Studio Tips & Tricks For Audio Engineers

Trying to create a bass from scratch whilst working on a track can be hit and miss and can screw up your workflow.

If you’re struggling, try this. Save your project, take a little break then come back to a fresh DAW page with just a synth loaded - preferably one you are familiar with that you make basses with. Just sit there for an hour or two making patch after patch after patch. Experiment, Duplicate the same patch and tweak it, develop it, and by the end of your session you will have loads of patches or patch variations that you can flick though and work into the project you were trying to write a bass for.

Even if it’s just one bass that you end up using and scrap the rest, it’s worth it.

Separating the track writing process from the sound design process can be very powerful.

Here’s a tip that might help you gain more impact on your drops.

Firstly, you need to make sure that the intro and pre drop breakdown, or build up to the drop is working for the type of drop you have. This is something you might get right first time, or you may have to try different approaches. This does actually get easier as you gain more experience.

Once you have that in check, try lowering all of your intro sounds anywhere between -3 to -6db. I usually go with -6db. If you have intro sounds that are in the drop, then I suggest duplicating the channel, naming it accordingly so there’s no confusion, and then lowering it. It may take you a short time to do this, but it’s worth it. A quick way to do this which makes it easier to make adjustments to your intro level is to take all of your intro sounds, and duplicates, and group them. This way you can add one utility plugin on the group and control the level that way until you are happy with it.

This technique will give your drop so much more impact.

If you do this, let me know, and if you try it, let me know how it works for you.