With its gigantic basslines and seriously heavy beats, Bass Music is regarded as amongst the most challenging genres to produce, requiring a substantial amount of knowledge and technical precision. Thankfully, one of the top producers in the field, Seppa, has returned to the Producertech community to deliver his second set of tutorials on Advanced Bass Music Techniques, sharing his accumulated experience from the last 12 years of producing professionally, so help is very much at hand!

The course begins with a series of sound design tutorials, showing how Seppa creates his varied palette of melodic and textured sounds from which the bulk of his tracks are constructed. These include 2 serious bass patches, both built from scratch with Serum and then processed with a wide range of 3rd-party and factory DAW plugins, as well as a custom delayed and pitched FX composition, which uses a default synth patch used as the basis. The final sound design session then shows how to transform an old vinyl sample into digital gold!

In the next section, Seppa moves onto beats, beginning by designing the main kick and snare, then combining them with an assortment of percussion samples, which are sequenced into a trio of solid breaks. The beats are mixed and laid out in the arrangement, forming the backbone of the first main drop section.

The last part of the course sees Seppa guiding through a lengthy series of arrangement tutorials, starting by building a fat drop and 2 accompanying variations. Textures are applied from the sound palette, as extra layers for the drums and bass, whilst melodies are added to the last passage, to form the beginnings of the first breakdown. This is then developed into a second drop, which extends the ideas from the first half, and the arrangement is then completed and any mixing issues and improvements addressed.

Signing up to the course gives you immediate access to the streamed tutorials, as well as the Ableton Live project created on the course and a 100MB bonus pack of Bass Music samples from Loopmasters. Check out the sample module before signing up and listen to the arrangement from the course, both embedded on the course page, so you can see and hear for yourself the quality of Seppa’s music and broad depth of knowledge imparted in his tutorials.

Sample Module - Sound Design & FX Tips from Seppa - Module 1 Lesson 3 Excerpt

Course Breakdown

Module 1 - Designing a Complex Bass with Serum
This first module is loaded with insane techniques for making rude basses, as Seppa creates a custom bass patch in Serum and then processes it with a huge amount of modulated effects, culminating in the recording of a performance that lays down the first major addition to his sound palette.
Lesson 1 - Setting up the Oscillators in Serum - 13.33
Lesson 2 - Effects Processing Part 1 - 16.04
Lesson 3 - Effects Processing Part 2 - 15.17
Lesson 4 - Final Filtering & Recording - 16.07

Module 2 - Designing a Simpler Bass with Serum
The next bass sound, also made with Serum, is a more static one, developed using similar techniques only with the intention of creating something with a more consistent low end and less dramatic shifts in character and tone.
Lesson 1 - Setting up Serum and Adding Saturation & EQ - 14.30
Lesson 2 - Adding Filtering & Depth then Recording - 16.33

Module 3 - Additional Textures & Melodies
In this module, Seppa shares invaluable secrets for making captivating melodies and trippy FX, this time by transforming a default synth patch and old vinyl sample, again processed with a tonne of effects and laid down into further recordings for the sound palette.
Lesson 1 - Creating Textures with Delays - 13.29
Lesson 2 - Turning Vinyl Samples into Digital Gold! - 18.31

Module 4 - Kick Design
The Kick is created by layering synth tones with samples, mixed and processed together to form a punchy sound.
9.30

Module 5 - Snare Design
Seppa uses similar techniques to his Kick design, combining a synthesised fundamental with a drum sample and then processing with effects to create his hard-hitting snare.
12.08

Module 6 - Creating Beats
Combining his kick and snare with a smattering of percussion samples, Seppa works the sounds into a couple of serious drum breaks.
Lesson 1 - 4-bar Break 1 - 19.37
Lesson 2 - 4-bar Break 2 - 14.00
Lesson 3 - Mixing the Beats - 7.28

Module 7 - Track Arranging Part 1
Working the beats together with the sound palette, Seppa edits clips in the arrangement to come up with different sections for the first main Drop, embellishing with additional layers and automation and refining the mix as he goes.
Lesson 1 - 8-bar Drop 1 - 19.54
Lesson 2 - 8-bar Variation - 11.36
Lesson 3 - Finding a New Groove - 18.32
Lesson 4 - Developing the Groove - 18.47

Module 8 - Track Arranging Part 2
The arrangement is continued with the creation of contrasting breakdown and intro sections, and then developed further with a second pounding Drop!
Lesson 1 - Breakdown and Intro - 18.22
Lesson 2 - Drop 2 Part 1 - 15.42
Lesson 3 - Drop 2 Part 2 - 14.46

Module 9 - Track Arranging Part 3
Seppa reviews the completed arrangement, adding some final adjustments and improvements to the mix.
Lesson 1 - Final Mix Tweaks 1 - 21.01
Lesson 2 - Final Mix Tweaks 2 - 14.05