#127: How to Make an Offbeat Synthwave Bass Line in Logic Pro X

Ever faced the frustration of making an authentic synthwave bass sound? Maybe you want to write a synth bass line, want tips for better synth bass, or even just how to make synthwave bass in Logic Pro. Then check out EP 127 of the Inside The Mix podcast.

Embark on a digital storage odyssey with me as I recount the strategic shift from Dropbox to Google Drive, opening up a treasure trove of cost savings and top-notch security measures, including dark web surveillance of personal info. 

For the musically curious, I'm laying down the groove with a step-by-step guide to crafting that quintessential offbeat synthwave bassline in Logic Pro, answering a burning question from a previous podcast guest and notable Instagram musician.

As "Inside the Mix" undergoes a visual revolution, I'm rolling out the red carpet for audience participation. Don't miss the chance to send in your audio production quandaries for a spotlight moment on the show, because your question could be the next big discussion point for our passionate community of creators and audio aficionados.

Submit a music production or mixing question and feature on the podcast: https://www.speakpipe.com/InsideTheMixPodcast

Transcript

Intro: 0:01

You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, Mark.

Marc Matthews: 0:04

Matthews, hello and welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast. I'm Mark Matthews, your host, musician, producer and mix and mastering engineer. You've come to the right place if you want to know more about your favourite synth music artists, music engineering and production, songwriting and the music industry. I've been writing, producing, mixing and mastering music for over 15 years and I want to share what I've learnt with you. Hello, folks, and welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast. As always, if you are a new listener, please do hit that follow button on your podcast player of choice and if you're watching this on YouTube or listening to it on YouTube, make sure you hit subscribe and that notification bell so you get notified anytime there is a new Inside the Mix podcast episode this week.

Marc Matthews: 0:47

I've been trialling different cloud storage solutions so previously, for the past two or three years, I've been using Dropbox and I've been using for the paid version and I'm paying monthly and I really do like it. It's got some great features and it's suited my purpose, but the monthly outlay of it. I was thinking once again similar to what I did in the previous episode with Canon and Tidy Cow. I was thinking is there something cheaper that would do the same job, because I don't need all the bells and whistles I was getting with Dropbox, and I did a bit of research. I put a poll out, actually online, to see what people thought, and I looked at Mega. Mega is great, it's cost effective, the encryption is great on it as well, but it didn't have the facility to have my files as online only. I wanted to conserve storage space on my Mac Studio, so then I looked at Pcloud. Now Pcloud allows me to do that. I can make files online only and I can sync them to my drive those folders and files that I want to use frequently, which was great.

Marc Matthews: 1:51

But then I found the upload of it was so slow. I did read somewhere Now this was on a Reddit for a few years back when I was doing my research that it uploads one file at a time. I was like, no, that's too slow, too slow. So then I looked at Google Drive and I've been using Google Drive forever and it turns out that it's cost effective and you can upload, so it's online only. So I've made the jump to Google Drive. So I'm no longer going to be using Dropbox and I've gone all in on Google Drive and also, to be honest with you, I was having folders and files in different storage spaces and it makes sense to have them all in one place. And also, the only big difference between Google Drive and Dropbox for my workflow is that I cannot set up a request file link. So when clients artists send me their projects to work on, I usually send a link that they can then drag and drop their files into. So with Google Drive, I'm going to have to do something different. I'm going to have to set up a shared folder and then send that out for them then, too, dump their files into or folders into, whatever is there sharing zip folders, et cetera. So, yeah, after much deliberation, I tried out mega P cloud and I was using Dropbox.

Marc Matthews: 3:02

I've now gone all in on Google Drive and also with Google Drive. I didn't know they did this, but there's a facility in there where it can track your email address, date of birth address, et cetera on the dark web and you can see where your details have been involved in a compromise, and I put my email address in there that I've had since I was about 12, and a few others and that's the only one that's been compromised, and I could see that Map my Run, twitter and a few others MySpace, last FM have all had compromises and my details have gone out. But luckily I've changed everything to FAA, biometrics et cetera. Some all secure. But, yeah, another great thing about Google Drive. So I'm not selling Google Drive, but I just thought I'd share that with you. My experience of late. So I've gone all in with Google.

Marc Matthews: 3:44

So this episode is another audience question. So this was submitted by a listener, so your question will be answered in an episode of the podcast. Plus, you can give yourself a little shout out as well. To do that, what you need to do is submit an audio message via speak pipe. I'll put a link in the episode description. You don't need a specialist microphone, you don't need any software. All you need is your mobile phone and just click on the link and you can submit a question of up to 30 seconds. Alternatively, if audio isn't your thing, then you can DM me on Instagram at insidethemixpodcast, or you can email me inside the mix podcast at gmailcom, and remember to include a link to where the audience can find you online. And today's question was submitted by a podcast alumni, elea or Elea, I can't pronounce, remember how to pronounce it. Anyway, you can find the producer in question on Instagram underscore, underscore E-R-L-E-A underscore, underscore to go and check out his music. So here is the question.

Marc Matthews: 4:50

So I came across this short on YouTube of yours, myself, hoping to find the answer I'm looking for on how to make one of those offbeat synthwave baselines, but I just can't figure out for the life of me how to do it. You know what I'm looking or talking about the one same offbeat bassline every synthwave song has. I found this video from some other guy. I did his exact steps multiple times but end up with a different result, different tempo, and I can't figure it out for the life of me. Would you happen to know how to recreate or create this type of offbeat bassline? Yes, so I've got a few options. Let's give it a go. Let's create an offbeat synthwave bassline using only Logic Pro native plugins.

Marc Matthews: 5:34

So in my session here for those of you who are listening to this episode I've got a drum, a basic drum pattern here, and I'm using the Logic Pro drummer track, and I've got the alternative synthpop Duncan drummer here with a really basic drum groove going on. Then for my bass, I'm using Alchemy. So I'm gonna open Alchemy and you can see here from the bass patches. I've chosen the 80s synthpop bass and I'm gonna give it a rating of five because I think it's fantastic and I haven't played around with this at all. I've just left it strictly as 80s synthpop bass. Then, in the editor window, in the piano roll, as it were, actually, if you press E it will open. I've penciled in some MIDI notes. It's in the key of A minor, this one here. Obviously you can do any key, but each MIDI note is exactly one bar in length and it sounds like this ["Bass and Bass"].

Marc Matthews: 6:33

Okay.

Marc Matthews: 6:33

So what I'm gonna do now is I'm gonna add the Logic Pro arpeggiator in the MIDI effects section in the channel strip, and it's set to one sixteenth in terms of rates, so it's synced to the tempo which I'm fine with. I'm gonna leave it on the note order of going, ascending, in this instance, as smooth as you can change it. Let's have a listen to what it sounds like ["Bass and Bass"]. Okay, not quite right, it's not on the offbeat. So what I'm gonna do is this I'm gonna change the pattern in the arpeggiator at the bottom here to grid, and then what I'm going to do is I'm just going to draw in some velocity for notes 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Marc Matthews: 7:14

One was already there and I'm actually going to turn off the first note and it sounds like this there we go. It's on the offbeat. So what I'm going to do now is I'm just going to play around with these velocities. I'm going to drag the second note down and then you get that sort of pumping effect and you can customize this to your taste. I kind of like to have like a step. If you view this, it looks like a set of stairs. Let me drag it down a bit more.

Marc Matthews: 7:51

So you can create that sort of sidechain effect without actually sidechain in anything. So it sounds pretty cool. I'm also going to boost the octave as well too, and let's have a listen. There we go A really quick way to create an offbeat synth wave bass line. This is the second approach I would take if I were using, in particular, alchemy, and it also has more flexibility in terms of what you can do with the sound. So let's give it a go.

Marc Matthews: 8:22

So I've turned off the arp in the midi effects here and once again it's back to basics. Okay, so I'm going to open alchemy and in the bottom you've got this arp tab here and if I click on that you can see here you've got the steps again, the note pattern, and you can actually just drag it up and down like you can in the arpeggiating. You can see here I've already got it set to that stepped sequence I had before, and the first note is off. As you can see, I'm dragging up and down for those of you who are listening to this on the podcast Player of Choice. So notes two, three and four. So I've got that offbeat pattern going on again. In fact, I'm going to drag two down and you'll notice that when I initiate this, you'll get the same effect. So I'm going to turn the mode to up, much like I had in the arpeggiated just now, and it sounds like this Pretty much the same, right?

Marc Matthews: 9:22

Well, it is exactly the same, but I'm using the arp in alchemy this time, and what you can also do is you can boost the octave as well, much like you can do in the arpeggiated and the midi effects. Pretty cool, right? One thing I really like in here is this swing option. Now, you've got to tailor this into taste, but I think it sounds really cool. So I'm going to bring it in a touch and you'll see what I mean. That's going from 50% to 59.67%, but I think that sounds really, really cool. Adds a bit of like movement, a bit of vibe to it. You know, then, what I would do is this I go to effects and I'm going to leave the EQ off, but it's got this bass enhancer effect here, which I really like, and I've got the fat setting on it, so I'm going to turn that on For the audience listening. It's got an amount dial and I just boosted the amount to 60% and you can also change the tuning as well, but I like the fact it just adds it makes it bigger, right? It's no longer this sort of like weak Well, weak's the wrong word, but it's just got it's fatter, isn't it's phat? Just makes it bigger, right. And then I'm going to add a bit of reverb to it as well, and let's have a look and see how that sounds. So what would this reverb is? I've just added a bit of pre-delay to it. I brought the size down to 35%. It's got a high cut of 4Hz and 4,000Hz. I'm going to drag that up a bit. I'm going to talk about 8000. The low cut I'm going to drag to 225. And I'm just going to bring this into the mix. Let's have a listen. I think that sounds pretty cool, right. And that's just using Alchemy on its own. I mean, what you could also do here to make it even more interesting is add some stereo width to it. But in essence, what I've done here is I've used the ARP feature in Alchemy, much like, well, pretty much exactly the same as I did using the MIDI effects. The only difference is I added this bit of swing to it as well, using this swing dial, and then in effects I've got the bass enhancer 60%, with fat enabled, and then I've got reverb here as well, only at 8%, really, really subtle, and I think it sounds really cool. Let's play it again. Not bad, give it a go, folks.

Marc Matthews: 11:59

Just to recap two ways to create an offbeat synthwave bass line in Logic Pro using native Logic Pro plugins. First way, using the ARP in the MIDI effects in the channel strip, and then you just have it to 1.16. And then you just silence, or you bypass, as it were, that first step in grid mode and then you can change the octave as you wish. Second way is to do exactly the same, but use the ARP feature within Alchemy and remember that swing. I really like that swing. I think that sounds really cool, but you've got to be conservative with it and then use the effects in Alchemy as well. The bass enhancer sounds great, and the classic reverb too, and there's a few other bits and pieces. But native plugins sound great. Do not sleep on them. I think they're fantastic. So before you go folks don't leave me just yet Just want to let you know a couple of things.

Marc Matthews: 12:49

One the podcast artwork will be changing over the next few weeks. I am dialing in SEO. I want to get the podcast out to as many people as possible, and I saw a post on Twitter where a podcaster said post your artwork and I will guess what your podcast is about. Only looking at your artwork. I didn't submit inside the mix, but I went through and I looked at the artwork and I thought, actually I can see what you mean.

Marc Matthews: 13:16

Inside the mix is great and if you look at it and you know what the podcast is about, great. But if you didn't and you just saw the artwork, it could be about cooking, it could be about concrete and it could be about anything else mix related. So I'm going to be changing the artwork so it explicitly says what the show is about. So if you see the artwork change, don't panic. It's still the exact same show. I'm just making it easier for people who discover the podcast to know exactly what it's about, just by looking at the artwork.

Marc Matthews: 13:48

And if you follow the podcast on my socials on the podcast socials and also if you're on the mailing list, I'll be sending out three versions of new artwork and getting your feedback. So look out for that and the final one, as always with these production episodes, if you want to be like my friend Elia here, elia and you have a burning music production or mixing question or mastering question, even submit an audio message via speak pipe using the link in the description of this episode and again, you don't need any fancy equipment. You can use your phone microphone. You don't need to download anything. Sign up for anything and maximum of 30 seconds. If audio isn't your thing, like I've done in this episode, send me a DM on Instagram at insidethemixpodcast, or email me insidethemixpodcast at gmailcom. Remember to include a link to where our audience can find you online and I cannot wait to have even more of your questions on the podcast.