Creating a bass mellody tutorial

Software / fruity loops

VST Plugins / Nexus,VANguard

Song Style / Trance

Tutorial Level / Beginner

files needed to download bellow.

 bass_mellody_files.zip ( 161.42k ) Number of downloads: 67


ok to start I am going to teach you how to create what's sometimes referd to as a bass mellody.

A bass mellody is used in most trance songs as its primary function is to fill out the song
by this I mean make the song sound a bit fuller to add depth to it.

a bass mellody is never made of more than a few note styles. see below



In the above image you can see that I have use in all a total of three different note styles.

Style one (a). is a standard length note consisting of two squares with a time lease of one second.

Style two (. is a half length note consisting of one square with a time lease of half a second.

Style three ©. is a quarter length note consisting of a quarter of a square with a time lease of a quarter of a second.

these three different style note when played alone can create a rather catchy bass mellody alone so don't be discouraged if
you think you cannot yet manage to use the three different styles of notes.

but for today I am going to teach you to use the three different types.

first in the above image you can see how this bass mellody is structured. if you cannot create this structure slone
the you can download the midi file here  midi.zip ( 338bytes ) Number of downloads: 21



but it does help to try and create this structure yourself as it gives the experience of creating a structure
like this.

now not all bass mellody's are created in this same structure infect some a really simple consisting of nothing more than
a few notes example below.


but beware whilst it can be difficult to manifest a good and full bass mellody settling for the simpler option can leave you
ending short. But another thing to take note of is that although a full song is more fulfilling a song that is to full will only sound
like a cat in a trash can. try never to over fill a song.

whilst creating a bass mellody there is one thing in particular that is considered to be my personal golden rule
when selecting a key voice (sound) for the bass mellody never ever pick a key voice (sound) that has a lower frequency
than that of your actual bass line as it will overtake your actual baseline and become the primary bass sequence whilst leaving behind
a rather wholesome amount of distortion. (distortion does not always occur in this case it can simply sometimes just sound plane old boring)

a good key voice (sound) that is a personal favourite of mine to use is what is refer to in most VST plugins as a pike (this will come under the plunk or pluck category)
they produce a rather fetching combination of sound working together through the bass mellody and the main bass line.
after creating the bass mellody and selecting a key voice (sound) for the mellody its just a matter of mastering between the bass mellody and main baseline.
once you have done that you have or at least should have a good mixing bass mellody and baseline that gives more fulfilment to your song.

as an example you can download below a small song loop that I have created with and without the bass mellody to notice the difference in fulfilment within the song.

this is with the bass mellody
 with_bass_mellody.mp3 ( 138.56k ) Number of downloads: 54


and this is without the bass mellody
 without_bass_mellody.mp3 ( 138.56k ) Number of downloads: 49


there isnt a massive diffence but you can here the diffence.

well i hope this tutorial helpd you keep your eyes open for more as they will be coming soon.

Fruity is *BLEEP*! Hard makin' for GOOD TRACK! I writing on Reason 2.5, FM Natives and VST plugins...

What's your audiocard?

my audio card is a pile o s£$*t it came standard when i baugt my laptop


well each one to there own

some do finde fruity loops rather annoying to use and rather limited in options but thats down to a general lack in fruity knolage but not the users fault
that i would put down to the makers of fruity loops as i personal dont thik it is advertised enough. you see whils fruity loops lacks the obveouseness of outher software for eas of use it does have the hidden gems that well whence found can bring alot moe to your tunes. but as i have seid befour each one to there own

reason is good to and sony acid a bit to plane for me but still verry usefull.

FL Studio is an awesome audio editing program.
However, it can be complex at times. Too bad it likely won't be dev'd for Mac OSX or Linux.

Nice tutorial, though.

This post has been edited by The_Deity: Jan 20 2008, 07:33 PM

yeah your rite it can get confusing at time but if you stick it out generaly you come out on top.

Yeah, I tried to get some music done in Fl studio. It's hard to get it done. Even controls are hard to configure. Mouse control is not properly done. And the major frustration is that you can enter the controll values manually. I haven't use reason so don't know much about it. Can you give me some hints about the Reason?