drum I'm
gonna go ahead and mute the snares to
modulate the pitch of the oscillators
this is really cool to create sort of
scooping pitch effects on every kick hit
so what I'm gonna do is on the very
first target here on a very first
modulation router here I'm going to
choose pitch one two and three which
means we're going to modulate the pitch
of all three oscillators the via I'm
going to hold option and click on cuz
I'm set it back to default and set the
modulation amount back to default by
clicking on this little zero here about
holding option and then my source way
down at the bottom is going to be
sidechain so our sidechain source which
is going to be our kick drum is going to
affect pitch so let's go up to our
sidechain source up here by the way the
EVOC 20 the vocoder can also sidechain
modulate things that's a little bit
different that's used for used for 4/4
vocoders and not really for this sort of
thing one thing I just want to fill you
in on and I set this in my last
sidechain video is that sidechain
sources typically need to be audio
sources so if this was just a MIDI file
or a MIDI track here that's not gonna
work unless you tried to bus it through
an aux track and then sidechain the aux
track which I don't like to do so I
usually just if you're working with MIDI
on your kick here just convert it to
audio and then it'll show up here as a
sidechain source alright so I'm gonna
play this and as it's playing I'm gonna
move the modulation depth up and down
you'll see that the note will scoop up
when it's in the lower area and it'll
scoop down when it's in the upper area
so let's do a scoop up one other thing
I'm going to do is I'm going to modulate
this FM depth knob over here so go to
target low-pass filter FM and we're
gonna modulate that with the sidechain
source as well but we're going to do a
positive value for this one
just gives us a little bit of a little
bite on the front end of every note all
right so let's hear what the sounds like
with everything in the mix
okay that's kind of cool but let's do
something else with it
let's say that I want the modulation the
pitch modulation to go up to scoop up
for it two bars and then scoop down for
two hours and and sort of alternate back
and forth well what we can do to make
that happen is we can cut our baseline
into two bar clips and then create two
different bass tracks one that scoops up
and one that scoops down so I'm going to
use my scissors tool for this and what
I'm gonna do is I'm going to put my snap
mode to bar mode and what I'm gonna do
is I'm on the second bar two bars in on
my bass idea I'm gonna cut but I'm also
gonna hold option while I cut and that's
going to do like a repeating cut now
make sure you hold hit split for this
because gonna split the MIDI note and so
it cuts the whole thing into these
two-bar phrases then what I can do is
duplicate my bass track and when I call
this one bass up I'm gonna call the top
one bass down so this one's gonna scoop
down or Sue's me do it the opposite way
base scoop up bass scoop down there we
go
so I'm gonna take every other clip pull
it down here then what I do is I'm going
to go into this track CS to reassign the
sidechain source because it disables it
turns it on unassigned it and we're
gonna go at the sidechain pitch
modulation that scoops down instead so
let's just listen to the two basses plus
the kick drum
all right that's pretty cool let's do
something else to this lets bus
both of these bass tracks over to a Knox
track so I'm going to make their outputs
bus one and what we're gonna do is just
to accentuate this pitch effect even
more we're gonna sidechain modulate
volume or with a compressor so we're
gonna have compression side chaining on
this aux track that both of these basses
are going into plus the pitch effect
that we're hearing so what I'm going to
do is throw a compressor on the bass
channel here bass Optra aux track we're
gonna choose the kick drum as the
compression side change source and this
is explained in my other compression
side-chaining video if you want to want
a little bit more detail let's just
listen to that
so we're hearing the pitching effect but
we're also hearing the volume duck out
of the way when the kick drum hits just
makes a little bit more out of the
effect another thing I'm going to do is
before the compressor I'm gonna throw
the bit crusher plug in it's under
distortion bit crusher this is just
gonna really rasp up that bass line a
bit I'm gonna lower the resolution pull
the drive up and play with the down
sampling in the mix until I get the
sound I like
cool so yep that's a really gritty sound
baseline let's I'm gonna throw the
limiter on there just to keep it from
clipping and let's see what this sounds
like with everything in the mix now
cool if I wanted to do maybe one more
thing to it one other thing I can think
of if I wanted to make them bass sound
like it's moving a little bit after the
compressor I could try throwing the
tremolo on there and then one I like to
use for this is the you slope and now
it's the soft tremolo
let's try that's that setting
so play around with this in your own in
your own compositions one thing I've
always said to my students is a whole
note can be a whole note but you can do
a lot with a whole note in terms of
modulation you know you literally this
entire song chord chord wise and bass
wise is nothing but whole note chords
and whole note bass lines just held
notes so it's not a matter of the notes
themselves being super interesting
it's the synthesis modulation that we
apply to it that makes it interesting so
I hope you guys enjoyed this video and
thanks for watching