All About Bass (Part II) (Patreon)

Here is the Patreon Exclusive second part of the bass design masterclass. This part delves into basslines I've written for tracks unreleased and released, in context with their respective drumloops. This will hopefully show the complete picture of the rhythm section and legitimize decisions made in the mixing & writing. I also hope you enjoy this deep dive segment and find value in these insights!

Kx

Notes below adapted from my written notes for the session:

Lagrange - Tonal layering, Subtle & selective clean processing

The characteristics of this bassline are modern yet nostalgic. Two oscillators spread a fifth apart running filter modulation and ADSR create a rich but restrained sound that favours higher notes.

Delay is used to give a lingering tail to the sound, and multiband distortion (Output Thermal) is used to saturate and colour the midrange. Appropriate mid-side EQ is then applied to give the patches proper presence in the mix.

Old Soil - Techstep Bandpass and Mentasm basses, Wideband distortion

Four patches made from Serum FM operators, crucially using notch & bandpass filtering to carve out the sound and create movement. These four go into the same processing before resampling is done.

Note the massively enhanced high end in the main distortion stage (Izotope Trash), 500hz filtering going into distortion stages (Rift), and the subtle stages of delay in both to create low level "dirt".

Postprocessing uses wideband or saturated EQ to provide frequency balance and colour. Additional mixing is done with Fabfilter Pro-Q 3, which is a more surgical EQ. Compression is used to tame the dynamics for a blown-out sound.

Sinew - Clean FM, subtle stereo processing

Level modulation is used to define each sound, turning one main bass idea into 3 more variations that are more sustained, sharper or more sub-focused.

Midrange is kept with the sub to keep cohesion as it passes through compression/saturation. Another midrange layer is used to utilize more FM options & different filtering, while the shape of the sound is kept consistent.

Very little stereo detail is needed when the drumline and atmospheric synth has plenty of reverb and fills up space in the mix.

Femme Fatale (Rolling Mix) - Overcompression & Layering, Contemporary Drum & Bass arrangement

Lagging bass notes contrast the tight & rolling drum loop. The synthesis for the main bass is extremely basic and consists of mainly sinewaves.

The tom fills are also layered with distorted sine sub patches.

The original 'Femme Fatale' Bass uses wavefolding distortion & the Serum compressor set on extreme settings. Contrasting movement is achieved by using a sub layer with a more reese-like design.

On the mixing side, layers of filtering are used to feed distortion stages. The bass region is removed immediately to allow the midrange to be distorted by itself. Convolution is used to achieve the right colour for the stereo layers. Space in the low mid is created by cutting quite drastically with Pro-Q3.