7 Steps to The Perfect Bass

Whether you are producing house, techno, trance, drum ’n’ bass - or any other genre - locking in your bass early on really helps define the vibe and direction of the track.

In this video I share my bass selection process, to take some of the guesswork out of it and speed up the whole production process.

Here are the 7 steps:

1. Deciding on the vibe / bass category
2. Programming the bass line
3. Hot-swapping the sounds
4. A/B testing
5. Separating the sub-bass / mid-bass
6. Augmenting the bass
7. Processing the bass

💪 [EDM TIPS COACHING - SPOTS LIMITED]

In this tutorial, we cover…

00:00 - Intro
01:25 - The 4 Main Bass Categories
05:30 - Preparation
07:50 - Vibe and Hierarchy
08:52 - Choosing your Bass Category 
14:02 - Building Basses from Scratch
14:38 - Synth Presets
17:22 - Happy Accidents
18:00 - ROMplers / Sampler patches
18:55 - Using One-Shot Samples
22:06 - Augmenting the Bass
25:16 - Sub Bass Split
26:38 - Bass Effects
28:25- 5 Powerful Bass Patterns

📝…And here’s the blog version of this video: ???

Gear I use in this video…

🔈 My Audio Gear:

🎛 Plugins I mention in This Video:

💻 …And some of my Favourite Software…

🎤 Vocal Processing (I use all of these):

….AND SAY HI ON THE SOCIALS, BRUH:

Cheers, and happy producing!
Will

OTHER VIDEOS TO CHECK OUT:

LEARN HOW TO PRODUCE LIKE FAMOUS ARTISTS:

AND…

#sounddesign #abletonlive #musicproduction

[EDMTips]

Let me know what you think of this video in the comments below. If you liked this video don't forget to smash that subscribe button so you don't miss out on any of my upcoming tutorials!
🔥
Question of the Day ⚡ What's your favourite synth or sample and what genre of music you produce? Let me know! 👇🏼👇🏼👇🏼

[by_antony]

For me, the key point in this video is "The more music you actively listen to, the more you'll understand" and the point about 'originality'. I was able to take a lot from this. The track featured in the video, I would buy. Super great video. BTW, Will, love the facial hair.

[vrkila]

Loved the higher octave pitch listening of the bass to really hear the note!

[andygribben]

Clear, concise and really helpful! Keep on doing what you’re doing🙌

[onetwo]

Maaaan, 🙏🙏🙏 I see you improved your look, your studio look, your videos 🔥🔥🔥 everything look very professional, happy for you )) and thanks for all information, brother 🙏

[colmcq]

also - there's lots of conflict with advice for the bassline. Some folks say the bass should not play a melody; that's for the top line. But others say the bass should tell a story (bootsy collins). I oftentimes find my bass lines being quite intricate and doing a lot of heavy lifting for melody and that's the way I like it.
Another thing about basslines is they control the mode of the song - just moving the root note can change the feel of the song entirely

[ahmedeltoukhy]

mate, i started liking your videos before even watching, that's how much i appreciate what you do, thanks a lot!

[Hands]

Change simpler to sampler and change the root to match what your sample is labeled and presto. Sample is in key. Then you can even change it back to the simpler after that.

[tonecleric]

Phase Plant has quickly become my go to Synth for almost everything at this point

[colmcq]

I spend 90% of my time on the bass. Obsessed.

[intevolver]

Drum and Bass, usually liquid or neuro - I adore Phase Plant. It's like having a DAW inside your DAW specifically for sound design. Personally, it greatly improved my ability to craft detailed bass as it comes with routing lanes and multiband splitting built into it. If you're already falling into the sound design pit, it's a must-own imo. (if the price puts you off you can rent to own it)

[rodstench]

this is my favorite demo track ive ever heard in a tutorial. that vocal is so nice!

[halloich]

Another interesting topic for a tutorial would be "Working with voice samples" since many starting producers are limited to use those. Where to find good samples? How to embed them to your song? And most importantly: How to adjust them to fit the desired vibe, without losing the human feel of it?
Anyway, this was a great combination of tips where I nodded and thought "That's how I do it." and tips where I was surprised I didn't know them yet!

[BelgianDaSeeD]

Hey Will, many thanks for your video which is, as usual, inspiring. And the fact that you always have the smile on your face is also really nice. Keep up the good work man !

[sundayroast]

I’ve been learning music production on my own for a year now and it’s overwhelming figuring out what to work on when there are so many videos and courses out there. I really feel your videos are so amazing and insightful. Filled with lots of information but still easy to follow along and understand. I’m considering signing up to your course!

[rovingenglishman]

Excellent teacher. Learning a lot from your channel..thanks! 👍🏼

[FlockofAngels]

This is a great video! Falcon is my favorite synth, I like how all of the patches are all in one bank (thousands) so I can search for whatever genre I need at the time Falcon also includes my UVI Workstation patches as well. My second favorite synth is VPS avenger. With Falcon I like the patch library but with VPS Avenger I like creating sounds from scratch.

[chrismalice_music]

i like the way you explain things, really helpful advice :)

[peternrdstrm]

Hey Will, I'm a huge fan of your channel, you have helped me a lot over the last two years. I really love your trance videos especially. Could you make a tutorial about making hypertrance like Volant and nuphory? Nobody on youtube has covered them and songs like Final Gate, Hypertrance and Exoplanet keep blowing my mind.

[diegocarmona]

my short term goal is to watch 20 of your videos, follow them through completely and then I'm going to give my first song a shot, this is my 8th video so far, THANK YOU