[Production Bible 2] The Reese Bass
Posted: Wed Feb 25, 2009 5:49 pm
The Reese Bass
History Lesson
The Reese bass was a form of huge sounding synth-bass first used by the Detroit Techno producer Kevin Saunderson a.k.a Master Reese a.k.a. Reese Project a.k.a. .... on the track "Just Want Another Chance" and immortalised in the classic DnB track "Terrorist" by Renegade. Since then it has been (over)used in many a DnB track and continues to evolve even nowadays through Dubstep
and Jungle. It is said to be as influential to DnB as the Amen break and probably as used and abused as the Amen.
Capturing the Beast
1.The Oscillator Stage
To nail the Reese you need a synth with at least 2 oscillators but for better-bigger results use as many oscillators as you can (not really but 4 oscillators give a nice deep rumble - ahhhhhh). All the
oscillators are playing sawtooth waves and all except one are detuned by 25-50 cents so that all oscillators are out of phase with each other.
2. The Filter Stage
The signal is then sent to a low-pass filter with the cutoff freq set around 150-200Hz (experiment with that , you want the growl of the mid-frequencies but you also want it as deep as possible without sacrificing the midrange).
The resonance of the filter should be cranked up almost all the way (but again tweak accordingly to your filter/synth).
3. Fuzz it Up
The second most important aspect of the Reese (after the detuned sawtooths) is distortion.
Tube distortion and tape saturation work extremely well but don't hesitate to use other more extreme distortion units (don't forget that the Reese has been done a million times , you have to
add something original to it) . Again adjust to taste.
4. Spices and Herbs
Now that is the main recipe for the sound but like all haute-cuisine there are more things you can
do to spice up the Reese. Namely effects. Effects that have been associated with the Reese are:
Phasers - to accentuate the phase-shifting effect of the detuned sawtooths.
Unison - a great way to make it even bigger
Chorus - again a good way to phatten it up
5. And Some More Synth Magic
Another thing to do so you can bring out the old-school jungle character of the Reese is to use
Legato and Portamento/Glide if your syth of choice has them available. These are both great ways
to move from one note to the next without listening to the transition.
To put it simply when legato is on and you play a sustained E followed by a sustained G the transition between the two notes gives the listener the impression that they heard a single note being sustained that has just changed its pitch from E to G without pausing at a certain point.
Always remember though that if you use Legato you have to turn the polyphony of your synth down to 1 (something you should almost always do with basslines because two bass-notes playing together almost never sound good in electronic music, bass chords are more the realm of prog-rock shit than dubstep)
For the more technical minded legato in synthesizers is "a variation of monophonic operation. In contrast to monophonic mode where every new note restarts the ADSR envelopes, in legato mode they are not if the previous note remains depressed when the new note is played. This causes the initial transient from the attack and decay phases to sound only once and the ADSR's to remain at sustain stage for the whole sequence of notes until the final note is released." (Wikipedia)
EDIT I just found out that in one of the free vst links on the bible there is a thing called the "Hotelsinus Reese Bassline" Synth. So I didn't miss the opportunity for a mini review. The software itself is small (like most free vst-i's) and quite easy to install (you just drop the dll in the vst folder). As for the sound, weeeeeeell.... the sounds it produces are definitely Reese. But... weak somehow. Its like listening to Terrorist from a battered, cheap old cassette from 93 or something. It has a tinny and tiny sound when compared to what you can achieve with powerhouses like Albino or Massive or (one of my personal favorites for Reese) Cakewalk Rupture. You can try it if you want but i don't think it will impress 'steppers that much we are bass-headed folk.
History Lesson
The Reese bass was a form of huge sounding synth-bass first used by the Detroit Techno producer Kevin Saunderson a.k.a Master Reese a.k.a. Reese Project a.k.a. .... on the track "Just Want Another Chance" and immortalised in the classic DnB track "Terrorist" by Renegade. Since then it has been (over)used in many a DnB track and continues to evolve even nowadays through Dubstep
and Jungle. It is said to be as influential to DnB as the Amen break and probably as used and abused as the Amen.
Capturing the Beast
1.The Oscillator Stage
To nail the Reese you need a synth with at least 2 oscillators but for better-bigger results use as many oscillators as you can (not really but 4 oscillators give a nice deep rumble - ahhhhhh). All the
oscillators are playing sawtooth waves and all except one are detuned by 25-50 cents so that all oscillators are out of phase with each other.
2. The Filter Stage
The signal is then sent to a low-pass filter with the cutoff freq set around 150-200Hz (experiment with that , you want the growl of the mid-frequencies but you also want it as deep as possible without sacrificing the midrange).
The resonance of the filter should be cranked up almost all the way (but again tweak accordingly to your filter/synth).
3. Fuzz it Up
The second most important aspect of the Reese (after the detuned sawtooths) is distortion.
Tube distortion and tape saturation work extremely well but don't hesitate to use other more extreme distortion units (don't forget that the Reese has been done a million times , you have to
add something original to it) . Again adjust to taste.
4. Spices and Herbs
Now that is the main recipe for the sound but like all haute-cuisine there are more things you can
do to spice up the Reese. Namely effects. Effects that have been associated with the Reese are:
Phasers - to accentuate the phase-shifting effect of the detuned sawtooths.
Unison - a great way to make it even bigger
Chorus - again a good way to phatten it up
5. And Some More Synth Magic
Another thing to do so you can bring out the old-school jungle character of the Reese is to use
Legato and Portamento/Glide if your syth of choice has them available. These are both great ways
to move from one note to the next without listening to the transition.
To put it simply when legato is on and you play a sustained E followed by a sustained G the transition between the two notes gives the listener the impression that they heard a single note being sustained that has just changed its pitch from E to G without pausing at a certain point.
Always remember though that if you use Legato you have to turn the polyphony of your synth down to 1 (something you should almost always do with basslines because two bass-notes playing together almost never sound good in electronic music, bass chords are more the realm of prog-rock shit than dubstep)
For the more technical minded legato in synthesizers is "a variation of monophonic operation. In contrast to monophonic mode where every new note restarts the ADSR envelopes, in legato mode they are not if the previous note remains depressed when the new note is played. This causes the initial transient from the attack and decay phases to sound only once and the ADSR's to remain at sustain stage for the whole sequence of notes until the final note is released." (Wikipedia)
EDIT I just found out that in one of the free vst links on the bible there is a thing called the "Hotelsinus Reese Bassline" Synth. So I didn't miss the opportunity for a mini review. The software itself is small (like most free vst-i's) and quite easy to install (you just drop the dll in the vst folder). As for the sound, weeeeeeell.... the sounds it produces are definitely Reese. But... weak somehow. Its like listening to Terrorist from a battered, cheap old cassette from 93 or something. It has a tinny and tiny sound when compared to what you can achieve with powerhouses like Albino or Massive or (one of my personal favorites for Reese) Cakewalk Rupture. You can try it if you want but i don't think it will impress 'steppers that much we are bass-headed folk.
