Skip to main content
Music Radar MusicRadar The No.1 website for musicians
  • Guitars
  • Amps
  • Pedals
  • Drums
  • Synths
  • Software
  • Pianos
  • Controllers
  • Recording
  • Buyer’s guides
  • Live
  • DJ
  • Advice
  • Acoustic
  • Bass
  • About Us
  • More
    • Reviews
Magazines
  • Computer Music
  • Electronic Musician
  • Future Music
  • Keyboard Magazine
  • Guitarist
  • Guitar Techniques
  • Total Guitar
  • Bass Player
More
  • How to make an AI cover song
  • 30 beautiful acoustic guitar chords
  • 86000+ free music samples

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works.

  1. Tuition

A brief history of synth bass

By Future Music
published 27 September 2011

A genre-by-genre guide

A genre-by-genre guide

Be it analogue or digital, synth bass can help uniquely define the groove, feel and sound of a track - so much so, in fact, that specific bass sounds have even become intrinsically linked with particular genres.

In this feature, we’re going to look at some of the musical styles that have their own trademark synth bass tones, and tell you how you can go about recreating them.

For a complete guide to synth bass, check out the October issue of Future Music (FM244) which is on sale now.

NEXT: R&B, soul and disco

Page 1 of 7
Page 1 of 7
R&B, soul and disco
D'Angelo: please make another record.
(Image credit: Marc Bryan-Brown/Corbis)

R&B, soul and disco

Smoother subby tones are the staple of R&B/neo-soul bass. Use a sine or triangle wave and mix in a saw at low volume with cutoff set low (and no resonance) for a classic smooth bass tone.

Try some pitchbend and use the mod wheel to control filter cutoff frequency, and engage legato mode to ensure smooth transitions between notes. Perhaps add some tape drive or push the oscillator levels in your synth or on your desk’s mixer for extra growl.

Alternatively, add a plug-in/ pedal overdrive, amp up your synth, or feed your synth’s output back into its audio input.

D’Angelo-style bass

P.Y.T-style bass

Hear it on: D’Angelo - Brown Sugar; Michael Jackson - P.Y.T.

Page 2 of 7
Page 2 of 7
Drum 'n' Bass
DnB master LTJ Bukem.
(Image credit: www.myspace.com/therealdannyltjbukem)

Drum 'n' Bass

One of the staples of Drum ’n’ Bass is stacking multiple oscillator waves (sine, triangle, saw or square) together and EQing/compressing each part separately, then overdriving them on a mixing desk.

The result is then resampled (preferably using an E-MU or Akai hardware sampler) and processed using flanging, chorus and detuning. Repeat the process for a killer D’n’B bass.

Using overdriven sine or triangle waves with a medium filter attack and decay also gives an evil swoop to the start of the sound. Also, why not try 808 kicks pitched down (to lengthen them) which can also work great to get that famous deep sub sound?

D’n’B-style bass

Hear it on: Photek - The Rain; LTJ Bukem - Watercolours and Coolin Out.

Page 3 of 7
Page 3 of 7
Funk
Herbie Hancock gets busy on his Roland AX-Synth.
(Image credit: Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis)

Funk

Many different types of bass sounds are appropriate in funk, but three come to mind in particular.

The first is the smoother Minimoog-type bass, as used on tunes such as Stevie Wonder’s Superstition. This sound can be approximated with a couple of sawtooth waves and a triangle slightly detuned with a medium attack, medium decay and long sustain on the filter envelope and fast attack, medium decay, fast release and long sustain on the amp envelope. Set one of the oscillators to 32’ and one to 16’ and use a low filter cutoff.

Superstition-style bass

The next type is the bright punchy sound used on tracks such as Parliament’s Flash Light. Use two triangle waves driven hard into a Minimoog’s (or equivalent) mixer, with copious amounts of LFO to osc pitch (on the mod wheel) and pitchbend.

Parliament-style bass

Finally, there’s the ARP Odyssey bass used by Herbie Hancock on. Again, it’s a two-oscillator sound (try a square wave and saw with detuning) driven hard into the Odyssey’s mixer and filter, with a bit of resonance, low cutoff and medium filter attack/fast amp envelope attack.

Rumour has it that Herbie layered a fast attack sound with a more sustained sound to get the final result. This explains why it’s so difficult to recreate with just one synth part, and if you listen closely to the record, it does sound like two parts layered together.

Chameleon-style bass

Hear it on: Stevie Wonder - Superstition; Parliament - Flash Light; Herbie Hancock - Chameleon

Page 4 of 7
Page 4 of 7
House
The Korg M1: a '90s house producer's staple.

House

Synth bass in popular house music in the ’80s and ’90s was dominated by the Yamaha DX range and digital FM (frequency modulation) bass. The DX100’s four-operator Solid Bass preset in particular was used on numerous big tunes of the day due to its solid woody tone with plenty of lows and cutting mid-range.

DX100 Solid Bass

One thing to note is that most people couldn’t get their heads round programming up Yamaha’s FM synths (due to the complex operating systems), so generally, producers just used the onboard presets on records, so it’s easy to get the same sounds.

Later in the ’90s producers were still rinsing out the DXs plus Korg’s sample-based M1 workstation - its Organ 2 preset became synonymous with House music bass

Hear it on: Alison Limerick - Where Love Lives; Robin S - Show Me Love

Page 5 of 7
Page 5 of 7
Dubstep
Skream: making some noise.

Dubstep

Synth bass in dubstep was heavily influenced by D’n’B and so adheres to some very similar principles (ie, saw or sine/triangle/square waves stacked together, compressed and EQd, then overdriven using distortion or overdrive/granular plug-ins for a nastier, grittier sound.

The infamous dubstep bass ‘wobble’ can be recreated by stacking a sine and square together, compressing a little, adding some white noise, resonance and distortion/overdrive, then adding an LFO modulating filter cutoff synced to your DAW’s MIDI clock and set to eighth notes.

Also, sending keyboard velocity to filter cutoff works well when playing this kind of bass, as does using band-pass and comb filtering, plus detuning and/or chorus.

Finally, try automating glide/portamento, or recording in pitchbend between notes to smooth transitions and give a more liquid feel.

Dubstep wobble bass

Hear it on: Excision – Subsonic; Skream - Midnight Request Line

Page 6 of 7
Page 6 of 7
Acid house
The Roland TB-303: where would we be without it?

Acid house

The sound of Acid House was defined by Roland’s TB-303 analogue bass machine.

The TB-303’s looping 16-step sequencer with glides and accents, coupled with up to four-octave note jumps, plus the super-squelchy 24dB resonant filter and saw/square waves, gave it a uniquely aggressive sound, especially when driven hard onto tape or when sent through guitar amps or pedals.

The 303’s saw/square sound, with a slowly swept cutoff and sweeping resonance, was perfectly suited to dance music.

303 acid-style bass

Hear it on: Phuture - Acid Trax; 808 State - Flow Coma; The KLF - What Time Is Love

Liked this? Now read: Better synth bass in 9 easy steps

Connect with MusicRadar: via Twitter, Facebook and YouTube

Page 7 of 7
Page 7 of 7
Future Music
Future Music
Social Links Navigation

Future Music is the number one magazine for today's producers. Packed with technique and technology we'll help you make great new music. All-access artist interviews, in-depth gear reviews, essential production tutorials and much more. Every marvellous monthly edition features reliable reviews of the latest and greatest hardware and software technology and techniques, unparalleled advice, in-depth interviews, sensational free samples and so much more to improve the experience and outcome of your music-making.

More about tech
Erica Synths Black Stereo Reverb

Erica Synths Black Stereo Reverb review

roland

4 of the best new drum machines and grooveboxes in 2023

Latest
The Beatles in 1965

We tried to make a Beatles track using AI-generated vocals - here's what happened

See more latest ►
Most Popular
John Mayer's guitar playing: 5 things you can learn

By Richard Barrett3 October 2023

Learn 4 key guitar chords from classic grunge songs

By Leigh Fuge30 September 2023

Computer Music 327 November 2023: free downloads

By Computer Music27 September 2023

Learn 5 classic blues guitar licks from Albert, Freddie and BB King, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Eric Clapton

By Leigh Fuge25 September 2023

10 famous rock guitar solos and what you can learn from them

By Leigh Fuge21 September 2023

How to design a punchy, radio-ready synth bass sound

By Dave Gale18 September 2023

How to liven up your mix with legendary Fairchild compression

By Andy Jones12 September 2023

How to add level rides to a mix

By Jon Musgrave11 September 2023

How to get a vintage tape sound like the Studer J37

By Andy Jones11 September 2023

How to use the UREI 1176 'all-buttons-in' trick to get punchy, overdriven compression

By Andy Jones7 September 2023

How to start learning and playing guitar solos

By Leigh Fuge7 September 2023

  1. The Prodigy
    1
    “It's so offensive that it can't actually mean that”: Have The Prodigy finally changed the lyrics to ‘the most controversial song of all time’?
  2. 2
    14 tips for producing better techno: "Automate the low-pass filter frequency to create a rhythmic pattern on your bassline"
  3. 3
    Sweetwater has the gear you need, at the prices you want
  4. 4
    The 7 ways I learned to improve my guitar tone – that won't cost you money
  5. 5
    Believe it or not, the Behringer UB-Xa synth is now on sale - and it’s even cheaper than we thought it was going to be
  1. Epiphone Greeny
    1
    Why does the Epiphone Greeny Les Paul cost $1,500?
  2. 2
    The 7 ways I learned to improve my guitar tone – that won't cost you money
  3. 3
    Believe it or not, the Behringer UB-Xa synth is now on sale - and it’s even cheaper than we thought it was going to be
  4. 4
    "It's just a good-looking toy": Is it worth buying a Teenage Engineering EP-133 KO II when you can do everything that it does (and more) on a free app?
  5. 5
    Teenage Engineering TP-7 review

MusicRadar is part of Future plc, an international media group and leading digital publisher. Visit our corporate site.

  • About Us
  • Contact Future's experts
  • Terms and conditions
  • Privacy policy
  • Cookies policy
  • Accessibility Statement
  • Careers

© Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, Bath BA1 1UA. All rights reserved. England and Wales company registration number 2008885.