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Pendulum are taking drum 'n' bass into the mainstream.

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15. If you're going for a sample-based approach to creating your basslines, the ubiquitous TR-808 and 909 sounds can be processed with effects such as overdrive, tube amplification, chorus and filtering to create devastating new bass tones. This can be played as-is, or a single note can be sampled, loaded into your sampler and processed further.

16. Another classic DnB sound is that of the 'Reece' bassline, as used in Renegade Feat Ray Keith's Terrorist. You can create your own version by layering up detuned square waves with a touch of low-pass filtering. This can then be resampled and further processed to create your own fearsome basslines.

"A proper sub-bass is all-important when producing DnB. In order to create the desired wall of sound effect, the bassline has to hit the low end of the frequency spectrum."

The lead sound

17. For those liquid funk moments, a housey organ bass always goes down a treat. You can make your own using sine, pulse or triangle waves low-pass filtered until you get just a few harmonics poking through. Try detuning one oscillator up seven semitones for a handy fifth that will bring back many old-school memories.

18. These days everybody's rocking the saw wave lead. This sound is easy to create – short attack and release amplitude envelope, a little chorus or pitch modulation on the saw wave and you're there. Things can be made more interesting with a little degrading effect, and a bit of glide can add a cheeky twist to your nasty lead noise. Keep the portamento time short, though, to avoid that pissed-up feel.

19. When it comes to creating a tearing hoover sound, the filter's everything. If you're lucky enough to own Access' awesome Virus synth, apply some saturation between the filters in Serial mode. Use a low-pass filter, then a sweeping band-stop filter for some Raiden-style hardcore action. Remember that the Virus can be used as a powerful effects section too – perfect for adding grit to drum loops and other sounds.

20. For Artificial Intelligence-style warbling synth lines, an LFO tied to the filter cutoff is your best bet. Make sure the LFO's phase is synced to the start of the note and try a variety of rates and phase positions until you come up with a suitably mellifluous noise. Experiment using different waveshapes, LFO amounts and filter cutoff settings, and try further developing the sound with a little LFO-based pulse width modulation.

21. When using 'real' instrument samples or presets, it's important that they sit comfortably alongside your more processed sounds. If possible, create reverb and delay send effects so you can place all your sounds in the same virtual space. Along with good playing or sequencing, reverb can help disguise synthesized instrument sounds. For an even more pronounced effect, try applying a reverb pre-fader for soundscape style effects.

22. Make more sophisticated arpeggiator leads by applying frequency or pulse width modulation envelopes to the sound and varying the decay time. High-pass filters work well with this style of sound. When filter sweeping the sound in or out, try automating another synth setting, such as one of the envelopes' decay time or filter envelope amount. For a trancey sound, delay is a must, but don't make it too extreme or you may mask any chord changes.

23. These days, most virtual analogue synths feature a whole load of wave shapes for you to experiment with. Instead of using a sine wave, try a variety of different wave shapes and low-pass filter them to remove all but the lowest frequencies. This will give you a sub-bass with more interest than a standard sine tone, which can be enhanced further with tube amplification and other effects.

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