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9. Punchy, powerful 16th-note bass

1 Snappy 16th-note basslines are a great means of adding some pace to a track. For this type of bass, we’re after clarity rather than complexity. Drop in Dune CM and initialise the patch by clicking on the Bank B button. Fatten things up by turning the Voices dial to 8 and widen things slightly by turning the Spread dial to 40%. Now create a bar of 16th-notes on a MIDI clip.

2 The bass needs need to be quick and snappy, so head to the Filter and Amp Envelopes and pull the Sustain down to 0%. We’re getting somewhere, but using the filter envelope would add some bite to the attack stage. Pull the Filter Cutoff down to 15% to roll off some high end, then make the filter respond to the envelope by turning the Env dial up to 75%.

3 The envelope decay time is a little too quick. To correct this, we’ve turned both the Filter and Amp Envelope Decay dials to 60%. We’ll add even more bite with a second oscillator and a bit of FM – turn both the Osc Mix and FM1 dials to 25%. To finish things off, try sidechaining the bass to your kick for a little rhythmic pulse.