Creating a Trance Swell Bass in NI Massive

A nice supporting bassline is really important in Trance music, and finding the right balance of tone, development and modulation is a very subtle art form.

The type of bass being created in this NI Massive tutorial video by YouTube user firstsunmusic is intended to match the pulsing energy of the music featured here. The way the sound develops and moves is what is most important to pay attention to when going through this sound design session. The content is presented in an easy to follow manner and by no means is it of a highly technical approach or knowledge level. Anyone can quickly grasp the concepts and replicate the sound within a matter of minutes.

The bass itself is a classic trance style supersaw synth, but with the intensity values being offset rather than focusing on semitones of pitch. Two of the main oscillators are set one octave down, while the third is kept at the default pitch value. An LFO modulates the cutoff of a lowpass filter to introduce the wobble or pulse of the bass. An envelope is then set up to modulate the wavetable position of the first two oscillators.

A macros is then assigned to the wavetable position of the first oscillator, as well as both parameters of a hard clipper insert. A small reverb is applied to give a slight effect. A dimension expander adds more width and depth to the sound. The macro control can be used to drastically change the sound over time by either mapping it to a midi controller knob or wheel, or you can use it for automating multiple parameters at once in your DAW.

If you have a sound that you would like to share with the rest of the MassiveSynth community, let us know! We’d love to hear from you and help you get some feedback on your work.

Cheers,
ΩhmLab