How to add a bassline with Maschine

In this week’s Maschine tutorial, learn some tips and tricks relating to bass. I start with a project that’s only a sample and some drums to show the process of adding a bassline.

First, I load up the bass sound I’m going to use. Sometimes I’ll use Massive, Monarch, or some other synth, but a lot of the time I fall back on Maschine’s “SubBass 1.” This is a very simple but very usable sub bass.

With the sound loaded up, I begin the process of composing the actual notes that will form the bassline. To aid this process, I bring the octave way up, allowing me to hear the pitches more clearly. Once I settle on the notes, I return to the low octave and record the pattern.

After recording one pattern, I record another similar but slightly altered one. This will prevent the final track from becoming too monotonous. I also add some compression and saturation after recording to roughly mix the bass and the rest of the project. The compressor is sidechained to the kick drum to prevent clashing low frequencies, and the saturator is used in small amounts to add some subtle, high-frequency harmonics.