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4. Bassline time

1 Now we have a basic 8-bar beats loop, let’s look at a bassline. Drag the grey plus plugin object onto Track 2 and add the OSC4 synth from the Waveform Instruments folder. Pick a bass sound – we’ve chosen Pick Bass WMF – and try to create a part that works with the beats.

2 We’ve created a bassline that we think works. However, if you’re not feeling particularly creative or just want to tap into some pre-prepared ideas Waveform Free has an excellent Pattern Generator. To get started, create a blank MIDI part using the red Plus Plugin object.

3 Next up, select the clip and open the Properties panel at the bottom. You’ll see there are two tabs – MIDI Clip and Pattern Generator. Select the latter. You’ll see a drop-down Pattern Style option. Choose Bassline. With this open you can select a progression preset or create your own using the progression blocks. We’ve chosen the classic I-V-vi-IV preset.

4 Next up, choose a pattern. We’ve chosen The Hills. You can further adjust the overall octave, velocity scale and gate time for the MIDI part and of course set a different scale if required. And you might decide with the pattern up that you want a different chord progression. We’ve changed ours to vi-IV-I-V in C major.

5 Waveform includes Step Clips and these provide step sequencer-style functionality for whichever instrument you have loaded. Our next task is to enhance our very basic beats and bass loop with some better sounds and we’re going to use Step Clips to do it. Start by dragging a Step Clip to track 3.

6 First we’re going to program an extra hi-hat pattern. For a sound source, we’re heading to the excellent Collective synth which you should have installed earlier in the tutorial. Drag the grey Plus Plugin object to track 3 and select Collective from the Tracktion folder.

7 From the Collective browser, select the Percussion category and the preset House Kit. Drag the corner button on the clip to loop it up to nine bars. Double click the Step Clip so the MIDI Editor is open and then select the steps you want to play. We’ve selected all steps for the Open Hi-Hat sound.

8 Now click on the V button in the top left to set individual velocities for each step. You can introduce quite a lot of feel here. Additionally, by selecting one row in the MIDI Editor you’ll find row specific settings in the Properties panel below. We’ve adjusted velocity and the swing Groove Amount.

9 Finally, to add some more interest we’re going to copy our Step Clip part onto a new track and use it for a different sound. To duplicate Track 3 right click on the track name and select Duplicate Track from the menu. Now open the Collective synth on Track 4 and select the Percussion preset Noise Rhythm JH.