Authoring a bass

A bass holds down the low end of a track. It is low in pitch, solid, and usually plays one note at a time. The build is the most direct way to learn how the filter and the amp envelope give a sound its punch, so it is a good first instrument to make from scratch.

Voice

Set Voice to Mono. A bass line plays one note at a time, and Mono means a new note cleanly takes over from the one before it instead of stacking on top. Keep Glide turned down or off for a tight, separate bass. Turn Glide up if you want the pitch to slide between notes, the sound of a sliding bass line.

Register

A bass should already sound like bass when you play in the comfortable middle of the keyboard, the same area you would play a melody. Set the oscillator Octave down a couple of steps so the sound lands in the bass register on its own. Do not leave it high and plan to transpose later. The preset itself should carry the low tuning.

Oscillator

For a clean, focused bass, use a Wavetable with WT Pos turned down to a simple, dark waveform. Too much harmonic content high up makes a bass muddy in a mix, and a darker starting waveform leaves room for the filter to do its work. For a wider, detuned bass, SuperSaw with Detune kept low gives a thicker tone without losing the centre.

Raise the Sub oscillator underneath. Set Sub Shape toward sine for clean weight, or toward square for grit and bite. The sub guarantees a strong fundamental even when the filter removes the highs from the main oscillator, which is what keeps a bass feeling solid on small speakers.

Filter

Reach for LP24 for a full, rounded bass, or MGLow24 for a warmer ladder character that thins the low end slightly as Reso rises, which suits a more aggressive sound. Turn Cutoff down so the bass is dark. Turn Reso up for a vocal, squelchy edge near the cutoff.

Turn Env up. This is the control that gives a bass its punch: the amp envelope opens the cutoff at the start of each note and lets it close again, so every note begins bright and settles dark.

Amp envelope

Set Attack to its fastest so the note starts the instant you press a key. Use a short to medium Decay and a low to medium Sustain so the note has weight at the start and then sits back. Keep Release short. A long release on a bass smears one note into the next and blurs the low end.

Movement

A bass needs less movement than other sounds, but a little brings it to life.

Route velocity to the filter cutoff so harder notes are brighter and softer notes are darker, the way a real instrument responds to how hard it is played. For a plucked bass that darkens as it rings, add a Fade out modulation on the cutoff. For a wobble bass, set an LFO to Sync, choose a tempo Division, and route it to the cutoff so the tone pulses in time with the track.

Effects

Add a Multiband Saturator or a Distortion in Soft Clip mode. The harmonics they add let small speakers and phones reproduce a bass they could not otherwise reproduce, because the ear hears the low pitch from its harmonics even when the fundamental is missing.

Keep Reverb minimal or off. Reverb on a low sound blurs the low end and pushes the bass back in the mix, when its job is to sit forward and steady.