The Lately Bass is a TX81Z patch — rebuild it subtractively
The Lately Bass came from a TX81Z, not a DX7. Today's lead pulls the patch apart into three layers and gets the knock with a saw and a bit of FM on a sine sub.
▶ Three layers to the Lately Bass (and it's not from a DX7)
The patch is a TX81Z preset, not a DX7 — rebuild it with a saw + lightly FM'd sine, then play it as offbeat bass and double-hit-on-1 patterns.
◢ learn
▶ Arrangement rule: keep sections in 4s and 8s — and a bass sidechain fix
A template with three escalating breakdowns and four drops, plus replacing a full-range sidechain with a multiband one that ducks the kick out of the bass without killing the whole low end.
▶ Reverse-engineer a chart track with Ableton's stem splitter
Not actually Dom Dolla's process — it's a recreation of an unnamed Beatport track using stem separation, a custom drum splitter rack, and 'show similar files' to swap hits.
◢ free & gear
Massive XL turns audio into a starting patch($99)
The Preset Generator turns audio into a patch — feed it a simple source, then tweak. Also adds 100+ new wavetables and Raum/Replika Shimmer effects.
TimeTravel: free reverse delay with hardware-modeled grit(free)
Modeled on the BL-44 pedal, with a Clock knob that goes from short bright glitches to 2.4-second dark, tape-smearing tails.
Spectral Warp remaps frequencies, not pitch($79)
Draw breakpoint curves to move low-end engine harmonics independently from the high-end whine — a different texture than any pitch shifter, with a 14-day trial.
◢ the word
M6 MacBook Pro: fast cores, but hold off on plugin compatibility
No Pro Tools support at launch, macOS 27 doesn't auto-install Rosetta 2, and you can't downgrade; base model is $1,999 with 16GB memory. Wait until your key plugins are confirmed.
Deep house to fuzzy acid on Musica Solida vol 3
A 5-track VA vinyl EP celebrating 40 years of a record shop — Melchior Sultana's 'Cascade' and Gratts' 'Ghost Swell' are the ones to A/B against your own low end.
Bicep — Aura
the detuned synth arp that melts into a reverb wash at 2:14 · pairs with the reverse delay freebie above
| ▼ #32 | Franky Rizardo — Shinjuku (Extended Mix) |
| ▼ #96 | Dam Swindle, Burnski — Do What You Want (Burnski Remix) |
| ▼ #76 | Township Rebellion — Birds Fly First Class ▼ 53 · 1d · ▶ hear |
| ▲ #20 | Riva Starr, Harry Stone, SACRED H3ART — Set The Mood Right (SACRED H3ART Extended Remix) |
| ▲ #08 | Black Traxx, Rick Lenoir, Gary Wallace — Essence of a Black Track (Rick and Gary Deep Mix) |
- 1. Init a two-oscillator subtractive synth. Set oscillator 1 to a saw wave and enable retrigger.
- 2. Set oscillator 2 to a sine wave, set it to one voice, enable retrigger, and pull its level down until it sits under the saw.
- 3. Add a 4-pole low-pass filter after the oscillators. Lower the cutoff until the saw loses its harsh top. If it goes dull, switch to 2-pole for more brightness.
- 4. Shape the filter envelope so the attack snaps and the tail closes. Keep the MIDI notes short.
- 5. Write an offbeat bass line. For variation, put a double hit on beat 1 then offbeat notes; shifting a few note starts changes the groove.
🔮 Producer Horoscope (for fun) — Your arrangement will feel too short by exactly 1 bar, and it'll be the bar you didn't cut.
Now go make the kick and bass lock in.
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covered in this issue: native instruments massive xl