Tutorial: Trance Rolling Bass

For those of you that know me, you will know that I like to ramble on, particularly about music. My tutorials are no different. I don’t present them in a whizzy, highly edited, or particularly exciting way. However, I hope the reality of the importance of trying things, faffing about a bit to see what works and what doesn’t, comes across. I feel it import to show that things take time and that “make a rolling in bass in 60 seconds” demonstrations don’t leave you feeling as if you are failing because it takes you 10 minutes, or 30 minutes, or all evening.

There is no hard and fast rule to creating a walking bass and the methods used to make it bounce are all personal choices but I hope you enjoy the exploration…and my rambinglings.

I present this process in two parts, the first creating a simple suitable bass sound in Serum , making a very simple bass pattern in the piano roll, and looking at ways to duck the bass under the kick, giving it some bounce. Part two demonstrates trying out different pitches and accent placement to give further movement and variation in the standard bass pattern.

Part 1: Sound, basic pattern and kick ducking/bounce.

Part 2: Rolling Bass Pattern Variations