How to Make a Reese Bass in Serum

What is a Reese Bass?

The Reese bass is one of the most important sounds in electronic music. Named after Kevin Saunderson’s 1988 track “Just Want Another Chance” released under his Reese Project alias, the sound is created by layering two or more detuned saw waves together. The slight pitch difference between the oscillators creates a thick, phasing texture that moves and evolves constantly.

The Reese bass became a foundation of drum and bass in the 1990s and has since spread across dubstep, UK bass, garage, and bass house. Despite being a relatively simple sound at its core, the Reese is endlessly versatile. Subtle changes to detuning, filtering, and processing can produce vastly different results.

Why Serum is Ideal for Reese Bass

Serum’s visual wavetable engine makes it the best synthesiser for building Reese basses. You can see exactly how the detuned oscillators interact, watch the waveform phase, and understand why the sound moves the way it does. This visual feedback is invaluable when learning sound design.

Serum also provides precise detuning controls, flexible unison modes, and a comprehensive effects chain that lets you process the Reese internally without relying on external plugins.

Step 1: Setting Up the Oscillators

Start with Oscillator A set to a basic saw wave. This is your foundation. Set the octave to match the range you want your bass to sit in, typically around C1 or C2 for most bass music genres.

Enable Oscillator B and set it to the same saw wave. Now detune Oscillator B slightly. Start with a detuning of around 5-10 cents. This small pitch difference is what creates the phasing movement that defines a Reese bass.

The amount of detuning controls the speed of the phasing. Less detuning creates slow, subtle movement. More detuning creates faster, more aggressive phasing. For a classic DnB Reese, keep it subtle. For a more aggressive sound, push the detuning further.

Step 2: Using Unison for Thickness

For a thicker Reese, enable unison voices on one or both oscillators. Start with 2 voices and a small detune amount. This adds width and density to the sound without losing the core Reese character.

Be careful with unison. Too many voices at wide detuning can make the sound washy and unfocused. For bass music, 2-4 unison voices with conservative detuning usually works better than 7 voices spread wide.

Step 3: Filtering

A low-pass filter is essential for shaping the Reese. Set the filter type to low-pass with 12dB or 24dB slope. Start with the cutoff around 500Hz-1kHz to keep the sound focused in the bass range.

Add subtle filter modulation using an LFO or envelope to create movement. A slow LFO sweeping the filter cutoff gives the Reese its characteristic rolling quality. Sync the LFO to your track tempo for rhythmic movement.

Experiment with filter resonance. A small amount of resonance adds a peak at the cutoff frequency that can give the Reese more presence and bite.

Step 4: Processing and Effects

The raw Reese from the oscillators is just the starting point. Processing is where the sound gets its character:

Distortion – Light tube saturation adds warmth. Harder distortion pushes the Reese into neuro territory. Start subtle and increase to taste
Chorus or Dimension – Adds width and movement to the mid-range. Keep it subtle for bass music to avoid phase issues in the low end
EQ – Roll off the extreme lows if you plan to layer a separate sub bass underneath. High-pass around 80-100Hz
Compression – Serum’s built-in compressor can tighten the dynamics and add punch to the Reese

Step 5: Genre-Specific Adjustments

The same Reese foundation works across multiple genres with different processing:

Drum and bass – Keep the Reese rolling and rhythmic. Use tempo-synced filter modulation. Layer with a clean sub. Process with moderate distortion for grit
UK bassline – Warmer filtering with less aggressive distortion. Add garage-style wobble at slower rates. The Reese should feel round and musical
Dubstep – Heavier processing with more distortion stages. The Reese can be pushed further into aggressive territory for dubstep drops
Bass house – Tighter envelope with sidechain-friendly dynamics. The Reese needs to pump with the kick pattern

Speeding Up Your Workflow With Presets

Building a Reese from scratch teaches you the fundamentals, but starting from a professionally designed preset can save significant time. A good Reese preset gives you the oscillator setup, filtering, and processing already dialled in, with macros mapped to the most useful parameters for quick customisation.

Preset packs that include Reese bass patches: