Bassline Is the King

What’s In a Bass?

Transcript

Now that you know how to change the sound of the default synth it's time to put that skill to use. You will now create a bassline in 4/4. What makes a good bassline? Well first of all, bass is the lowest pitched instrument so you'll want to use notes from the second or third octave. In numbers this is between 36 and 60. A bass line doesn't need many different notes to be effective. Keep it simple for now and use only one or two notes. I'll make a new live_loop and call it :bassline. I'm going to keep it simple and I'll just use two notes :D3 and :C3 I want to make my bassline slow so I'll use a sleep value of let's say 2. ... And an end there. Remember, that you can use repeat blocks to easily repeat parts of the code inside the live loop. I want both of the notes repeat 2 times so 2.times do Okay so the bassline still sounds a bit boring so I'm gonna put the use_synth command to the beginning of the bassline. I like the sound of :fm for the bass lines but you can choose whatever you like. Some of the common bass sounds are: :fm :sub_pulse and the :tb303. And before I play that I also want to make the sound of the bass longer so I will use the release: option. And you remember that was first a comma then I choose release: and I'll give it the value of 2. Let's do the same with the C Now it's your turn to make a simple baseline of two long notes. Don't worry if it's not too exciting yet, we'll make it more interesting soon!
Do this

Make a simple bassline!

  • Create a new live_loop for the bassline.
  • Choose a synth you like with use_synth and select two different notes between 36 and 60.

Remember to keep it simple for now - you can always add more stuff later!

Educator notes

When starting out with a bassline, it might be tempting to write long and complicated melodies. However, keeping it simple keeps the focus on the rhythm and the function of the bassline. It’s also easier to make a simple melody more complex than the other way around.

Add Some Groove!

Transcript

Now that you have a bassline going, it’s time to combine it with the drum beat. The slow bassline I made earlier doesn't sound so interesting with my beat so I will make it faster. I'm also gonna remove the release: options for now. And I'm gonna make it play four times since I made the sleep shorter. That sounds kinda OK but you may notice that the bassline doesn’t really stand out from the drum beat. In addition, the whole beat just sounds really static! The kick drum and the bass are both very low sounds so they kinda compete for the same space when they play at the same time. One trick to make a bassline stand out more, is to time the bass notes between the kick drum hits. So how we'll do it is: to sleep for half a beat before our note and half a beat after. Ok, let’s hear the result. Nice! Now that the bass sound is in between the kick and snare drums it really stands out in the mix. The bassline is still in sync with the drum beat because the length of the loop didn’t change. I just moved the notes around. You can easily change the feel of the bassline by changing the sleep values. To keep the bass in sync with the drums, use sleep values that add up to one, two or four. A good trick is to increase one sleep value in the code block by some amount and decrease another one by the same amount. Like this: let's increase this by 0.25 and decrease this by 0.25 Now, go ahead and make your bassline groovy!
Do this

Make the bassline groove! If you don’t know where to start, try some of the tips below.

  • Use a faster rhythm for the bassline. (Use a small value for release to avoid overlapping notes)
  • Try not to play the kick and the bass at the same time all the time
  • Rests are just as important for the groove as the notes are! You can easily try dropping a note to see how it might affect the groove by using the #-symbol to comment out a play command.
  • Remember that rhythm is all about using sleep!

Educator notes

It’s worth making it clear to the learners that you can sleep before doing any other actions. Some learners might have picked up the trick to have a loop sleep for a longer value before doing anything. This is a good place to remind them of that.