Bassline Generator

Write and perform four beat bass lines that will align to actual harmony on this virtual instrument. Control it with your computer keyboard (for speedier editing), or just use mouse/touch screen for interaction with the grid. This makes it easy to feel which rhythms and notes create a groove, then record them.

Start with the musical context at the top of widget. Using the Key selector transposes the whole phrase for any of the 12 chromatic options. Then use the Pitch set drop-down to select the natural minor, major, dorian, or mixolydian mode. This selection determine which notes appear in the neck diagram and how chord qualities is calculated.

How to Use the Bass Line Tool

A right-hand tone selector also alters the color of the bass sound. It offers options for fingerstyle for a standard plucked tone, round thumb for a smoother sound, and picked edge for a sharper attack. An eighth-note feel slider adjust the rhythm from Straight to a laid-back swing or a heavy Shuffle. As you drag this slider the spacing between the offbeat notes changes but not the tempo.

With the Master volume slider and Tempo setting, you can adjust how loudly the instrument plays or at what speed it plays. The tempo setting gives you everything from a fast driving line to a slow head nod groove. The volume setting is for the simulated drum kit as well as the bass notes. It will remember these settings while editing your phrase so get these in place early on to keep the sound level consistent while you work.

For the bass line, you have the chord progression that will always run along with the four-beat harmony sequence. The four slots represent the four beats within the measure. The dropdown menus allow you to alter the diatonic positioning of chords. For every alteration, the system automatically works out the root, third, and fifth according to the key and mode chosen.

You build your melody on this Eight-step bass phrase grid. Each of the eight steps equals an eighth note. Click a step to pick its pitch using either scale degree buttons in the editor panel or the neck diagram below. You can visualize how your notes shape with visual runway above the grid that indicates whether your line moves logically up or down the neck.

For example, the Position-one bass neck is presented in a conventional four-string format. Just click on any of the dots and it will assign that note to your current step selection. The inner ring identifies notes within your selected scale, so keeping diatonic is simple. Small numbers beneath the dots provide suggestions for ergonomic fingerings.

The Selected-step workshop then hones in on the character of each note. Here, you have exact information on what note is being played. You can also see how it relates to existing harmony through the readout of your Pitch, Scale function, and Chord job. You can quickly jump between different scale degrees at the push of a button, so you don’t have to hunt around the fretboard using the Place a scale degree buttons.

The Attack shape buttons lets you define how each note is played. Select Held for a sustained note, Punched for a short accent, Ghosted for a quiet percussive hit, or Slide-in for a glissando from the previously selected note. There’s also a Step weight slider which determine the loudness/velocity of that particular hit. Clicking on the Space button will let you turn off any step completely.

You can use the Drummer’s pocket section to create a basic drum part to play with your bass. Use the Kick, Snare and Closed hat buttons to switch on each element of the drum pattern and make up a backbeat. Use the Bass behind drums slider to add a small delay to the bass note. This lets it sit comfortabley over the drums, giving a slightly laid-back, relaxed feel. If you want to just listen to how well the bass is timing without the kit, toggle the Pocket drums button to mute the kit.

Each of the Grooves has a blueprint that instantly gives you inspiration on how to play your bass line. Try Chromatic walk-ins if you want a way to connect the dots from one chord to another. Try Octave syncopation if you’re looking to add a more rhythmic hook. Try the Root, fifth engine if you just need a solid starting place. Each recipe will match your existing chord progression and rebuild all 8 steps to match. Always restore anchor groove or undo last edit to back up to where you were before.

Hitting the Launch bass runway button will run through your full eight-step phrase. As it is playing back, each step will be indicated on screen in time with the sound being played. If you want to stop playback at any point you can hit the Cut the runway button. Your changes won’t be lost and you’ll be able to make tweaks to a rhythm or note before launching again.

Alternatively, you can use your computer’s keyboard to work around all of the widgets too. To choose a step from the phrase, press the appropriate number keys (1, 8). Arrows left and right will take you back and forth through the steps. Up and down arrows will change the pitch of the chosen step upwards or downwards on the scale. If you need a quick option to switch from a note to a rest or vice versa, press the Space bar. To cut audio, hit the Escape key, and to start the runway, press the G button. Use your standard Enter and Tab keys to navigate the sliders and dropdown menus.

Listen to what it sounds like when you change the feel slider from Shuffle to Straight and find that even though it’s using the same set of notes, it’s grooving in an entirely new way. Play around with different Attack shapes that give more human feel to your patterns. Slide-in works especially well when linking roots between chord changes.

If you find that your favourite line is not working out well in the chosen key, simply use the transpose function. All the notes will change pitch and stay in relationship with each other, so you can try it out in another key without having to create the pattern again.

Start simply with phrases that use only root and fifth notes to keep your timing steady. Once you are confident enough, explore octave jumps or chromatic approach notes. You’ll see how this visual feedback on the runway and neck guides you as to why some lines sound disjointed and others smooth.

You’ve got thirty two undos in history, so feel free to mess around with it. There is an undo button that takes you one step backwards if you make a misstep. There’s also a restore button which resets everything to the default anchor groove and starts you off afresh.

Listen to how the bass plays off the drum pocket. Slide the layback to get the bass to pull back into the kick drum or push forward into it. The little details of when things change can be hugely important to the feel of the groove. It’s like a sandbox where you can play around with rhythms and bass lines. All the notes are right, just selected differently based off how you want to support the harmony. Play around with it and use it to develop your sense of diatonic motion or to come up with some bass lines.

Pick a step and then choose a note on the neck to begin. Click “Launch bass runway” to hear it. Then tweak the controls to create a groove that gets you moving.