As is usually the case with sounds in dance music, what you hear in the final track is quite different from the raw presets or patches in your synth, be it hardware or software.

What we are going to look at in this tutorial is creating a trance bass sound. Nothing out of the ordinary, but it will hopefully give you an idea of what's involved in getting the sound.

For the examples I'm using Reason 3.0, but obviously the methods can apply to any setup.

First of all we start with the "bare" patch. I'm using "DiscoBass.sxt" from the Reason Factory Sound Bank, which despite the name isn't really a funky disco bass, just an FM-ish tone with a nice twang to it.

For now it's a simple C2-C3 alternating pattern. Pretty boring but we'll switch to something more imaginative at the end - this will demonstrate the difference it makes. The basic sound:

http://www.expure.com/music/tranceb...l/bass_tut1.mp3


It's quite a bright bass sound but not a very deep one so we'll combine it with something to add a little bottom end. For this I'm using "Sub Bass 1", a single osc triangle wave again from the Factory Sound Bank:

http://www.expure.com/music/tranceb...l/bass_tut2.mp3


The two combined:

http://www.expure.com/music/tranceb...l/bass_tut3.mp3


Now it has the dynamic range so it's case of spicing it up. First of all we add some reverb. Most types of dance music don't use reverb on the bass, but trance is an exception. In this case the RV-7's "Hall" preset:

http://www.expure.com/music/tranceb...l/bass_tut4.mp3


It's starting to sound a little better now but what really helps is delay. A 3 step delay, 1/16:

http://www.expure.com/music/tranceb...l/bass_tut5.mp3


Now for some compression. -18db threshold, 2.8:1 ratio, 4ms attack, 97ms release, 3db output gain:

http://www.expure.com/music/tranceb...l/bass_tut6.mp3


Now we tweak the EQ. A 30hz low cut, 2.3db gain at 137hz and a 9db gain at 890hz.

http://www.expure.com/music/tranceb...l/bass_tut7.mp3


By adjusting the EQ you can make it sound quite different. Here we boost by 10db at 3.4khz:

http://www.expure.com/music/tranceb...l/bass_tut8.mp3


Now we'll make the pattern more interesting:

http://www.expure.com/music/tranceb...l/bass_tut9.mp3


Let's see how it sounds with our rhythm track:

http://www.expure.com/music/tranceb.../bass_tut10.mp3


There we go! From flat to fat in 10 easy steps.

You can vary the sound a lot with EQ, or by using a different sample / patch as a starting point.

What's that? You want the Reason files as well? Oh go on then. I've assembled it all into on Combinator patch: http://www.expure.com/music/tranceb...trance_bass.cmb

I think every producer finds some parts really easy and others very difficult. Basses is one thing I've never had a problem with so I hope this is of help to those that are finding things tricky!

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Wanted! - Money or consider swaps:
BT Mercury & Solace (Black Hole 12" - BLH112) - got it! c/o discogs marketplace
DJ Tiesto Sparkles Remix (Transa / Airscape / Starecase) (Black Hole 12" - BLH118) - mine at last! Thanks to Gemm
San Feel My Love / Stroke (In Trance We Trust 12" - ITWT302) - in my collection finally! discogs marketplace again
Nunca House Of Doom (In Trance We Trust 12" - ITWT300) - if you have this in an ITWT sleeve with the promo sheet let me know!