3.2 Bass Basics
Bass creates power in a track. It makes the audience feel the music and ties the drums to the chords. Learn how to create bass lines from chord parts to get everyone moving on the dance floor.
Terms
Sound: Movement of air creating sound waves.
Pitch: How high or low a note sounds. Low pitch notes have larger sound waves than high pitch ones.
Root: Lowest note of a chord. The root is what the bass usually plays.
1 | Create A Chord Progression
Listen to the melody and experiment with different chord sequences. Add the chords to the timeline and merge the regions.
3 | Learn The Chord/Bass Relationship
The lowest note of a chord is called the root and it is the note that is used most often in a bass line.
4 | Create Bass Notes
Duplicate the chord part by highlighting the region, hold alt (or command for Mac) and drag the region to a new track. Remove all of the notes besides the low roots from the pitches in the piano roll.
5 | Stay In The Bass Range
Some instruments in Soundtrap might make bass notes sound either too high or too low. Use your ear to find out if they are in the correct range and change the octave if needed.
6 | Create Rhythmic Patterns
Create an eighth note grid of bass notes by shortening the root of each chord and copying/pasting or pencilling in the rest of the notes in each bar. Make a pattern of bass notes by deleting some in each bar. Listen back and use the same pattern for the rest of the phrase.
7 | Write A Drum Part
2 | Intro To The Piano Roll
Notes can be viewed and edited in the piano roll. Learn how it works and its history.
Create a drum track and find a sound you like. Listen to the melody, chord, and bass lines to come up with a drum pattern and make it with the patterns beat maker.