bassline tutorials

[ritaheed]

anyone got a tutorial on how to make basslines?

basically wanting to know how to make a simple rolling bass

a can make them but there always far to harsh and in yer face, a want a subtle rolling bassline for the likes of hard techno/schranz/jackn

any ideas?

[DannyBlack]

I having trouble with basslines myself. Here is a small tutorial for funky bass lines ala daft punk. Not what you're looking for but it will give you a good idea about patterns etc.

http://sonictransfer.com/bass-sequencing-tricks-from-daft-punk.shtml

[The_Laughing_Man]

anyone got a tutorial on how to make basslines?

basically wanting to know how to make a simple rolling bass

a can make them but there always far to harsh and in yer face, a want a subtle rolling bassline for the likes of hard techno/schranz/jackn

any ideas?

Try a simple 4 note appreggio (somewhere low on the scale) repeated 4 times per bar - so 16 notes in all
Copy the appreggio and place it somewhere close on the piano roll another 2 times, making appreggio chord. Go for something dissonant, although a harmonic chord can have nice effects.

Have a low pass filter selected, turn the resonance up, and close the filter down until you are left with a rolling rumble.
Add some bass saturation or EQ
Sidechain to the kick but don`t overdo it.

Hey presto big rumbling rolling techno bassline.

I can provide pictures also if need be.

[DannyBlack]

do DB, post them if you wouldn't mind. I'm hitting a wall at the moment with my basses.

[djfilthmonger]

do DB, post them if you wouldn't mind. I'm hitting a wall at the moment with my basses.

+1 would be very helpful. thanks

[ritaheed]

Try a simple 4 note appreggio (somewhere low on the scale) repeated 4 times per bar - so 16 notes in all
Copy the appreggio and place it somewhere close on the piano roll another 2 times, making appreggio chord. Go for something dissonant, although a harmonic chord can have nice effects.

Have a low pass filter selected, turn the resonance up, and close the filter down until you are left with a rolling rumble.
Add some bass saturation or EQ
Sidechain to the kick but don`t overdo it.

Hey presto big rumbling rolling techno bassline.

I can provide pictures also if need be.

yeah defo man!!

[The_Laughing_Man]

Ok firstly I started with a synth.
I did this very quickly, so bear with me for the roughness.
I used Synapse Hydra. A great Bass Synth.
And I used the Solid Dub Bass Preset. Which is basically a sinewave bass sound.

to Begin with, the appreggio.
http://www.iterativemusic.com/db/BAssAppreg1.jpg

http://www.iterativemusic.com/db/BAssAppreg2.jpg

http://www.iterativemusic.com/db/BAssAppreg3.jpg

I then turned the resonance up to about halfway, and brought the lowpass filter down until the sound became like this (I also added a little low end EQ boost)

http://www.iterativemusic.com/db/RumbleSolo.mp3

http://www.iterativemusic.com/db/BassEQ.jpg

Then I sidechained to a simple kick I made with a kick generator and compresson, to give you an idea of what can be done with the sound.

http://www.iterativemusic.com/db/RumblenKik.mp3

And finally, wacked in a few other simple elements to show how the sound works in an ensemble

http://www.iterativemusic.com/db/RumbleFull.mp3

You can have lots of fun around this principle.
Try carying the pitch of the appreggio every 4 notes.
Or long 3 note chords played with this sound in interesting timings can give great effects for really interesting bass lines

Experiment.

[DannyBlack]

You are a legend. This is going to help me exponentially. Thank you Steve, very very much appreciated.

[djfilthmonger]

yeah cheers for that.

[ritaheed]

yeah man thts seriously helped alot

its pretty simple wen it shown to u like tht

thanks alot mate :)

[curly]

Your a Diamond steve.

[vinvanman]

good tutorial man.

[DannyBlack]

Steve, using your advice I started this:
http://rapidshare.com/files/228703883/song2looop1.wav

so far it has my interest. thank you very much indeed.

[The_Laughing_Man]

I`ll do some more of these for other types of basslines, for big dub/drum and bass type stuff, and more groove based as well.

[ritaheed]

aye defo mate

[Patrick DSP]

nice job DB, the only thing I'd add to the tutorial is make sure your notes are in some sort of common scale. It'll help to keep things more harmonically pleasing.

http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/vpc/piano_chords.htm

That site has been helping me keep things sounding clean for god knows how long.

cheers,
-p.

[DJPAUZE]

Steve, using your advice I started this:
http://rapidshare.com/files/228703883/song2looop1.wav

so far it has my interest. thank you very much indeed.

Bass sounds nice here dude, I can however hear 2 kicks going at once. You may want to check your start/stop points for both of them.

I have actually started using Guru, absolutely brilliant vst for drums:

http://www.fxpansion.com/index.php?page=4&tab=21

And nice work Steve, I think your summary was clear and concise.

[loopdon]

Steve, this is much needed here. You could go on forever !!!

[DannyBlack]

Bass sounds nice here dude, I can however hear 2 kicks going at once. You may want to check your start/stop points for both of them.


yeah I had to EQ the kicks to seperate them from the start points of the bass. there was an odd clicky in there i needed to kill. gone now. track is sounding cool now.

[DannyBlack]

lets keep it nice and clean in here guys. thanks.



wtf? :eek:

[rhythmtech]

never mind danny.. there was some extra ciricular activities goin on :lol:

[The_Laughing_Man]

nice job DB, the only thing I'd add to the tutorial is make sure your notes are in some sort of common scale. It'll help to keep things more harmonically pleasing.

http://www.pianoworld.com/fun/vpc/piano_chords.htm

That site has been helping me keep things sounding clean for god knows how long.

cheers,
-p.

Or not, sometimes dissonance works wonders, especially when you are using a loose filter that might emphasise the dissonance

[loopdon]

Isn't the example in the ''chromatical scale'', anyway? :lol:

[BloodStar]

wicked little tutorial, Steve. can you please post screenshot or write settings of compressor you have got on Insert 2?

diky

[Patrick DSP]

Isn't the example in the ''chromatical scale'', anyway? :lol:

That it is, It's just a matter of taste/preference to pick a more musical scale.

[The_Laughing_Man]

Sometimes proper chromatic chords work really nicely in basslines, you do get very interesing harmonics especially when playing with extreme filter resonance.
But also with dissonance you can get some very odd vibrations that work to really screw people up on the dancefloor.

[The_Laughing_Man]

wicked little tutorial, Steve. can you please post screenshot or write settings of compressor you have got on Insert 2?

diky

Well the settings only really apply to the particular compressor you use.

To set the compressor, or in fact whenenever I use sidechaining for bass, I always tune by ear.

So, fastest attack, fastest release, highest ratio and lowest threshold.

Play loop, I then "tune" the release until the pump works to the required groove, adjust the attack so there is no "popping" and the compression sounds smoother.
Then back off the threshold (and possibly the ratio) to get the desired pump.
For this particular tune I backed off the threshold until the first point where serious pumping stopped being obvious.

Sometimes if the bass is really big, but has a lot of mid or high end presence I will split off the signal and only sidechain the low end, say, from 200hz down, so that pumping is less noticable.

[BloodStar]

wicked.

yeah i was just after rough settings. i will set it properly regarding the rest of sounds i have in the track.

so, what next tutorial gonna be about? :)

[The_Laughing_Man]

well the settings I used would only apply to the particular compressor I used.
The same settings on different compressors will give sometimes vastly different behaviours.


I`m going to add more to this bass tutorial post, with some different types of bassline, such as long drum and bass type, deep dub etc.

I`ll reply to tutorial requests rather than just doing stuff in any order.

I do however have to put up my video I have done for synapse audio software, which is me making a techno tune from beginning to end.

[curly]

I do however have to put up my video I have done for synapse audio software, which is me making a techno tune from beginning to end.

YES.
please, please, please.

[loopdon]

That it is, It's just a matter of taste/preference to pick a more musical scale.

I was trying to be funny, i know exactly what both you and steve mean. :roflmao:

[loopdon]

well the settings I used would only apply to the particular compressor I used.
The same settings on different compressors will give sometimes vastly different behaviours.


I`m going to add more to this bass tutorial post, with some different types of bassline, such as long drum and bass type, deep dub etc.

I`ll reply to tutorial requests rather than just doing stuff in any order.

I do however have to put up my video I have done for synapse audio software, which is me making a techno tune from beginning to end.

You big tease!

[dj boss]

well the settings I used would only apply to the particular compressor I used.
The same settings on different compressors will give sometimes vastly different behaviours.


I`m going to add more to this bass tutorial post, with some different types of bassline, such as long drum and bass type, deep dub etc.

I`ll reply to tutorial requests rather than just doing stuff in any order.

I do however have to put up my video I have done for synapse audio software, which is me making a techno tune from beginning to end.

nice one bruv!! can't wait for this one, learning a lot for you, cheers for sharing your valuable knowledge!!

[djfilthmonger]

Hey Tom! here is the tutoral about the dirty techno bass

[victorjohn]

Brilliant advice here. I am going to try the very thing with my Monomachine's digiens machine and see what I get... then being the resident old fart I'm going to play it back at 126 bpms so I can move the ol' carcass to it. :D

[judas_beast]

lets have a DnB tutorial Steve. I fancy flexin'wide.

[DannyBlack]

bump

[ritaheed]

aye need more input from the more experienced producers.... be good to hear a few different techniques

[The_Laughing_Man]

So, what type of bassline would you like me to cover next?

[DannyBlack]

At the moment I'm making stripped down broken beat kind of techno- Audio Assaults kind of stuff... The bass is giving me trouble... patterns and what not.

[The_Laughing_Man]

At the moment I'm making stripped down broken beat kind of techno- Audio Assaults kind of stuff... The bass is giving me trouble... patterns and what not.

Audio Assault?
If you wanna look at broken beat go and listen to the people who actually knew what they were doing.
The Audio Assault stuff was always a bit, well, production line.
Try
Regis, Makaton, 65D Mavericks, Mulero, Innigo, Supagrupa, Lotki blah blah, Hiyama, Paul Damage, Early Reeko.

Most AA stuff just had your typical sub rumble that I covered already.

The more clever stuff by people above used stuff like bass chords, detuned synths with a very percussive envelope, syncopated to the kick, or polyrythmic lines.

The real "secret" or maybe the "method" to good borken beat is to approach the syncopation completely differently to standard 4s on the floor.
The offbeat is no longer note 3, 7, 11, 15 in a 16 note pattern.
So react accordingly, generally I feel good percussive stuff works on a call and response.
So the kick is the call, and each kick needs a response to balance the phrase.

Obviously sidechaining will help make stuff work, but with offbeat stuff you need to be much more clever with note placement.

I find it infinitely more inspiring than doof-tish music personally, and I wish borken beat was more widely accepted.

[DannyBlack]

I love Audio Assault.


Regis yes, I only recently started getting into his stuff. 65D Mavericks are astounding!

I like your call and response idea. I think thats where I'm falling down- the call goes out but my response is falling flat or not happening.

I have to look into side chaining because it isn't something I have ever done before.

The reason I like the off beat/broken beat stuff is because it is more, as you say inspiring and a lot more of a challenge to make. That is to say, I never really mastered thud slap thud slap...

[Honeey]

So much good information!!! thank you! :) I have learned much.

[BloodStar]

what about a tutorial on dnb/dub reese kind of bassline? :)

[The_Laughing_Man]

Okeedokey

[ritaheed]

Okeedokey

aye your tutorials are well good man

good to see one of the bigger producers given us advice

[CTRLS]

I actually already did one of those so hope i'm not too late to save you the effort laughing man.

techno-dnb.com • View topic - TUTORIAL: Simple ways to make fat bass. (http://www.techno-dnb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2246)

[ritaheed]

I actually already did one of those so hope i'm not too late to save you the effort laughing man.

techno-dnb.com • View topic - TUTORIAL: Simple ways to make fat bass. (http://www.techno-dnb.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=2246)

nice one man!

[BloodStar]

not bad effort CTRL, but still i wnat to see more info about LFOs and further synth modifications, as these are the basics of wellprogrammed reese bassline, tho., indeed together with a postprocessing.

looking forwrd to what Steve will teach us :] keep em coming.

[CTRLS]

not bad effort CTRL, but still i wnat to see more info about LFOs and further synth modifications, as these are the basics of wellprogrammed reese bassline, tho., indeed together with a postprocessing.

looking forwrd to what Steve will teach us :] keep em coming.

ah right you wanted to know about midrange synths and reeses, that tutorial is dedicated to sub energy. here's a quick 'primer' and maybe Steve will get into a more hands on example.

The usual practice in dnb is to split the sub and midrange of the bassline into 2 channels (or more). That way you can process the midrange to hell and back with morph filters, distortion, frequency splitting and whatever else you fancy, while leaving the bass big and boomy. basically you copy the same sound across 2 channels and lopass the sub channel, hipass the midrange so they're separated nicely. if you set the filters right you can make a nice space around 100-200hz where your beats can cut through while still leaving space for lots of big sub.

YouTube - drum and bass tutorial : Subfocus par1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SK1ocGVDibg) how to make a basic modulated reese in massive. layer that with a sub and you're halfway there.

if you want to get really advanced you can have 2-4 different midrange sounds fading/filtering in and out of each other on top of the sub, then maybe group it all and process it further. that's what a lot of the serious bassline tweakers like phace and spor are up to these days. referred to by geeks as a massline :lol:

a lot of dnb producers like to resample their sounds as well. they'll make/sample a reese and process it. then load it into a sampler and make a bassline from it, sometimes they'll do this several times, constantly cleaning and adjusting things. other people like to record a bunch of crazy tweaking from their synth, then cut and paste the results back together on an audio channel and adjusting things from there.

you can also go the more traditional route and make the whole bass sound in one synth or sampler, then just eq and process things to fit. distorted 808 kicks make a good starting point for example.

in other words it can be a pretty complex process, and you need to pay a lot of attention to the entire signal chain or you're likely to end with mush.

[CTRLS]

YouTube - Sabre Producer Masterclass 2009 Drum N Bass P3 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_p0DdU6bxA)

top quality stuff from sabre. very useful info in here and a nasty track he's making.

[The_Laughing_Man]

I`ll try and get something more techno related in respect to deep sub done for christmas.

[bram2000]

Hi all,

First off, thanks for the info here, good stuff. I'm really interested in the tutorial posted near the beginning of the thread about the techno bass line (arpeggio's with dissonant tone) and I've had a go myself. It sounds ok, but the examples posted are no longer working, so I can't compare mine to them. Any someone could repost them?

Cheers,

Jon

[BloodStar]

bump :p

[ritaheed]

anyone else up for doing more bassline examples?

kinda stuck with what im trying to do?

[CTRLS]

@rita, what are you trying to do exactly? post up a clip and maybe some tunes that you're using for reference.