Creating a NeuroFunk Bass Sound - Sound Design tutorial

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In this post I'm going to discuss the basic principles of making a Neurofunk bass sound. For those of you who don't know what Neurofunk is, it is a type of drum and bass music that is characterised by dark sounding synths and tight, punchy drums with complex rhythms and structures. If you type 'Neurofunk' into YouTube you can find loads of good examples of what sort of bass sound I'm talking about. These principles are not specific to certain software or VSTs (plug-ins for your DAW), they can be applied to any kind of synthesis. Please note this guide assumes you have some previous understanding of computer music production and sound design, if the following confuses you then I suggest you research some more and become familiar with the concepts I'm discussing below.

Firstly you want to start with a clean, harmonically rich waveform, such as a sawtooth wave. Next you want to detune it slightly to add some movement, this can be done by adding some spread or increasing the unison in your synth. 

Next, add some filter movement either by simply automating an EQ or using an AutoFilter plug-in, I prefer to use band rejects, Notch boosts and low pass filters.

After this, separate your frequencies into lows, mids and highs. This is essential so you can process each one separately and create a good, tonally balanced sound. You want to be aiming for clean lows, warm mids and gritty highs.

Now add some distortion and saturation, this will help massively to add more harmonics and make the sound even richer and fuller than before. You can use any type of distortion, such as tube or a wave-shaper. 

Finally, and some extra FX such as reverbs, a phaser, comb filter or chorus. These will help to add a bit of shine and sparkle to your sound, and really bring it out.

This last part is optional, but highly recommended. You want to print (bounce) your sound down so it is flattened into a single audio file. Then, simply repeat the last 4 steps and further process your sound! This is known as resampling, and can help massively to get the aggressive, crunchy sound you are looking for.

If you liked what I wrote, let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading.