Bass House Production Tutorial – From Start to Finish

Bass house is one of the most exciting genres in electronic music right now. The combination of heavy bass, bouncy grooves, and festival energy makes it a favourite of producers and fans alike. In this tutorial, I will walk you through the entire process of making a bass house track from start to finish.

Understanding the Bass House Sound

Bass house sits at the intersection of house music and bass music. The tempos typically range from 124 to 130 BPM. The beats are four-on-the-floor like house music, but the bass sounds are much more aggressive and distorted, drawing influence from dubstep and electro. Artists like Jauz, Habstrakt, Joyryde, and Skrillex have pushed this sound into the mainstream. The key elements are punchy kicks, heavy bass lines, vocal chops, and energetic builds.

Setting Up Your Session

Start a new project in your DAW at 126 BPM. This is a good middle ground for bass house. Set your time signature to 4/4. Create tracks for kick, snare/clap, hi-hats, bass, mid bass, lead, FX, and vocals. Colour code everything so you can navigate quickly. Organisation matters, especially as the arrangement gets complex.

Drum Patterns

Bass house drums are straightforward but need to hit hard. Place your kick on every beat (1, 2, 3, 4). Use a punchy, short kick with a clean sub thump. The snare or clap goes on beats 2 and 4. For bass house, a layered snare with a tight body and a sharp transient works well.

Hi-hat patterns

Hi-hats give bass house its groove. Start with eighth notes, then add sixteenth note variations to create movement. Open hi-hats on the off-beats add energy. Try velocity variations to make the pattern feel more human and less robotic. A common technique is to accent the off-beats slightly louder than the on-beats. This creates that bouncy, swinging feel that defines bass house grooves.

Adding percussion

Layer in additional percussion like rimshots, shakers, and ride cymbals. Keep these subtle. They add texture without competing with the main drum elements. A ride cymbal playing a simple pattern through the drop adds sparkle and energy.

Bass Design

The bass is the star of bass house. You typically need two layers: a clean sub bass and a gritty mid bass.

Sub bass

Create a pure sine wave sub bass. In Serum, use a Basic Shapes wavetable set to a sine wave. No effects, no modulation, just a clean sine wave. This provides the low-end foundation below 100 Hz. Keep it in mono and make sure it is tuned properly. The sub bass should follow the same notes as your mid bass.

Mid bass

This is where the character comes from. Bass house mid basses are typically distorted, aggressive, and full of harmonic content. In Serum, start with a saw or square wave. Add unison voices (3-5) with moderate detune. Run it through heavy distortion, either in Serum or with an external plugin. Filter it to taste. The mid bass should sit between 100 Hz and 3 kHz. Common techniques include FM synthesis for metallic tones, wavetable modulation for movement, and heavy compression to keep it punchy.

If you want professionally designed bass house presets that nail this sound, check out the Dirty Bass House Vol 1 pack from Preset Drive. It includes sub basses, mid basses, leads, and FX designed specifically for bass house production.

Chord Progressions

Bass house chord progressions tend to be simple but effective. Minor keys dominate the genre. A common approach is to use two or three chords that alternate throughout the track. The chords are often played as stabs or short, rhythmic hits rather than sustained pads. Try a simple i – VI progression in a minor key. For example, in A minor: Am – F. Repeat this and you have a foundation that works for most bass house tracks. Keep the chords in the mid to upper register so they do not clash with the bass.

Arrangement Structure

A typical bass house arrangement follows this structure. Start with an intro of 16-32 bars, building energy with filtered drums and atmospheric elements. Then a build-up of 8-16 bars with risers, snare rolls, and increasing tension. The drop is 16-32 bars of full energy with all elements playing. Then a breakdown of 8-16 bars to give the listener a breather. Second build-up, second drop with a variation, and an outro of 16-32 bars to wind down.

The drop

The drop is the most important part. Everything should hit at once. Kick, bass, snare, and lead all coming in together creates maximum impact. Use a one-bar or half-bar silence right before the drop for contrast. This silence makes the drop feel even bigger when it hits.

Vocal Chops and Samples

Vocal chops are a staple of bass house. Take a vocal sample, slice it into short pieces, and rearrange them rhythmically. Pitch them up or down, add effects like delay and distortion, and use them as rhythmic elements. A good vocal chop pattern can become the hook of your entire track. Keep the phrases short and punchy, one or two syllables per chop.

Mixing Tips for Bass House

Sidechain your sub bass and mid bass to the kick drum. This is essential for creating space. Use a fast sidechain with about 3-4 dB of reduction. High pass everything that does not need low end. Compress your drum bus to glue the drums together. Use parallel compression on the bass to add density. Keep your stereo imaging tight in the low end and wider in the high end.

Sound Design Starting Points

Having a library of quality presets saves enormous time when producing bass house. Instead of spending hours trying to design the perfect bass, you can load a preset that gets you 90% of the way there and focus your energy on writing music. The Preset Drive shop has bass house specific preset packs built by producers who understand the genre. Each preset comes with mapped macros so you can easily tweak sounds to fit your track.

Final Thoughts

Bass house is all about energy, groove, and weight. Keep your drums tight, your bass heavy, and your arrangement dynamic. Reference professional tracks regularly to keep your production quality on point. And most importantly, have fun with it. The best bass house tracks are the ones where the producer was clearly enjoying the process.

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For a complete overview of bass house sounds and preset recommendations, see our Bass House Serum Presets guide.