Cool Electro-Punk bassline

With „A Drum From God“Chris Lake and NPC prove that even electro-punk still has a place in the charts, if only the packaging around it is right. And it does, because pretty much everything about „Drug From God“is cool ... the sounds, the vocals and especially the ultimate gloomy bassline. How to make such a fat, filthy bass yourself, we show you now ...

1 Creating dirt

Our tool of choice is the MS-20, because if there is a synth that stands for dirt and snot, there should hardly be a more suitable candidate. Alternatively, the Chorg PS-20 by K Brown or the Reaktor Ensemble MS-20 clone would be a good choice. You can find both in the magazine downloads. As a basis, we use both oscillators at full volume.

2 Setting the oscillators

VCO1 becomes a square with pulse width at 11 o‘clock, so that the sound turns out less clunky, and VCO2 a sawtooth. Both are pitched down to the maximum, i.e. SCALE 32‘ for VCO1, and SCALE 16‘ and PITCH -12 for VCO2. We leave the controls for the high pass filter at zero, since we don‘t need it, but turn cutoff to 1 and peak to 2 for the low pass.

3 Find the right balance

The resonance (peak) makes the sound a bit more biting. If you want it to be smackier, turn the knob up further, but not past 5. Although the MS-20 is one of those synths whose resonance never thins out the sound, even at high values, the bass then simply becomes too beefy. And to make it really sound like electro, you need some modulation.

4 Modulate Filter

That‘s why we turn the EG2/EXT knob to full blast at CUTOFF FREQUENCY MODULATION. As long as no external signal is present via the audio input, this control determines the influence of the second envelope on the filter. This should open briefly when a note is played for the typical „woum“. So let‘s go to the ENVELOPE GENERATOR 2.

5 Envelopes

HOLD and ATTACK remain at zero, DECAY and RELEASE are set to 4, SUSTAIN to 2. We also set RELEASE to 4 on the EG1 so that the sound fades out briefly. And the authentic electro bass is ready. Tip: If you are using the software version of the MS-20 and want more movement in the sound, turn up the ANALOG knob on the one hand.

6 More sound design?

On the other hand, SOURCE 1 can be used with EXTERNAL MODULATION to modulate the pulse width of VCO1. Select MG TRI as source and turn VCO1 PULSE WIDTH to 2 or 3 o‘clock. Depending on the melody, it may be worthwhile to bring PORTAMENTO into play. And to make the bass sound wicked: be sure to use semitones in the sequence!