Multilayered bassline

04:00

Mating Call’s funky bassline is essentially the hook of the track, and it comprises multiple synth- and sample-based layers. “This was the original bassline, played with our Sub Phatty,” says Daniël, playing back the bassline in the ‘B’ section of the track. “But we didn’t feel like this would be the main bassline for the whole track. So we worked on a different bassline. It’s a combination of three layers. Still, there’s a Moog bass in it – we use a lot of Moog bass – but we wanted a bass guitar feel.” Hans: “What we usually do is make the synths we use sound organic, like a live band. So we used a top bass to fill the sound out…” Daniël: “We didn’t have a bass guitar, and I’m not a great bass guitar player, so we used a sample package from Scarbee [MM Bass, running in Native Instruments Kontakt], to give it that guitar feel. There’s quite some processing on this, using pedals inside Logic. Scooping off the lows. Even more highs with an exciter. Putting it through a compressor. And some delay, in this case a slap delay.” Hans: “It’s EchoBoy Jr from Soundtoys. We use those plugins a lot – it’s a great package. That makes the sound a lot more live.” Daniël: “It now has a lot more presence – a bit of ‘room’ – because of the delay. It doesn’t have any lows, because the Moog bass is supplying all the low end.”