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8. Bass layering for maximum weight and presence

1 Using additional layers of synths or samples to reinforce certain sections of a bassline can really help with creating bass that not only sounds huge on fullrange speakers but also translates well to domestic playback systems. Open your DAW, set the BPM to 70 and import the files beginning “Dub…” from the Tutorial Files folder.

2 First, we’ll add serious weight to our DubMidSynth part, reinforcing it with a sine-wave sub bass layer. Add Dune CM on a new instrument track, and reset the synth’s parameters by selecting Bank B in the central panel. Now, import Sub.mid from the Tutorial Files folder onto the instrument’s track to trigger the synth. Now, open Dune CM and set Oscillator 1 (top left) to a sine wave.

3 Next, we’ll shape our sub bass by pushing the amp envelope’s Attack to 30% and its Release to 40% – this’ll get rid of any sharp pops or clicks at the start and end of notes. The sine wave bass has filled out the bottom of the midrange synths, but turn the volume down to -3dB to balance the mix. The DubBass channel now sounds a bit thin in comparison, but we can use our sine layer to beef it up.

4 We need to roll off the sub frequencies already present in the bass to avoid any clashes, so add DDMF’s IIEQ Pro to the DubBass channel before applying an HPF24 filter at 79Hz with a Q of 0.7. After this, we’ll add the necessary extra notes to our sine wave sub’s riff by opening the

A# MIDI region and inserting a two-beat 0 note on beat 3 of bar 1 and another two

D# beat 1 note on beat 3 of bar 3.

5 Now we’ve added some low weight, we can look at making the bass more interesting with an 808 bass drum layered under the fast mid synth notes in bars 2 and 4. This’ll add extra attack to these sections, making them more prominent on both big and small speakers. Mute the sub sequence’s third and seventh notes, and add a new instrument track with a fresh instance of Bass Engine CM.

6 Turn Bass Engine CM’s volume down to -10dB and import 808Bass.mid to trigger it. Load a suitable preset – we’ve gone for 2010’s 808 Clinical from the menu on the bottom right. Finally, we can blend our 808 section into the main sub more effectively by setting the Decay, Sustain and Release dials to minimum, tightening the 808 hits.