The following tutorial comes courtesy of Soundfly’s free online course, Synth Bass for Bass Players. Feel free to check this and our other free series, Demystifying Synths, to deepen your knowledge of how synthesis works. So, we’re going to take a listen to a classic electroclash track from Fischerspooner’s debut album, #1, and break down the patch…
There’s no getting around it, and the science is in: Bass is crucial for giving your songs both impact and coherence. It also, apparently, hits our emotions in just the right way. The upshot of all this is that you’d be selling your songs short of that emotional pull if you don’t bolster your tracks with…
Big, powerful bass is an important part in most recordings. But it’s also very easy to let it get out of hand and muddy up the mix. In this article, we’ll look at key ways to manage your bass for a better sounding track. Hearing accurately is the first battle. One of the toughest things…
+ Learning to record and mix at home? Soundfly’s online courses on mixing, producing, and beat making can help! Preview them all for free and subscribe for full access. One of the most essential mixing tips when working with low frequencies is to exercise the “less is more” approach. These days, low frequencies are more pronounced than ever…
+ Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. Whether you’re making pop, hip-hop, or EDM, chances are your music is going to include sub-bass. For those who aren’t familiar, sub-bass frequencies are low-pitched notes below approximately…
Learning to play music should be more of just that — playing! Why not make everything fun? With that in mind, here’s a new miniseries exploring how to make your synthesizer of choice do whatever you want: from burping and farting to shooting out lasers (sonically, of course)! Why? Because laser sounds are actually pretty ubiquitous in music today.…
As you move from your electric or upright to synth bass, you may start to wonder how to support your group or artist while still expressing the arc of the piece. In many situations, we bass players rely on dynamics, feel, and attack to inform our navigation through a piece of music. When I’m building a…
Many techniques and resources help you deepen your rhythmic skill set, and there’s no better classroom in which to learn the art of groove than on stages in front of audiences (and beside experienced rhythm section masters). But the second-best classroom might be inside your own headphones! Take a listen to some of these classic…
If you have a synth, odds are it has a CV, or “control voltage” input. In more modern synthesizers, like those from Dave Smith Instruments, digging into menus will allow you to assign control voltage inputs to just about anything: pitch, filter, LFO, etc.; in older models, there might just be one CV input that’s hard-wired…
Bruno Mars has made a career off tribute after tribute to artists and sounds of the past. While his success is undeniable, his approach to utilizing classic sounds and stylings is often touted as merely that of a copycat. Still, he always manages to deliver party beats with a clever contemporary twist and a wink of…
