Wobble bass

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Audio sample

The wobble bass is a musical element of electronic dance music , which is mainly used in dubstep . Forerunners can be found in drum and bass and acid house .

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The wobble bass stands for a sound that is similar to the human pronunciation of vowels and thus ensures a lively sound within the arrangement .

A bass sound with rich overtones is used. For example, sawtooth waves with other oscillator waveforms such as. B. Sine wave connected to a bass sound including effects. To modulate this bass sound, you can use a Low Frequency Oscillator (LFO), which modulates the cutoff frequency of a low pass filter . Low-pass filters allow signal components with frequencies below their cut-off frequency to pass, while components with higher frequencies are attenuated.

In general, a wobble bass is a synthesizer that is superimposed with one or more effects . The individual parameters are periodically manipulated either by an LFO or by manual automation. Nowadays these are mostly low pass filters , vocoders and distortions .

The cutoff control of a synthesizer filter determines the cutoff frequency between the passage of low frequencies and the cut off frequencies above the cutoff frequency. If the controller is rhythmically adjusted up and down, it sounds like a wobble bass. The periodic LFO oscillations open and close the filter according to the LFO frequency. The musical variation of this LFO frequency creates the typical wobble bass sound.

technology

The most important elements for wobbling are a bass rich in overtones and a low-pass filter that can be modulated by an LFO. It is not important here for the actual wobble function whether this combination consists of a hardware or software synthesizer. External filter modules can also be used. The sine wave or triangle wave are often used as the waveform for the LFO.

The LFO now generates a wob-wob-wob-wob sound by periodically opening and closing the filter cutoff

Example setup
  • 1 LFO periodically modulates the filter cutoff. Result: wob-wob- sound.
  • LFO 1 modulates LFO 2, and LFO 2 modulates the cutoff of the filter cutoff.
  • Result: The sequence of the original wob-wob sound is influenced by a second time constant (LFO 1).
  • LFO speeds can also be changed by midi events or sequencers.