The Absolute COMPLETE Guide on EVERYTHING you need to know for creating Psytrance Basslines - A to Z

So I have done several Bassline oriented videos, but nothing that goes through all of the important aspects - from synthesis and processing to note choice and more. Hope you enjoy!
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The Absolute COMPLETE Guide on EVERYTHING you need to know for creating Psytrance Basslines - A to Z

[@jl9205]

"Here is how to make a cool psytrance bassline..." Talks about phase alignment and frequency envelopes for 38 minutes, hahaha. ;-) I knew this genre was technical, but holy cow! I'm really feeling the weight of my ignorance. But I learned a lot! Thanks, Dash!

[@sagedarwin3024]

You prolly dont give a damn but does anybody know of a trick to log back into an Instagram account? I was stupid forgot my account password. I love any help you can offer me!

[@kasonthaddeus4871]

@Sage Darwin Instablaster ;)

[@sagedarwin3024]

@Kason Thaddeus thanks for your reply. I got to the site through google and I'm in the hacking process now. Seems to take quite some time so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.

[@sagedarwin3024]

@Kason Thaddeus It worked and I actually got access to my account again. I'm so happy! Thank you so much you really help me out!

[@kasonthaddeus4871]

@Sage Darwin you are welcome :D

[@Mechantrix]

You produce some high-quality, quick to the point and well explained tutorials man! Keep up the good work inspiring all the people that watch you to dive deeper into the techniques of producing great electronic music. I've really enjoyed watching your videos and seeing how you approach some of your Sound-Designing for Goa / Psytrance. And I've been loving the modular stuff as well, because of you I might need to get into that myself.. BTW. Have you ever checked out Surge? It's an open-source synth, seems pretty powerful and versatile, maybe interesting to have tutorials on it for those getting into Psytrance production that don't instantly have the budget / access to something like Serum or Phase-Plant. There seems to be lack of good tutorials for it, might be great for extra growth for your channel. I know I'd watch some Dash Glitch quality-level tutorials on that synth with pleasure, hehe. ;) I wish you a great day, stay healthy and strong in these times of changes Glitch! Greetings from the Netherlands.

[@XFAiDERse]

👏👀👍

[@torchbearer3784]

I need to know everything. Here we go! Thanks for doing these videos👍

[@floppychops1300]

Amazing tutorial as always matey, thanks for being a wizard and sharing your alchemy secrets !

[@Confuzius]

you're my favorite teacher for this stuff on youtube! keep going! and thanks a huge bunch!

[@MrPhilipmcclenaghan]

This is exactly what I came here for. Someone else that's incredibly geeky into their sound! Loved it!

[@eliponyatovski1829]

Great work man! A very clear and comprehensive guide. Thanks a lot!

[@truekasia12]

Am studying sound design a lot lately. You are an absolute hero.

[@trancephile2412]

time aligning plugin is what i was looking for a long time , thank you so much for great tutorial

[@7177YT]

Superb content! Thank you!

[@alexandergachukov2282]

Bro, you are God of production. Thnx a LOOOOOT!

[@MultiDisposition]

Awesome video mate. I havent tried to make psy yet, just been watching loads of vids. I produced Freeform and Hard Dance but am thinking about giving it ago. Keep up your detailed and informative vids

[@tiagoayresnunes]

This is some good content. Thanks for that!

[@TheBruno51]

Thanks for sharing valuable tips, you’re awesome!

[@Jujunatic]

Thank you, thank you very-very much.. a lots of love from estonia

[@Artek604]

With regards to aligning phase of kick & bass - it's important they're both tuned to the same note, because otherwise the alignment won't be stable over time, i.e. first cycle might be perfect, but following ones will not.

[@affreqticdeutschepsytrance9713]

Well i think not. thats one of those myhts in electronic music production. its way more smarter to put the fundamental of the kick between the harmonic peaks of the bassline so it has more space and you can turn up the levels more efficiently. some techno producers i listened in my sound engineering lectures said 5 st under the key note of the bassline fits most of the time.. but yeah.. its art isnt it.. cheers from hamburg.

[@aced9239]

You're a smart man, Thank you for this 🙏🏽

[@chrishamilton4041]

Thanks for this great Overview!!!!

[@greglafont7926]

Thank you dude for all these amazing tutorials. Do you plan to do a tutorial on kick from A to Z?

[@ComicBehave]

Ótimas informações dash !

[@Fractalik]

Thanks a lot bro!!! Your vids are really helpful!

[@degstep9968]

Thank you so much!!

[@timetraveller2045]

Thanks, Dash!

[@jazzdude7014]

great Tutorial!

[@miguelmeza872]

The vídeo I needed all of my life

[@silaslobo3732]

Just love your content bro ❤️ hoping to see tou live one day

[@jabbaxy2651]

Very good tutorial - i like your works THX and greets from switzerland ;-)

[@melange78]

I think the trick of cutting low frequencies is to compromise between low latency linear or just cut with a lower Q angle. Don't go like "high latency linear" unless you know what you are doing but don't cut sharp below 100hz with zero latency either.

[@goasunnybeat3168]

Great video! Thanks!

[@TerenceKearns]

28:30 When you set the offset to 180 degrees, my ears perceived a micro-tonal increase in pitch.

[@DashGlitch]

Yup, a shift in phase will result in perceived shift in pitch but only if you heard the previous version in quick succession

[@Dvirjana]

best music teach i ever seen on yotube. thanks.

[@PsyWalks]

Thx alot man i feel like u understood my previous sloppy question ;D

[@stepanhyperstlsprokopenko1184]

Cool! Tnx a lot! But what about psy bass layering?

[@XFAiDERse]

I haven't yet saved my track, but I did pull off that full-on Kick & Bassline! It's not perfect, since it was my first try - but it was good enough to chop half an onion of happiness & glory if you know what I mean! 😺 The bassline was the tricky part, because Massive's oscillators are as stable as jelly while I have no cash left for LFO tool or any precise oscilloscope-plugin! 😹👍 I rendered/bounced the four bassnotes instead and used Bitwig's Edit tool, tweaking the gain to get that "psytrance-gallop" right, eliminating unwanted waves, and emphasizing the last half of the last bassnote. I have tweaking, testing & verifying left to do, but it's ok still! Allthough this was a less flexible of a method than stable synth + LFO-tool - I started to think that the resolution & precision might be bigger in audio-editing of rendered audio than with LFO-tool: The waveform can fill the entire screen and the envelopes can get Really intricate & precise. I have a lot left to test & learn, but thanks to you I'm on the right track! Just wanted to give some feedback and a massive thank-you so far! Cheers!! 🍻

[@TerenceKearns]

This video is great. I got a lot out of it.

[@professeurheliotrope1122]

Amazing tutorial, only guy who managed to explain to me limpidly Sidechains, EQs, and Serum One thing tho, Absolutely add a notification at the beginning of the video that the key of your bass synth is in D1 since mine was on C3 (yeah, noob right..) well it took me a while to adjust all the release, cutoff and equilibrium to get the curve perfect (or to even get wtf I was doing).... and once it was all finished I had to do it all again for the key on F1 (for me) .. anyways, this unfortunate mishap taught me more extensively I suppose Thanks the Sensei!

[@fredferrer4250]

... You make very good videos... ... Tanks...

[@Jaaccck763]

I really appreciate your effort on tutorials man, it's really helpful... Can you explain how to make a track like "Unknown Shapes by Earthworm"... From the bass used to the FM synths n stuff

[@problembaer89]

This is the best Psytrancebass-Tut, I've seen so far. Seems like noone is talking about, how to deal with those phase-issues, and this tip with the EQing in the low end. I always struggling to nail the bass. But what are the benefits by resamling the bass, instead of using the normal synth-out-coming stuff? Thanks a lot for this great tut!

[@DashGlitch]

To make sure you don't have release tail on the note overlapping with others and to maintain the exact sound on every hit :)

[@carlosjazzpick]

Thanks for a extraordinaire insightful tutorial! What would be your suggestion to create a psytrance synth bass preset tone, simple, direct and pure, using resources common to any normal featured synthesizer?

[@MrLetthemknow123]

this is so much work.. just get the right waveform for the bass and then keep everything short and mono. quick and dirty but works.

[@yairkelly7039]

thank you 🙏

[@MrPianoMatt12]

cool video

[@antismap]

Great video ! This really shows how technical this genre is... This is basically an engineering video :) Are there free alternatives to the synced scope that LFOtool provides ?

[@pratyushkapoor200]

ossum

[@macronencer]

Thanks, this is simply excellent! One question: when you get the phase issues, it occurs to me that it's partly down to the chosen note pitch and the track tempo being incompatible (I'm assuming you tune your kick, which may not be correct...). Have you ever tried adjusting the tempo to allow an integer number of wavelengths in each beat? Of course this would go awry when varying the notes, but for the master key of the track it might help - and how much does it matter if the tempo is, say, 128.56 instead of 130?

[@josemontiel2731]

Chingon el video.

[@fredferrer4250]

Enjoy

[@alfa156c]

okay - cool !

[@anattaevergreen4115]

I love you

[@NeonPLotus]

I was hoping you’d also cover swung bass lines. I can’t seem to get those right.

[@keeanryanpople4100]

Thank you so much for this tutorial, it really does help to see your whole process in a video :) Dash quick question here, when you resample notes of the baseline from serum into a audio file would you resample every note individually up to said octave?

[@DashGlitch]

Yes, like I mentioned I’ll do an extra octave in case I want to make a groove

[@felipemillen1]

what do you think about Trackspacer in the bass?

[@oledahl.]

Hi Dash. Loved your tutorial. But I was wondering about an artifact I heard popping out now and then but pretty often for the last 15 minutes. Maybe before but didn’t check. It sounds like a short 500-800hz pink noise sound at the start of a four bar. Like ffffttt(lol🤷🏻‍♂️). If you listen through the track again and notice it and know what’s making it I would be extremely thankful to know!! But thank you for taking the time to make such a thorough tutorial! Very much appreciated! And I also need to take advantage of this reply to thank you for all the great tracks you have produced throughout your career! You have been and still are a big inspiration for me and I have had many people dancing themselves into trance for hours by spinning some of your tracks! Take care man! 🙏👏🤝

[@oledahl.]

It sounds like the artifact comes right after you put the Pultec clone in the chain. At around 13:08 you can hear it quite well.

[@oledahl.]

And just after you switch the cps on the PTEq to 45 then you can hear it very easily. Just between 10:35 and 10:36 offbeat. Hope I managed to make you hear it now. 👍

[@tru7hhimself]

the raw bassline at 2:11 sounds strangely familiar. haldolium - pi symptom immediately comes to my mind.

[@aidennymes6335]

multiband crossover phase shift is a powerfull psy bass sound design tool

[@Khaayam]

Thanks bro, Learned new ways of managing bass line. Now instead of sidechain by LFO tool, why not modulate OSC A levels with velocity and play with the note velocity in the note editor? which one is better?

[@lisotunali3807]

note velocity allows you to make crazy grooves! check out Axial Tilt - Alien Planet. It has a really unique bassline that you can only get with velocity and not with an LFO

[@HalfGodHalfBeast]

Hi Dash, I notice you always like to use curve EQ for bass. would you say this is an essential plugin or would khs slice EQ be adequate. I've been using slice EQ and used lfo tool to see if there was any pre-ringing and couldn't see any but ableton's EQ-8 did. basically I am just asking if slice EQ is up to the job in your opinion or would you recomend I get curve EQ?

[@DashGlitch]

I'm not using Curve EQ to adjust anything, it's merely a reference tool :)

[@daveamanojaku]

Rawar!

[@michaelknight141]

I sometimes wonder if this is how a bassline should be made or if its a massive kind of „overthinking“ in some ways, that comes with all the possibilities that vst plugins offer nowadays. I feel like 20 years ago people just turned on some hardware synths and eqsily made some great goa without caring or even knowing about how the phase-micro-peaks look like. Most of this things you can only see in todays high-resolution scope plugins that didn’t exist 15-20 years ago (not like they do today at least). Just wondering how they did it back then, if all this is necessary for only a „simple“ bassline. I personally find this very tedious and it somehow takes out the flow and fun of making music intuitively.

[@biokode]

Yeah, this stuff is lovely and I'd like to learn it all - but no way I'm doing creative work like this. Much rather play by ear

[@filipesimoes3219]

A great tutorial like all of the others man, especially that multiband transient shaper, had never heard of it, and its amazing what that beast can do, even more, since it is a cubase stock plugin. With this said, i have a question. I do understand the power that using lfotool is, but since i can more or less do the same with the normal compressor, i didn't really want to buy it, almost only for the kick and bass, since there are a million other things more important to spend money in the fantastic cash exhausting journey that no cracked plugins used is. But to be able to see the phase issues in it, is just the thing that i am in need, because, whilst im not into using it as a "compressor", it would be very helpful to be able to see the spectrum of K+B and the phase issues in them. With this said, do you have any reccomendation of any plugin that would be able to serve my needs? (a spectrum that allows me to see the combination of K+B, in terms of phase) Especially because i'm producing tracks between 150-200, and while on slower tempos you can listen and perceive some of these issues (more or less), with faster tempos is way harder, and way easier to make the bass sound "muddier" or "dirtier" Keep up the fantastic work!! Greetings from Portugal

[@KineticEnergy]

hey man. maybe try out signalizer. its a free plugin for a good visualization of audio in multiple ways. You have to tweak the settings a bit to have that fixed grid for K&B but i think its worth a try :)

[@filipesimoes3219]

@@KineticEnergy maaan, thanks a lot for the reply, i've seen it now and it looks, first, promissing (since it is still in an alpha); second, exactly what i needed, you just saved me a lot. i'm going to try and later i'll leave here my feedback on what I thought, but all on all, thank you so much for your reply, you're the best

[@rafestube]

Bump! Any others Dash??

[@KineticEnergy]

And another update: the plug-in oscilloscope from bom shanka is free. It's also for audio visualization 🙂👍🏻

[@MuchachoC]

Good tips, but didn't the part about phase and resampling dragged on a little too much? It's an honest question, I'm still very inexperienced in producing electronic music, so it well may be a very important thing and I'm missing out, but I would love to hear how these little phase issues (which in my noob opinion were much more visual - the shape of the sound wave - than audible issues) would influence negatively in the mix (let's say with the Kick/Bass interaction with the percussion and/or other elements). I watched the video with a good interface and good headphones, and the only time I thought the tone of the bass was unpleasant was when you demonstrated the use of the delay to 'fatten' it up (to me it created an unpleasant, wobbling sound). Your channel is awesome, I'm looking up for the time when I have enough knowledge to be really able to keep up to your pace in these tutorials haha

[@RicHardAndHeavy]

I don't know how to ask correctly but the bass is "de phase" on the upper side of the visualizer, does it mean the speaker is more focus on the "outside" movement than the "inside" movement ? The bass don't have to be "the same" on the upper and downside ?

[@tomax2578]

as a techno producer, this is like next level professor shit :D Really good video! Anyways do the bass needs to be the same note than the kick or can it be in the dominant instead of the root for example?

[@semilocybe]

as far as I know you don't wanna have your kick and bass on the same note, so they don't occupy they same frequency range. go for the 4th, 5th, .. and so on

[@eliaszerano3510]

how much latency (samples) does faTimeAlign introduce ?

[@zed4496]

good on dash. thanks for that. what about faster psytrance basslines (145bpm for example). can you please explain differences (note length, equalization, phase and sub frequencies control). I mean what are your suggestion concerning a faster bpm? (full on)

[@DashGlitch]

As long as you take into account what is happening on your scope, then the BPM shouldn't matter - you can see if these elements are overlapping and then adjust to fit the best. Some of the hitech experts I have spoken to, say that when they do above 160bpm then they use a higher low-cut setting - but that's about the only thing I can recommend regarding different tempos.

[@zed4496]

@@DashGlitch you say it is just the length of the note and eq that changes a bit. right?

[@zed4496]

@@DashGlitch ...and decay at synthesis of course...

[@zed4496]

@@DashGlitch does you have to render each note to create a whole octave of notes and put it on a sampler? do the entire process for each note?

[@mohitnaikmusic]

PLEASE MAKE A SIMILAR TUTORIAL FOR VITAL

[@kaleamey9779]

How to make 8d audio in FL studio

[@jaredbeyer8745]

do you have a facebook group to think tank and give all of eachother a helping hand?

[@Kikudoxx]

I am using FL Studio and I am not able to play notes under C2. Underneath it is just a clicky sound.

[@RafaelSantos_]

the envelope shaper, is it a transient shaping, but multiband?

[@DashGlitch]

correct

[@oledahl.]

Rafael Santos yes. Spot on! 👍

[@faustoodilon]

Awesome, but dont you think that creating generic bass samples can be a little Limiting technique, to use in different musics?

[@dealerpriest]

Wouldn't it be easier to set polyphony of the synth to only 1 voice to avoid the synth notes overlapping? Instead of going through the hazzle of resampling?

[@brokenmoon3300]

Pre-ringing is an artifact caused by the Linear Phase setting on EQs. Setting the source synth to mono won't help here.

[@flukymaze]

some tracks have this weird yuee sound after some bass hits, i want to know how to create those

[@BinaryBorn]

At first I thought I have no idea what you mean. But then I remembered how much psytrance I've been listening to... there's no way I've never come across this sound! I think what you mean is the sound achieved by fading in kicks played really fast (1/32 or even 1/64) right before the end of the bar. Playing kicks that fast creates like a new distinct "growl-y" sound. Once you know what it actually is, you can't unhear it.

[@ISBEDM]

No quadrafuzz? I always put some sort of cross-over on my basses, to tweak their harmonic content. I even uploaded a quick example of this technique, my first ever (terrible) vid...

[@HalfGodHalfBeast]

I'm curious. I know you have a 101 but what is the synth behind you in this vid? Is it a moog sub phatty?

[@DashGlitch]

It’s a lil Phatty that I sold a while ago

[@Hlecktro]

That feel when you work on a song for a week, spending all of your time making minuscule sonic adjustments... Until you realize that your track is boring, over-engineered, and you spent more time sound designing the perfect clap transient, than actually making a song with a fun and enjoyable feeling

[@shroomadelics]

Hlecktro Yep i feel this 90% of time and then i restart a new one😂

[@oledahl.]

Hlecktro I’m a member of that club too! 😂

[@dorsia6938]

Yes sounds familiar

[@MuchachoC]

ahahahaha I just lost count of the times I've had an inspiration and started a track, and after 2 days tweaking the kick and bass I just forgot what the original idea was

[@DanRamone81]

probably it's not the best option to add stereo with the delay inside serum. There are many different ways, a good one is to add a top layer of high frequency with stereo width or use some plugins like melda Mstereospread that allows you to add width higher than a certain frequency

[@HavenGnetteryd]

How do you get your LFOTool då show that big waves? :p mine is just tinysmall

[@DashGlitch]

Turn up the volume :)

[@HavenGnetteryd]

@@DashGlitch haha 🤌 when im chabging volume dosent affect lfotool? Yours is showing le perfectos, my is wierd. Im sure its same settings?

[@DashGlitch]

@@HavenGnetteryd change the volume before LFOtool

[@HavenGnetteryd]

@@DashGlitch hahaha! Thats it! sry for the noob question and big up for the quick respons! keep up the good work!!

[@SnoozySage]

smile once ;)

[@smooth2ooth788]

I'm doing the exact same thing you are on serum and not getting the same sound. Psy bass is SO frustrating. Feels impossible

[@DashGlitch]

try a different note?

[@Ferrichrome]

Giant LFOtool isn't real, it can't hurt you Giant LFOtool: 2:18

[@DashGlitch]

LOL

[@theelephantofsurprise8564]

To the comment section: Something I find to be important is that when resampling, or any time when creating an audio file from a plugin (bouncing, freezing, resampling), be sure to use a dither plugin - Pauldither or Naturalize dither from Airwindows both sound great (and are free). Just load the dither plugin as the last in the chain then bounce or freeze. If your DAW outputs a 32bit float file you don't need to dither, but if your DAW outputs a 24bit file you should (so Logic users pretty much always have to dither). On a single file it's hard to tell the difference if you aren't sure what you are actually listening for, cumulatively over an entire track dither makes a huge effect. Truncation distortion doesn't sound like distortion - it sounds like flat lifeless audio without depth, fuzzyish or blurry - it especially effects the low end. If you bounce/freeze an element of your mix and swear it sounds different you are most likely hearing the effect of truncation distortion. Many people, including myself in the past, thought you didn't need to dither a 24bit bounce/render/resample. I was converted when I was shown the light by Chris from Airwindows when he made his case for dithering the monitor output. I downloaded his free plugin called Notjustanotherdither (also free, but he has a better one now called Dark, which is also free) and placed it as the very last plugin on my stereo out (sometimes called master buss) and started making music. Ok. Then after some time of building up a little section with kick, bass, percussion, and a harmony and melody part I turned it off; BOOM - flat blurry audio with almost no depth - this thing I had just made and liked was awful. I turned the plugin back on and viola! There was the depth, clarity, and imaging I had been looking for for years. Dithering the monitor output (you only dither if your DAC is 24bit, not 32bit like the new Steinberg interfaces) changes everything you hear, especially the low end. Among other things like saturation, one area I quickly discovered was improved was that bouncing/resampling/freezing with dither added up to a much better track with a lot more depth and clarity. The subject of dither and protocols to make better sounding music with it goes quite a bit deeper but this is a good starting point I think. Cheers To Dash Glitch: Thank you for all the help - love your stuff :)

[@sierra6music]

Every time i make a bass, theres too much high/mid frequencies

[@cifersinner4459]

A lot of content i dont know where to start

[@MrArnoWild]

Its a good tutorial but the title ... lets say i expected way more with this title. Hope ull get a bit deeper in another tutorials

[@DashGlitch]

What subjects do you think should be added then?

[@MrArnoWild]

Layering, bounce to audio, how to handle diffrent keys

[@DashGlitch]

I did discuss rendering and why I do it, I’ve also done several tutorials on layering however it’s not an absolute essential. How to deal with the key, just pick a key, this isn’t a bass thing.

[@MrArnoWild]

Dash Glitch So your right its the absolutli basstutorial after this you can do the killer bassline and you know everything u need to know 👌👌👌 ❤️❤️❤️

[@fredrik140]

When the secret to a song is sample accurate bass and nobody that is listening cares.

[@microfx]

I started to not follow you because I don‘t know your plugins - which you don‘t explain. lfO Tool? khS Plugin? And then it‘s essential.. damn

[@DashGlitch]

I did explain the plugins as i'm using them, but they're also pretty self explanatory, LFOtool is an LFO assignable to various parameters and kHs Gain is a gain

[@oledahl.]

MICROLABS LFO tool is such a widely used and well known plugin that if you haven’t heard about that one then this tutorial are too advanced for you and probably not aimed at your level either. The other VST you mentioned was new to me too but I just googled it and read about it, looked for a trial and that’s the answer to that problem. Anyway, I guess more people subbed because of this great tutorial than the few or only you who stopped subbing. 🤷🏻‍♂️😁