9

2 Find a suitably tuned pitch in the lower octaves by soloing the bass drum along with
other important tonal elements of the song (a bass or pad sound, for example). Drag the
Osc 1 Pitch slider to adjust the pitch until appropriate.
3 Use Env 4 to shape the volume of the bass drum.
For slower beats you’ll want a longer decay phase, whereas at faster tempos you’ll choose
a shorter decay time. The attack time of Env 4 should be very short in any case (0, in most
cases) or the sound will lose its percussiveness and its ability to be clearly heard in the
mix.
The kick drum still sounds very soft and is somewhat reminiscent of the famous TR-808
bass drum. It’s still missing a clearly defined attack.
To give the bass drum more kick by controlling the pitch with an envelope
1 Ensure that Env 1 is chosen in the Mod menu of Oscillator 1’s Pitch parameter.
2 Set the degree of modulation by dragging the blue Mod slider approximately 3 to 4 octaves
above the original pitch.
3 Set the attack time in Env 1 to 0 by dragging the leftmost of the two junction points on
the x-axis all the way to the left.
4 Experiment with the decay time by dragging the rightmost of the two junction points
on the x-axis; you’ll discover that higher decay values (shifting the Bezier handle to the
right) result in sounds similar to synth toms, whereas shorter decay values (shifting to
the left) provide the kick character.
5 Change the Mod amount (the blue slider) of Osc 1 Pitch again (see step 2).
The interaction of this parameter with the envelope’s decay time provides numerous
possibilities for shaping the kick or punch of the bass drum sound.
Note: This simple bass drum sound is listed as Kick 1 in the Tutorial Kit, at a pitch of C1.
304 Chapter 11 Ultrabeat