Feature
From subtle subs to frequency-filling basslines, synth bass comes in many shapes and sizes. Learning how to craft your own patches is a fulfilling and useful skill to learn
Bass is a staple element of all kinds of music, from piano compositions to rock or jazz music. While the upper frequencies might be home to hooks and harmonies, it’s the lower frequencies that provide the foundations…
This is particularly true of electronic music, where the quality of a bassline can make or break a track. While there are many ways you can source your bass sounds, synthesis might be the most versatile approach (more on this shortly). Synth bass can come in a multitude of forms, though, from smooth analogue lines to harmonically complex digital patches.
As such, bass synthesis can be both one of the simplest and most complex processes in electronic music making. At the basic end of the spectrum, a solid sub can be made with little more than a simple sine or triangle oscillator, an amp envelope to control volume and a low-pass filter to shape the frequency. While this might be enough to provide a deep foundation under more complex sounds in your track, for a bassline that cuts through other elements and doesn’t get lost in a mix you’ll need to turn to techniques such as oscillator layering, modulation or distortion.
This issue, we’re focussing on bass synthesis in all its forms, guiding you through the basics to some more advanced concepts, ideas and mixing considerations. So, grab whatever hardware or plugin synth you have to hand, and let’s lay down some bass.
WHY SYNTHESIS?
As with all forms of sound creation, when it comes to making basslines, there’s more than one way to skin the proverbial cat. Traditionally, of course, the lower frequencies in a musical composition would be filled by an acoustic instrument specifically designed to work in that range, such as an upright bass or the lower registers of a piano – or in more recent times, an electric bass guitar. All of these remain viable options in the electronic realm, as does sampling. There’s no end of quality bass loops and one-shot hits available via the usual sample sources (including numerous available to download with this very magazine).
In the electronic music realm, however, synthesising your bass parts from scratch is undoubtedly the most flexible and versatile approach. The advent of modern music technology has changed the way we approach bass sounds on two fronts. On one hand, with the arrival of the first commercial synthesisers in the 1960s and ’70s, the conception of what a ‘bass’ sound could be expanded vastly. Where bass instruments had previously been fairly simple in terms of the timbre, used largely to underpin the more complex harmonies and melodies, syn
