Reese Bass Tutorial in Xfer Records Serum

Introduction:

Serum is a popular software wavetable synthesizer often used in EDM, pop, hip-hop, cinematic, and experimental music. This can be an intimidating piece of software as it has many dials, knobs, and graphs. A Reese bass is a dynamically shifting low frequency sound known for its deep and buzzing texture. This bass is first found from the 1988 Detroit techno track "Just Want Another Chance" by Kevin Saunderson aka Reese. It's most commonly heard in electronic music genres like drum and bass, dubstep, and jungle. I chose to create this tutorial as it’s a classic sound to synthesize and isn't hard to create, making it a fun and exciting project for beginner to intermediate music producers.

This article found from edmprod.com served as a visual instruction manual for anyone who has not used the serum. This is an important place to start as this tutorial is limited to the scope of reese basses. Attached is an image of what serum looks like without anything loaded to make noise, a blank canvas.

These two options are the pieces of computer software used to synthesize sounds.

Serum; Industry standard, what this tutorial is based on.

System requirements:

1. a 64-bit operating system (Windows 10+ or macOS High Sierra+/Big Sur+ for Apple Silicon)
2. a compatible VST, AU, or AAX host
3. This is usually a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) such as Ableton Live, Logic Pro, Pro Tools, garage band, and FL Studio
4. SSE2-capable CPU
5. Setup can be found at this link.

Vital; Free wavetable synth, good for trying wavetable synthesis without the financial commitment. Has a standalone plugin.

System requirements:

1. a 64-bit operating system, specifically Windows 10 or higher, macOS 10.12 or higher, or Ubuntu Linux 18.04 and above
2. A gpu that runs OpenGL 3 or higher
3. VST/VST3, AU, and LV2 and as a standalone program
4. No DAW is necessary, however, the free programs Cakewalk by BandLab (Windows), GarageBand (macOS, iOS), Waveform Free, and Audacity would let the user build out the rest of a song without it costing any money.

In the top left add two saw waves to both wavetables 1 and 2. The blue button turns on the wavetable and a small selection can be found under the basic shapes menu option. Saw waves are warm in sound and saturated wavetables and often serve the foundational basis for reese basses.

Increase the unison for each wavetable by clicking the number 1 above “unison” and dragging up, turn the detune down until, by using the labeled detune knob, until the sound cleans itself up. This adds the stereo width and phase shifting iconic to reese basses whilst starting to introduce the unique characteristics of your bass. How much phase shifting is subjective and something that should be played around with.

Fine tuning, abbreviated “FIN”, allows the wavetables to be played against each other slightly out of pitch and adds more character. This is subjective and should be done to the likings of each producer. The Octave, abbreviated “OCT”, was moved to minus three to put the base in the lower frequencies, usually the lowest harmonic sits between 40-120hz.

To the right of the wave tables a low pass filter is applied usually between 600-7000hz. Turn the filter on by clicking the Blue Square in the top left corner and in the upper right corner click the arrows until one says MG low. Adjust the cut off, resonance, drive, and fat to personal preference. This is used to keep basses in the lower frequencies and save space in the sonic spectrum for other musical elements.

By clicking the 3rd tab on top labeled “fx” a window with the + fx button on the left will open. Use this button to add whatever effects sound good to you, I used a touch of dimension, a touch of chorus, moderate distortion, and quick compression.

Adjust sound with ADSR;

Increasing the attack and release will make the sound start and stop smoother. ADSR stands for attack, decay, sustain, and release shaping a sound's characteristics over time.

Glide with portamento;

In the bottom right adding legato and long (200+ ms) portamento will create the iconic gliding between notes. Portamento means a slide from one note to another.

Sub bass stability by removing the fundamental;

Hovering your mouse over each wavetable will pop up a green pen, click it.

Once at this screen click the arrow that says "all" to the right.

Click remove fundamental.

Do this for both wavetables, then click the green box next to “Sub” to turn on a sub base. This sub base will replace the fundamental of the saw waves. This will gain your reese base clarity and sustain whilst reducing a bit of the phasing character

Conclusion:

Reese basses are easy to synthesize with digital wave tables synthesizers. They serve as a starting place for beginner and intermediate music producers to start to learn dubstep, jungle, and drum and bass production. There is a lot of subjectivity and stylistic preference that goes into the production of a reese bass, and even more that goes into fitting it into the mix with the rest of a song. These instructions taught the basics of the Reese bass production and provided space for producers to learn their own style.