How to Write Amazing MIDI Bass Lines (in 7 Steps)

7 steps to write amazing MIDI bass lines, no matter what kind of music you're making. Your bass will sound exciting, authentic and greasy!

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⏰ Chapters:

Intro 00:00
Adding Movement with Passing Notes 02:42
Syncopation on a Bass Line 03:49
Rests: Letting the Bass Notes Breathe 04:58
Ghost Notes: The Secret Sauce of Amazing Basslines 05:43
Pitch Bends and Slides: MIDI Envelopes 06:30
Humanization of MIDI Dynamics 07:39
Humanization of The Bassline's Timing 09:00
Grooves: Adding Swing To Your Bass Line 09:31
Chord Inversions and Basslines' Feeling 10:20
Contrasting Bass Lines 12:02

📝 Video Transcription:

Have you been writing basslines that sound like this?

In this video I'll walk you through my seven steps to write amazing MIDI bass lines, no matter what kind of music you're making. Your bass will sound more exciting and authentic — or how I like to call it "greasy" —, like this:

I just applied all the seven techniques to that initial bassline and turned it into something a lot more interesting, right?

If you want to learn how to do that and boost your music production skills, keep watching this video.

Hey, how are you? I'm Thales, pop music producer, and today you're going to expand your bass line vocabulary. No more straight 8th notes or sustained root notes that last a whole bar.

Now, you don't need to use all these techniques at once like I did in the previous example. I myself usually don't, unless I'm going for that funky groove.

Sometimes just alternating between the root, third and fifth notes of the chord is enough to make an interesting bassline.

But it could be so much better with these seven techniques:

Passing notes, Syncopation, Rests, Ghost notes, Pitch bends and slides, Humanization of timing and dynamics and Chord Inversions.

For this demonstration, I'll use the Native Instrument's Scarbee Pre-Bass sample library which has this cool sound of a bass I've been playing for over 15 years.

But if you don't have any Bass Library, you could use a Synthesizer or the samples that come with your DAW. It's entirely up to you and the kind of music you make.

If you're in Ableton Live, there's this Electric Bass Sampler preset that sounds alright with some equalization.

Okay, we'll start with the basics. Say we're working on a simple chord progression like I-V-vi-IV — a progression that's perfect for pop music.

In the key of C major, that's C, G, Am, F.

Our starting point will be just sustained root notes that last a whole bar each. That's as simple as you can go with bass lines.

And it's played against a straightforward drum loop. The cheesiest drum loop ever, just so we can focus entirely on the bass and make it interesting.

Sounds kind of boring, right?

Let's add some movement with passing notes.

These are notes that we'll play for a short duration in weak beats or offbeats. So they won't draw attention, they won't get any spotlights.

It's okay to use notes that don't belong to those chords and even notes outside of the C major scale.

As long as they help connect the important notes, which we'll still play on the strong beats.

In this example, I added a D and an E to connect the C on the first bar with the G on the second bar.

Then I added a short G# which is a chromatic note. It doesn't belong to this scale, but it adds a nice flavor, microtension. It's spicy. And it connects the G to the A.

[...]

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