Designing a Deep NI Massive Filtered Bass

I enjoy designing sounds and instruments that can be used in a wide range of music styles, genres and project types because I like to be surprised and impressed by what people end up doing with them. This NI Massive filtered bass is a great example of the type of sound that usually ends up being used in ways that I cannot even imagine when I am programming it. But right away, as the sounds stands now without any processing or effects being applied outside of Massive, you can hear to potential glitch-hop tracks and more mainstream songs alike. With only one oscillator producing the sound, and very little in the way of spreading the sound out in Massive, this is a sound that can easily be used in a mix without the concern of too many conflicts. If you want to use this bass with a very busy mix, it may be best to begin by opening Massive in Mono Mode.

This sound design session will be a quick one. It begins with a default Square-Saw I wavetable loaded into OSC1, with the pitch dropped about one octave. This is the only oscillator that will be used in the making of this NI Massive filtered bass synth.

The sound is then run through a Bandpass filter loaded into the Filter1 panel, and a Daft filter loaded into the Filter2 panel. This provides the bulk of the filtered character of the NI Massive filtered bass we are making.

It’s usually a little early in the session to begin adding Feedback, but I would like to hear how it affects the sound throughout the process. It is routed to the Filter1 panel.

A Hardclipper and a Bitcrusher are both inserted into the signal chain at this point and they give this NI Massive filtered bass a much needed grit and edginess.

A Brauner Tube Amp is used to provide some drive and edge for the inserts to grab a hold of. A Chorus effect is used to spread the sound a little and give it some motion as it develops over time. The EQ is turned on and used to shape the sound by accenting the low and high end frequencies.

The last step in the process of making this NI Massive filtered bass is the increase the total number of unison voices to two on the Voicing tab, and set this synth to run in Monorotate mode with a Legato Triller trigger, which allows for gliding between notes. You can adjust the amount of glide for your specific needs one the OSC tab. The Pitch Cutoff featured is used sparingly to introduce a small amount of phasing, and the Pan Position feature is used to add a small amount of width to the bass.

Below is a small audio sample of the NI Massive filtered bass in action alongside some drums to give a better idea of how it may sound in a mix. Of course, for genres like glitch, electro, etc it can easily be modified and tweaked form some pretty crazy and likable results. Every single modulation controller slot is available for you to use!

Don’t forget to shoot us a message before you take off if you have tutorial requests or feedback for us. Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,
OhmLab