5 – No Bass
Sometimes you don’t even need a bassline…or you just let something else do the low-frequency work for you (usually the kick drum).
Check out Tiga’s recent ‘Bugatti’:
The power kick drum carries the track here, with a simple, almost token bassline coming in near the end. As the kick is not competing with anything else it can be lower and longer. We can adjust a simple kick sound to create something that fills in more of the low frequencies:
A classic example of this approach – albeit somewhat underpowered in comparison to ‘Bugatti’ – is the timeless ‘French Kiss’ by Lil’ Louis:
Maurizio’s more recent ‘Eleye’ uses different flavours of kick to fill up the low end:
Here it’s the rhythmic interplay between kicks and the 909 toms that keep things moving.
Drum and bass played a significant role in reinventing the Roland TR-808 as the source of both kick drums and basslines. In order to re-pitch the 808 kick and play it as a bassline a sampler has to be used. A good example of this can be found on Deep Blue & Blame’s ‘Re-Transitions’:
This blurring of the relationship between bass and kick has its natural extension in those tracks which appear to have no bassline at all on home speakers, yet reveal themselves in all their low-end glory only when played on a club system.
11.07 PM
Easily one of the most informative articles ever on basslines, what a godsend!
01.11 PM
So good! Thanks, attackmagazine!
01.59 PM
Nice. A top educational post.
05.04 PM
This is awesome!! Thanks!!
11.22 AM
Great post. I will come back many many times to check this post again 🙂
12.41 PM
Great article & some really useful info there, I like the way you educate as you are explaining instead of the usual spoon feeding that goes on these days. I’ve been doing music for 20 years or so & still learnt & picked up some inspiration from this, thanks.
06.19 AM
Great article! Thanks!
06.58 PM
Nice!
07.02 PM
Wow! super article. very informative and well researched with lots of examples. Love it. Thank you
06.12 AM
You forgot the Reverb Bass used in Dark Techno tracks.
09.12 AM
hey guys!! as always great tutorial for every type of producer 🙂 Could you tell me which delay you used for this work? I can’t find these one with only the name relayer delay vst. Thank you
11.35 AM
John, that’s UVI Relayer http://www.uvi.net/en/software/relayer.html
08.53 PM
Fantastic explanations, thanks guys.
02.20 PM
Brilliant article! It would be great if you could put all these articles in a book or app format similar to what Sample Magic have done
08.32 PM
Much obliged attack magazine !
04.23 PM
Forget all those Youtube videos 🙂 Attack brings to the point…
03.44 PM
nice beats
04.52 AM
Great article!! I guess there’s another one: those subby techno lines with lfo on pitch
06.21 PM
well explained, systematically, without frills
well done!
06.20 AM
Well done! Good information and great examples!
01.54 AM
Have not read a better article on low end theory. Thank you Attack!