Your bassline decides whether people move to your track or not. It locks everyone in with your drums, and it is also where a lot of tracks quietly fall apart. So we took 17 famous bassline patterns from artists like Max Styler, Anyma, Notre Dame, Brunello and Fisher, rebuilt every one of them in Ableton Live and Serum 2, and looked for what they have in common.
1. Split your bass into sub and mid
The most reliable move across all 17 patterns: two layers, two jobs. The sub is a clean sine that stays simple and takes the harder sidechain. The mid layer carries the character, takes less sidechain and adds the movement the sub cannot. You can swap the mid from a realistic bass multisample to a gnarly ICanHasKick oscillator, and the sub never has to change.
Key settings:
- Sub: Serum 2, Osc A on a sine from Basic Shapes
- Mid: same octave, wavetable position pushed into a richer shape
- Sidechain: more ducking on the sub, less on the mid
- MIDI: keep the sub simple and let the mid do the talking
2. Put the groove on the second and fourth sixteenth
A bassline that only hits the downbeats sounds stiff, however good the sound is. Shift notes onto the second and fourth sixteenth of the beat and a straight pattern starts to groove against the kick instead of stacking on top of it.
Key settings:
- Grid: 1/16 in the MIDI Note Editor
- Notes on sixteenth positions 2 and 4, leave the downbeat to the kick
- Same notes, different positions, completely different feel
3. Vary the note length, then jump an octave
Every note the same length is what makes a bassline sound typed in. Mix short and long notes so the pattern phrases like a player would, then jump up an octave where the energy needs to move.
Key settings:
- Mix short stabs with notes held across two sixteenths
- Add upper notes on the offbeats for the lift
- Keep the jumps rare so they stay an accent, not a new melody
4. Call and response: leave a gap, then answer it
The bass does not have to fill the bar. Play a phrase, leave space, and let the drums or the lead reply before the bass comes back in. The gap is often the hook: the ear leans in to hear what fills it.
Key settings:
- Low layer holds a simple root pattern
- Upper layer plays short answering phrases in the gaps
- Phrase in one bar, answer in the next
5. Pick the scale for the mood: Phrygian is the gnarly one
Same pattern, different scale, different mood. Major sounds bright, minor is the moody safe default, and Phrygian adds the half step above the root. That flat second is where the dark, gnarly tension comes from, which is why it shows up so often in tech house and afro tech.
Key settings:
- Major: bright and happy
- Minor: moody, the safe default
- Phrygian: minor with a flat second, one half step above the root
- In Live 12, set the clip's Scale to Phrygian to see the right notes highlighted
6. Make the sub hit harder without more level
A sub that just sits there can feel weak even when it is loud. The fix is punch on the transient: give the sine a few harmonics, then add a quick pitch drop at the start of every note, the same trick that makes a kick hit.
Key settings:
- Wavetable editor: add a few harmonics to the sine so it reads on small speakers
- LFO 1 in Envelope mode, fast decaying shape, rate around 4.3 Hz
- Route LFO 1 to the oscillator's coarse tune (CRS), keep the amount modest
- Result: punch on the attack, no extra gain
Get the project behind all 17 patterns
Every pattern in this post comes from a project file in the Everything Bundle Collectors Edition. You do not just get the basslines: you get the full tracks, arrangements, drums, presets and samples across every genre, plus the courses that walk you through each one step by step.
Watch the full breakdown
See all 17 played with the kick and in context:
Reference artists
The patterns in the video are inspired by:
- Max Styler
- Anyma
- Notre Dame
- Brunello
- Fisher