BASS DESIGN bass ALTERNATIVES
One of the defining characteristics of modern music is that it has thicker, richer, fatter bass than anything that has gone before. It’s fair to assume that we, as a species, have always appreciated low frequencies in our tunes, but it’s only in the last couple of decades that we’ve been able to reproduce the kind of ultra-low rumbling depth that used to be reserved for earthquakes and other acts of God.
Dance music, in particular, is driven by its bottom end to such an extent that you can get a dancefloor rocking with nothing more than a basic beat and a massive single-note bass. Some of the most recognisable basslines – Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean, for example – are the driving force behind the track, and often the most instantly recognisable part of it.
But with so much synth power at our fingertips, is there still room for creativity or has it all become too comfortable and formulaic? Well, in fact, thanks to the incredible power of today’s software samplers and effects plugins, we can now easily capture any sound we like from the ‘non-musical’ world, and pitch and shape it into a musically viable tone. Whether pitching down voices, beefing up beatboxing or recording the sounds of household items, we now have everything we need to be able to turn these sounds into solid bass elements – or, at the very least, to be a rich, sub-sonic part of a modern, digitally produced track.
Over the next six pages, we’re going to build a solid bass-driven groove without an actual bass patch in sight, combining percussion, pads, pianos, everyday household items and just a smidgeon of sub-bass. We should point out that when using any of these kinds of techniques, it’s a good idea to do so right at the start of a project. Finding an out-there, mangled non-bass bass riff that fits perfectly with an existing track is likely to be a mission in futility. Consequently, such strong and noticeable basslines are, we believe, best handled at the same time as your drums – right at the start – to form a foundation on which to build the rest of the track.
We use Ableton Live in our examples but the principles apply to any DAW.
Somebody say ‘bass’
Ever since the advent of the affordable sampler, people have been recording the sound of their own voice and playing musical riffs with it. In
