7

342 Chapter 23 Ultrabeat
Kick Drum
Electronically produced kick drum sounds are primarily based on the sound of a deeply
tuned sine wave.
To program this type of sound in Ultrabeat, please proceed as follows:
1 Load the Default Tutorial setting. Note that Oscillator 1 is in Phase Oscillator mode.
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). Use 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, while at faster tempos you’ll choose a shorter Decay time. The Attack time
of Env 4 should be very short in any case (zero, in most cases) or the sound will lose its
percussiveness, and its ability to be clearly heard in the mix.
Our 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. In order to give the bass drum more
“kick”, we’ll control the pitch of the oscillator with an envelope.
To accomplish this, please proceed as follows:
1 Ensure that Env 1 is chosen in the Mod menu of Oscillator 1’s Pitch parameter.
2 Set the degree of modulation by moving the blue Mod slider approximately 3–4
octaves above the original pitch.
3 Set the Attack time in Env 1 to zero by sliding the leftmost of the two junction points
that sit on the x-axis all the way to the left.
4 Now experiment with the Decay time by moving the rightmost of the two junction
points that sit 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, while shorter Decay values
(shifting to the left) provide the “kick” character that we’re after.