Recently, Encanti of Zebbler Encanti Experience live-streamed a production session on Facebook. We’ve gone through it and collected some tips and tricks for you, straight from the bass-master himself. In this video, Encanti goes deep into his Ableton workflow, exploring sound design and mixing within Ableton and with various plugins including Zeta 2 and Isotope Trash 2.

Watch the stream here.

Composition/Sound Design:

  • When starting a track, a good way to get an idea for the bassline is to copy the kick midi notes into a new track and use that rhythm to compose the bassline. See livestream at 3:00.
  • With Ableton and Zeta 2, you can sync the envelope of each bass sound to the length of the drum notes. Select the length of drum midi you want to sync with the bass and in the info box, Ableton will display the number of seconds that comprise the selection. In Zeta 2, you can tune the number of seconds each part of the ADSR takes so it matches perfectly. Note: massive does not have this function as it does not display the number of seconds. See 8:00
  • To widen bass sounds, use spatialization. Link a second filter to the first so it adopts all the same parameters and, after changing the sound to stereo (vs mono), alter each filter slightly. This will give your bass sound width and movement. Also, it allows you to keep the low frequencies in mono (which is punchier and more desirable) if you use the eq settings correctly– only the upper frequencies will be affected. See 9:50
  • Chorus makes all frequencies wider, which makes low frequencies less punchy. The way around this is using a mid/side eq to eliminate the bass frequencies from the sides of the stereo image, keeping low frequencies in mono. 22:25
  • Automating attack (and DSR) parameters give baselines needed movement and allow you to get different textures out of the same bass sound without having to make a new track. See 20:00
  • Automating reverb creates interesting textures and echoes of hits. Experiment with it! See 28:35
  • The separation tool (an eq with 2 resonance peaks) in Zeta 2 allows for very creative and odd modulation. See 49:48
  • To cut sounds out, automate the release parameter. See 57:00
  • Don’t have a dry/wet knob? Don’t worry. Open an effect rack, duplicate the effect chain, make one effect chain 100% and make one 0%, crossfade the bars on the display, and map chain selector to macro. See 1:13:00
  • Watch Encanti use vocal tracks to vocode his bass at 1:18:00
  • Map Randomizer, a max for live effect, to Zeta 2 in order to generate ideas. Note: remember to be recording as it generates new combinations… See 2:25:00

Mixing:

  • The trick to drops and Hockett basslines is to make it sound like one sound that is shifting and mutating. You can trick the listener into thinking this by running all the audio through one specific effect/compressor. Zee uses Isotope Trash 2 saturation and distortion effects to give his bass some punchiness, grit, gain, and compression and to help his bassline coalesce. See 59:21
  • For bass music and other kick/snare driven genres, kicks and snares should be at the same level and no other sound should peak louder than either. See 31:00

Time-code table of contents:

-1:35 starts drum programming
-2:15 Zeta 2 start; need to load oscillator to work (off by default)
-3:00 copy kick midi into baseline track to get rhythm
-4:30 making a womp on zeta; dual mode (route thru top oscillator to bottom), drawing womp envelope
-6:15 routing modulation in zeta; source is envelope generator, range max, destination is filter (cutoff)
-7:52 always look at note length when drawing envelope
-8:05 tune eq length to note length (zeta shows number of seconds in eq attack vs time shown in info box with Ableton selection) note: massive does not have this function
-9:50 “spatialization”; link button for 2nd filter to mimic first, change panning and become stereo (need to reroute to channel sound correctly), change things in both filters so sounds wider etc
-12:00 cont, second envelope, routing destination to one of the filters
-13:22 experiments with gated envelopes (open and half closed on one of the filters)
-14:09 psytrance baseline after turns bass into stab, sin LFO on low speed with resampling off (phase open)
-20:00 starts automating attack and other parameters mapped to Ableton
-22:25 chorus makes all frequencies wider/modulated vs spatialization, which only affects higher freqs (shows with eq; lows are in mono with spatialization); use mid/side eq to take out low end on sides which makes more punchy
-25:00 adds distortion, can put before/after filter; modulation with 6-voice chorus with built in eq so low end is mono; dampening with reverb
-28:35 automating reverb, so starts after kick hits and doesn’t dampen that etc., use for manual pseudo-echo
-31:00 begins mixing; check levels— kick/snare at same level, make sure nothing goes higher than levels of kick/snare (meter on left of slider in clip mode)
-39:20 uses bandpass, chorus
-45:00 uses phaser, eq, distortion
-48:21 explains “add” feature
-49:48 uses separation tool (moving both eq peaks); can be harsh with resonance bc different ends of the spectrum
-52:00 adds delay
-53:00 adds trap bass, adds overdrive and filter cutoff, changes adsr to make the bass fade a bit (so next bit hits better)
-TIP: to see fade resample the track and you can physically see the decay
-TIP: 57:00 automate release to cut sounds
-59:21 tip on how to mix hocket basslines; compress/saturate the channel, uses isotope trash2 to crush group and amp it, eq’s channel so doesn’t touch the bass
-1:03:00 sidechaining to kick; eq compressor so doesn’t affect low end, second side chain to snare
-1:05:00 objeq delay physical model, recording womps
-1:09:00 fading out resampled womb to combine with original, eq out bass so doesn’t interfere, bit reduction with redux, use multi band dynamics, experiments with sidechain and gate
-1:13:00 bootleg dry/wet: start effect rack, duplicate chain, make one 100% make one 0%, crossfade the bars, map chain selector to macro
-1:18:00 use bass sound to vocode; use muted track as input, turns up bands, turns down release
-1:24:00 zeta 2 reso3 boost, creates resonant peaks
-1:32:00 don’t side chain subs, just messes with attack of subs with automation
-1:45:00 in collaboration with other artists, keep original project files to reference older bits
-2:00:00 using spitfire audio
-2:15:00 uses chromaphone for mallets
-2:25:00 max for live randomizer mapped to zeta 2, creating interesting textures