Why your bassline waits on the drums
The bass programming episode pinned to the top of the issue is the one to open first. It walks through the order that makes a bassline fall into place, and it's the kind of session you can follow while your DAW is open.
▶ Drums first, bass second
If your basslines keep overcomplicating themselves, this is the reset: read the drums, pick a root for sub character, and test the rhythm on a single note before adding any others. It also shows the Phrygian flat-2 for darker lines.
◢ learn
▶ Rebuilding a charting track from its stems
He separates a reference into stems, auto-splits the drums with a rack, then swaps in his own samples and rebuilds the bass by converting the stem to MIDI. The licensing note at the end matters if you're tempted to keep the ripped stems in your own file.
▶ The one-sixteenth shift that makes or breaks your bass groove
There's a project file with this one. The useful parts are a reversed snap just before the kick, a transient shaper's sustain to lengthen kicks without compression, and Trackspacer ducking the main bass so the sub cuts through.
◢ free & gear
Orra Key: key detection plus MIDI chords(pwyw)
Play a loop for a bit and it gives you the key plus diatonic and borrowed chords as draggable MIDI. The transpose strip tells you how many semitones to shift a sample, but you still make that shift in your DAW.
UVI Prisma's 1,151 presets are up for grabs at Loot Audio(free)
Normally $149, now a perpetual license while codes last. It needs a free iLok account and internet, no dongle, and runs in the free UVI Workstation.
◢ the word
MIA's no-frills toolkit for club mix problems
Border is a smooth Butterworth filter, Fat adds low-end grease, Muscle raises perceived loudness without compression, and Thin adds brilliance without harshness. No personal details required to download.
ADAM's new subs move room correction onto hardware
SoundID Reference runs on the sub's DSP and A Series monitors, not as a plugin in your chain, so you don't have to bypass anything before printing. LFE mode extends the same calibration to Atmos and multichannel.
Surgeon takes on Percy X's Odyssey
Soma 35.3 pairs Surgeon, Phara, Lindsey Herbert, and Voicedrone & Gareth Wild with four Percy X tracks. Digital is out now, vinyl lands in October.
| ▼ #19 | Max Dean — Talking To Myself (Original Mix) ▼ 5 · 7d · profile → |
| ▲ #12 | GruuvElement's — Desert (Original Mix) ▲ 80 · 7d · ▶ hear |
| ▼ #86 | Josh Byrne — Everybody Ready (Original Mix) ▼ 57 · 1d · profile → |
| ▲ #09 | Thomas Foster, Pleasure Bar, Alexandra Prince, Love Klubb — Hooked On You (Love Klubb Extended Revision) ▲ 86 · 7d · profile → |
| ▼ #89 | Bruno Robles — Back Around (Original Mix) ▼ 55 · 1d · profile → |
🔮 Producer Horoscope (for fun) — A rogue MIDI clip will transpose itself in your sleep. Give it a stern look and a groove quantize.
Go make the kick and bass speak to each other.
one of these lands every morning.
for working house producers with a track already half-finished.
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covered in this issue: lp rhythm