Ableton Operator Sub Bass Rack

Here’s our Ableton Sub Bass Rack and Operator preset to download. It’s a sub bass generator with saturation, frequency modulation for extra harmonics, three detuned oscillators and a pitch envelope for that diving sub sound. There’s 8 macros assigned as well, to easily control the main parameters.

You can hear a preview of the rack in the player below, tweaking some of the macros, showing what it can do. It’ll be good for any type of music, but the detuning and distortions on the macro are set up with techno and drum n bass in mind.

See also: our other Ableton Racks, including the Techno Tom Sub Bass Ableton Rack, Techno Rumble Kick Ableton Rack mk2, Techno Kick Ableton Rack, Ableton Operator Presets, and Studio Brootle Dub Techno Chord Rack. And our Ableton Operator Tutorial, and Best Free Ableton Packs guide.

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The Operator Sub Bass Rack:

What The Rack Does…

The rack is set up to make a heavy, detuned sub bass that is thick but clear in the low end and has some growl to it so it can be heard on smaller speakers.

The first thing in the rack is a pitch unit that pitches the sub down an octave (12 semitones), you can duplicate these or switch it off as needed to get the octave right quickly without changing midi notes.

Then there’s the Operator synth, which has 3 sinewaves as the main sound sources, all slightly detuned from each other. Then it has a 4th oscillator (D) which is the source for the frequency modulation of all the other oscillators.

The Operator also has 2 distortions enabled at the filter, and it has a pitch envelope to give it that jungle diving sub sound.

Lastly there’s a filter to tame down the harsher higher frequencies and more distortion with filter drive, followed by and EQ to shape the sound.

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Macro Controls

I’ve set up the macros to make it easier to control the main settings, mainly to add various types of saturation to colour the sound and tweak the pitch envelope.

Early Drive 1 – Adds drive at the Operator filter.

Early Drive 2 – Adds drive at the Operator filter with saturation.

PitchEnv Amount – how much the sub bass is affected by the pitch envelope, giving it that falling sound.

PitchEnv Decay – the length of the pitch decay.

B Fine (wobble) – this detunes Oscillator B, which give the sub bass that dissonant wobble.

All Envs Time – this makes all envelopes of Operator longer or shorter by the same amount, which mainly affects the FM in Oscillator D as well as the pitch envelope.

LP Filter Frq – The low pass filter that rounds down the sub bass and tames the higher frequencies. Turn it up to get more high end.

Late Drive – adds more distortion, from the filter at the end of the chain.

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Download The Sub Bass Rack :

You can download the rack here.

See also: our other Ableton Racks, including the Techno Tom Sub Bass Ableton Rack, Techno Rumble Kick Ableton Rack mk2, Techno Kick Ableton Rack, and Studio Brootle Dub Techno Chord Rack.

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