Writing The Brostep Bassline?

[Tiger Blood]

Hey guys

question goes out to those who produce and also entered the comp (with actual bro tunes rather than whatever a lot of them are!)

Im trying to produce a decent drop for my own track, however I am finding it a 100% impossible task to work out how to create the drop bassline sections.

Now i have done a LOT of research and tune disection but i just cant replicate myself in my own way.

Here is my logic behind the drops:

Drop is split into 4 bar sections, each 4 bar has slight variations. So say A is 4 bars and B is a varied 4 bars, most drops seem to go ABAC with C resolving the drop and the tune is bought back in. So that 16 bars of drop, some producers do ABC drops of 16 bars as well to the 'C' 4 bar loop builds back into a B drop phrase. sorry if that dosent make sense i confused myself a bit, but basically 3 different 4 bars = 1 16 bar, 3 16 bars = the 3 drops in a tune.

I deduced that from looking at eptic and doctor P tracks.

So thats the structure as I understand it.

Now within 1 4 beat bar its 25% one sound 25% another sound 25% another sound 25% a sound that varies each of the ABAC bars.

So in a ABAC phrase you would have the same 3 noises in the first 3/4 of each bar with the last 1/4 being a different noise (3 different ones in total)

Ok so hopefully that didnt confuse and I can explain anything that i may have put across incorrectly.

My question to you guys who produce these track is how do i pick the noises and get them to fit?

At the moment ill just go, open 4 massive instances. Load sounds into each, play each sound for 25% of a bar totalling 4 sounds per bar, and ill vary the last sound in each of the 4 bars. thats my 16 bar drop. 3 repeated sounds and 4 different ending sounds.

However I find writing this way with each sound for 1 bar I cant get any kind of melodic of rhythmic bassline going, i just have like Gsharp x 4 played with different sounding patches that done mix together well.

When i listen to any of the big producers (pick any of them they all do it a similar way) then it all flows well and have a sort of direction and is atleast good to listen to (in my opinion) i just cant achieve that!

Sorry for the long post but this one element stops me from completing any tracks and annoys me to the point where i shut down my DAW and walk away from the track forever and start again until i hit the same point again.

Pleas help me out, an understanding of this will be the biggest contributor to finishing and getting the results I want for my tracks!

[Attila]

You're overthinking it by a wide margin. Just make a couple cool bass sounds and mess around with bends/resampling, etc...

[Burgeamon]

Try writing a bassline using 4 of the same saw wave, drums and a sub. I think you're focusing on the sounds too much and it means you're missing any kind of groove. Once you have it sound like progressing start taking it one bassline at a time and playing with things. I guess it'd normally go BASS SOUND / LFO RHYTHMIC SOUND / BASS SOUND / LFO RHYTHMIC SOUND.

Flux pavillion always said that he'd write a tune purely in saw waves before changing up the sounds because the song should have a strong bassline / melody and the complex sounds really enhance that.

[Tiger Blood]

You're overthinking it by a wide margin. Just make a couple cool bass sounds and mess around with bends/resampling, etc...

thats what i thought, but theres more to it and that dosent work.

[Tiger Blood]

Try writing a bassline using 4 of the same saw wave, drums and a sub. I think you're focusing on the sounds too much and it means you're missing any kind of groove. Once you have it sound like progressing start taking it one bassline at a time and playing with things. I guess it'd normally go BASS SOUND / LFO RHYTHMIC SOUND / BASS SOUND / LFO RHYTHMIC SOUND.

Flux pavillion always said that he'd write a tune purely in saw waves before changing up the sounds because the song should have a strong bassline / melody and the complex sounds really enhance that.

so your saying use a tonal sound like the saws to write the whole 4 bars section and scale it to 16 bars, all in saws then duplicate that out into 4 instances and change the sounds then?

im guessing the baselines are just going to ascend or decent through the scale with a few notes up or down throwing it into a bit less of a boring pattern and then adjust note length to match drums?

and cut the bass pattern up on each of the duplications so a different synth plays every beat / bar ?

[Maxxan]

Again mate, overthinking. You can make a killer track with just one bass patch, no need to mix it up every beat. Use a saw so you don't put too much focus on the sound and focus on the melody at first. Don't count bars, make the drop for as long as you can make it before it sounds boring. Then either mix it up or go back to a verse or something.

[Tiger Blood]

Again mate, overthinking. You can make a killer track with just one bass patch, no need to mix it up every beat. Use a saw so you don't put too much focus on the sound and focus on the melody at first. Don't count bars, make the drop for as long as you can make it before it sounds boring. Then either mix it up or go back to a verse or something.

right i know you dont need to change every beat im just saying thats the effect I link the most.

Ill try to write my basslines in saw waves, i can write something really good in my opinion pretty easily, however i then find that it dosent sit that well with my drums and I cant apply sounds to it to make it sounds decent since they dont fuse, but yea i get how it cna be seen as overcomplicating, but what ive been doing so far isnt working so i wanted to evaluate the pro's

[Maxxan]

You don't have to write it in saw waves either, if melodies are tough for you (I always struggle) some cool sounds might help to get your creativity going. Whatever works for you.

I think the pro's just do their thing but obviously patterns are going to appear. I get what you mean with the ABAC-pattern but that's just how it naturally flows. You CBA making two different drops so you use the first part twice and then add a little drum fill or swap out a bass at the end for variation and so you automatically get this pattern. I doubt it's a conscious thing, other than force of habit.

[Tiger Blood]

You don't have to write it in saw waves either, if melodies are tough for you (I always struggle) some cool sounds might help to get your creativity going. Whatever works for you.

I think the pro's just do their thing but obviously patterns are going to appear. I get what you mean with the ABAC-pattern but that's just how it naturally flows. You CBA making two different drops so you use the first part twice and then add a little drum fill or swap out a bass at the end for variation and so you automatically get this pattern. I doubt it's a conscious thing, other than force of habit.

yea i write with the regular massive patch normally so i have a melody, but translating that into the 'cool sounds' often leads me to get confused, as then i dont know where to change sound etc.

For example last track, i wrote it in regular sine wave, duplicated it into say 4 channels and altered massive to different presets. all it is then was the bassline i thought was good with a load of different sounds. dosent work well.

heres the eptic track i was using when learning about this (note i know a lot of people will hate this time of track, i picked it for the technical aspect of the drop section)

[Burgeamon]

Yeah, you're over thinking it.

The saw wave thing is just an idea btw, I do it sometimes but its not the only way.

That eptic tune sounds very easy structure wise. Why not drag it into ableton or whatever, get an instance of massive, pick a key (g minor or something) and program out some notes. Sounds like a new sound every 2 beats then at the end of each 4 bars a new sound every beat.

Once you have a bassline start opening up some instances of massive and get some different sounds on each version and chop up the midi across the sounds.

Really sounds like you're over complicating things though.

[Tiger Blood]

Yeah, you're over thinking it.

The saw wave thing is just an idea btw, I do it sometimes but its not the only way.

That eptic tune sounds very easy structure wise. Why not drag it into ableton or whatever, get an instance of massive, pick a key (g minor or something) and program out some notes. Sounds like a new sound every 2 beats then at the end of each 4 bars a new sound every beat.

Once you have a bassline start opening up some instances of massive and get some different sounds on each version and chop up the midi across the sounds.

Really sounds like you're over complicating things though.

yea dragging it into ableton is exactly what i did and its how i got all the info you say im over thinking...

[Burgeamon]

Ok... here's another thing you could try. Ignore the numbers a sec. Dig out a dubstep loop pack (high rankins are good). There are a load of bass loops in there. These are great to just drag in and use BUT you wont learn much from that. BUT what you can do is drag it in and isolate the bass both by soloing it and actually looking at the wave form and seeing where the bass hits, when the bass changes etc.

If I'm ever struggling with a track and I have say, the basis of a bassline but can't seem to get it move along I'll drag a bass loop on to a channel to help me figure out what the right groove is, and then when It starts to fall together I'll replace it with my own bass. This then tends to lead me to writing a bunch of new sounds and just helps me when I get stuck etc...

[Tiger Blood]

Ok... here's another thing you could try. Ignore the numbers a sec. Dig out a dubstep loop pack (high rankins are good). There are a load of bass loops in there. These are great to just drag in and use BUT you wont learn much from that. BUT what you can do is drag it in and isolate the bass both by soloing it and actually looking at the wave form and seeing where the bass hits, when the bass changes etc.

If I'm ever struggling with a track and I have say, the basis of a bassline but can't seem to get it move along I'll drag a bass loop on to a channel to help me figure out what the right groove is, and then when It starts to fall together I'll replace it with my own bass. This then tends to lead me to writing a bunch of new sounds and just helps me when I get stuck etc...

so grab a bass loop and use its note lengths with your own sounds?

[Burgeamon]

This is exactly what I did in this tune. I wrote this ages ago and its shit / unfinished / no mixed etc... It was one of the first dubstep tunes I tried writing (I normally write 110bpm). I also based the structure on a dillon francis remix at the time but if I could be arsed to finished it I think it'd hit pretty hard.

Soundcloud

[Burgeamon]

Ok... here's another thing you could try. Ignore the numbers a sec. Dig out a dubstep loop pack (high rankins are good). There are a load of bass loops in there. These are great to just drag in and use BUT you wont learn much from that. BUT what you can do is drag it in and isolate the bass both by soloing it and actually looking at the wave form and seeing where the bass hits, when the bass changes etc.

If I'm ever struggling with a track and I have say, the basis of a bassline but can't seem to get it move along I'll drag a bass loop on to a channel to help me figure out what the right groove is, and then when It starts to fall together I'll replace it with my own bass. This then tends to lead me to writing a bunch of new sounds and just helps me when I get stuck etc...

so grab a bass loop and use its note lengths with your own sounds?

If you're stuck for inspiration then its a good place to start and I find this often leads to writing something totally different. If I get stuck I find this approach a good kind of 'instant inspiration'.

[Tiger Blood]

This is exactly what I did in this tune. I wrote this ages ago and its shit / unfinished / no mixed etc... It was one of the first dubstep tunes I tried writing (I normally write 110bpm). I also based the structure on a dillon francis remix at the time but if I could be arsed to finished it I think it'd hit pretty hard.

Soundcloud

yea sounds good to me, thats sort of what im going for. but is it not recognisable that its basically a copy from somewhere else?

Is it a case of finding a bass loop that fits your key and trying to match the same notes in a different midi track or not that specific and just taking note length?

[Burgeamon]

The track that I used to get a structure waas Chuckie - are you ready to jump. The intro's are similar and stuff but beyond that things change. Also, this is really old and I spent no time on it at all and my processes are very different now.

Pick a key to write in, find a loop in the same key. Chop about, add new sounds a new bassline. Bingo.

[Tiger Blood]

The track that I used to get a structure waas Chuckie - are you ready to jump. The intro's are similar and stuff but beyond that things change. Also, this is really old and I spent no time on it at all and my processes are very different now.

Pick a key to write in, find a loop in the same key. Chop about, add new sounds a new bassline. Bingo.

right ill give that a go next time I always feel like im cheating when i use a loop for anything but i guess if ill i take from it are note length then itll be different enough. Thanks

Anyone else have more tips / help i can bring to my next attempt?

[Burgeamon]

Just know where you're end goal is man. Loops and stuff like that taught me sooooo much about bassline structure so don't feel guilty about using them so long as in time you're bring in your own sounds, learning synthesis and making it your own.

[Tiger Blood]

Just know where you're end goal is man. Loops and stuff like that taught me sooooo much about bassline structure so don't feel guilty about using them so long as in time you're bring in your own sounds, learning synthesis and making it your own.

yea i can see it still being an issue when i swap in my own sounds, i cant get them to gel well. so ill have a bassline copied from a loop with sounds that just smash into each other in a bad way. i tend to be able to write my own basslines as it is, its just the sounds that give the most trouble