Build a Tech House bassline in Serum

First, listen to the sound.

These are the existing BS - Pulse and BS - Polaris bass preset previews from HYBRID. Listen for the attack, the length of the tail and how much space the sound occupies. Pick one to try with your own kick, rather than choosing by loudness alone.

What you are hearing: these are pack previews, not recordings of the pattern below. The exercise's tempo, notes and rhythm are suggested starting points; they do not describe the settings or MIDI used in those previews.

Set up one bass and one kick.

1. Create an instrument or MIDI track and insert your compatible copy of Serum. Load a bass preset from your installed HYBRID library, or use another bass sound you already own.
2. Create a separate audio or drum track for the kick. Put one kick on each quarter-note beat of a 4/4 bar.
3. Make a two-bar MIDI clip on the Serum track. Set a sixteenth-note grid and begin at 126 BPM, the tempo chosen for this exercise.

Serum is a synthesizer plugin, not part of the pack download. For the available formats and software requirements, check Compatibility. The WAV samples can be used independently of Serum; synthesizer presets need the plugin.

Write the rhythm before adding more notes.

Use the same pitch for every bass note at first: F, MIDI note 29. Octave labels differ between DAWs, so the MIDI number identifies the pitch. If your track is in another key, transpose the exercise to its root note.

The grid splits each beat into four counts: 1 e & a. Each box is one sixteenth note. K is a kick attack; B is a bass attack. Leave the other bass boxes empty, and make each bass note one box long.

K = kick · B = bass · a dot = no new note. This is an illustrated exercise, not a DAW screenshot. Download the original workshop MIDI exercise and assign an instrument in your DAW. This file is separate from the packs.

Why start here? The bass attacks fall between the kick attacks. Keeping one pitch and short notes lets you hear the timing clearly. A preset's release can still extend beyond a MIDI note, so listen to the audio tail as well as the piano roll.

Shape the groove, one change at a time.

• Listen with the kick. Loop the two tracks together. If the bass fills every gap, shorten its MIDI notes or reduce the amp-envelope release a little. Compare at a similar listening level and keep the version that leaves the kick clear.
• Keep the attacks defined. Check Serum's voicing. Mono limits the patch to one note at a time; legato changes how envelopes retrigger when notes overlap. The illustrated notes do not overlap, so this pattern does not rely on glide.
• Change the rhythm before adding layers. Move one bass note by one sixteenth, or remove one attack from bar two. Compare that variation with the original. Keep the kick unchanged so you can hear the rhythmic difference.
• Check the space between sounds. If kick and bass still mask one another, compare a shorter kick or a different bass register before reaching for more processing. Sidechain gain reduction is another option; adjust its recovery by listening to the groove, rather than copying a fixed value.

Once the rhythm works, compare Pulse and Polaris using the same MIDI clip. Match their apparent level by ear before deciding. Then try an octave change on the final bass note or a small filter adjustment. Save a new version of the preset so the original stays available for comparison.

Before you build the rest of the track.

• Does the bass keep its rhythm when you listen quietly with the kick?
• Do the gaps remain audible after the preset's release and any effects?
• Can you hear the difference between the two bars without adding another layer?
• Does the low end still work when you check the mix in mono?

If those checks work, add percussion and listen again in context. The aim is a useful starting groove, not an exact copy of a preview or a single preset setting that fits every track.