How to Create Six Essential Bass-lines for House and Tech House

The Follow Bass is one of the safest and most musical basslines you can write. It simply follows the root notes of your chords or main musical idea, supported by a dedicated sub layer.

This approach doesn’t require complex sound design. A pure sine wave, or a gently saturated sine, is usually all you need. By copying your chord progression and extracting only the root notes, you create a bassline that plays long, sustained notes and provides a warm, rolling foundation for the track.

Typically, this bass is low-pass filtered between 80–120Hz with very little harmonic content. A small amount of subtle saturation helps it translate better on smaller speakers, while light sidechain compression keeps it working cleanly with the kick.

This bassline works perfectly in deep house, melodic tech house, and any track where the low end should support the music without drawing attention to itself.

The Progressive Tech House Bass is bouncy, plucky, and full of movement. It’s a modern sound heard in tracks by artists such as Max Styler and Kyle Watson, sitting right between groove and melody.

This style is commonly built using Sylenth, with a saw or square wave and a fast-decaying filter envelope to create punch. Keeping the filter fairly low helps retain warmth, while light distortion adds presence without harshness.

The groove comes primarily from the MIDI. Short, syncopated notes interact closely with the kick, often with subtle slides into longer notes to add momentum. The bassline should feel like it’s responding to the drums rather than simply following them.

Saturation is used to shape tone, and multiband compression can help control the low-mid energy. The result is a bassline that feels melodic and energetic while still holding solid low-end weight.

The 16th Bass is one of the fastest basslines to create because it relies more on modulation than MIDI programming. In many cases, the entire groove is built from a single sustained note.

Using Serum, a basic saw wave is passed through a low-pass filter, with an LFO set to a 1/16 rhythm modulating the filter cutoff. This creates the rolling, pulsing bass movement commonly heard in modern tech house and melodic techno.

The character of the groove can be completely transformed by changing the LFO shape. Ramps, curves, and stepped patterns all produce different rhythmic feels. Adding distortion introduces harmonic weight, and strong sidechain compression allows the bass to breathe around the kick.

This approach is ideal for driving, hypnotic tracks where you want instant groove without spending time writing complex MIDI patterns.

This Classic House Bass is rooted in late-80s and early-90s house music, where basslines were simple, direct, and groove-focused. Instead of layered sounds or complex modulation, this style relies on a single square wave shaped by one envelope.

Using a square wave gives you that hollow, woody tone heard in early Chicago and New York house records. A single envelope controls both the volume and the filter, creating a tight, plucky response without unnecessary complexity.

The envelope is set with a fast attack, short decay, little or no sustain, and a natural release. This gives the bass its punch and rhythmic clarity. The filter is usually low-pass, kept fairly closed, with little or no resonance. The goal is weight and groove rather than brightness.

The MIDI pattern is where this bassline really comes alive. Off-beat notes, repeated patterns, and subtle variations create the swing and funk that defined early house records. Rather than following the chords exactly, the bass often establishes its own rhythmic identity within the groove.

Minimal processing is key. A touch of saturation or analog-style drive can add warmth, but the sound should remain raw and honest. This bassline works perfectly for stripped-back house, acid-influenced tracks, and anything inspired by the foundational era of house music.

The Sting Bass uses Max for Live’s Sting 2 device to generate sharp, syncopated tech house bass patterns automatically.

Sting 2 is placed before a synth such as Serum or Sylenth and works by combining scale selection, note ranges, timing divisions, probability, and rhythmic masks. Rather than programming MIDI manually, the device creates evolving bass rhythms that often lead to unexpected and highly musical results.

Small parameter changes can completely transform the groove, making Sting 2 a powerful idea-generation tool. Once a strong pattern emerges, the MIDI can be captured and refined manually.

For the sound itself, short stabs work best: fast decay, low sustain, and sometimes a subtle pitch envelope for extra snap. Saturation adds aggression and presence. This style is especially effective for energetic drops and sections that need movement and intensity.

The Sampled Bass approach involves taking the bassline from an existing track and turning it into a usable, playable element in your own production.

There are two main methods. The first is filtering: using EQ to remove everything above roughly 120–150Hz, leaving behind the low-frequency content of the original bassline. While not perfectly clean, this technique often adds character that works well in house and tech house.

The second method uses modern stem separation tools such as RipX, LALAL.ai, Serato Stems, or Ableton’s built-in separation. These tools allow you to extract a dedicated bass stem that can be re-pitched, chopped, converted to MIDI, or layered directly under new drums.

Because these basslines already come from finished records, they naturally contain groove, movement, and tonal balance. They can be layered with your own sub, distorted, or used purely as inspiration for writing something new. This technique is ideal when you want instant character and a more lived-in feel.

These six bassline types form the foundation of house and tech house production. By understanding how each one works and where it fits, you can build almost any groove in the genre.

Presets, MIDI files, and project files for all six basslines are available inside the Raven Studios Discord and membership area.

Thanks for watching, and we’ll see you in the next session.