Drum and Bass Bassline

A drum and bass bassline is a half-time idea under a double-time break: the drums race at 174 BPM while the bass moves at a relaxed 87, holding roots, rolling around the kick and stabbing between snares. Four styles are written out below in F minor. Veena, a free AI DAW with a personal music producer built in, writes them too: CoProducer hears your break first, then writes the bass into it.

The break the bass sits on

16ths   1   e   &   a   2   e   &   a   3   e   &   a   4   e   &   a
Kick    X   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   X   .   .   .   .   .
Snare   .   .   .   .   X   .   .   .   .   .   .   .   X   .   .   .

The two-step: kick on 1 and the "and" of 3, snare on 2 and 4. Every line below is built around those four hits. Note names are what you draw in Veena's piano roll; the synth basses sound an octave below the drawn note, so F2 is the 43.7 Hz F that moves a sound system.

Four drum and bass bassline styles

Liquid · Sub Bass

16ths          1   e   &   a   2   e   &   a   3   e   &   a   4   e   &   a
Bar 1 (Fm7)    F2  —   —   —   —   —   —   —   .   .   F2  —   —   —   —   Eb2
Bar 2 (Dbmaj7) Db2 —   —   —   —   —   —   —   .   .   Db2 —   —   —   —   G2
Bar 3 (Abmaj7) Ab2 —   —   —   —   —   —   —   .   .   Ab2 —   —   —   —   F2
Bar 4 (Eb)     Eb2 —   —   —   —   —   —   —   .   .   Eb2 —   —   —   —   G2

The root lands with each kick and holds, two full beats the first time and just over one the second, and a single 16th on the last step leads into the next chord: Eb down to Db, G up to Ab, F down to Eb, G down to F. Sub Bass is a pure sine, so the chords and pads above it keep all the colour.

Roller · Dirty Sub

16ths   1   e   &   a   2   e   &   a   3   e   &   a   4   e   &   a
Bar     F2  —   .   F2  .   .   F3  .   F2  .   F2  —   .   .   Ab2 C3

One bar, repeated for 16. It hits with both kicks, fills the gaps with a pickup on the "a" of 1 and an octave on the "and" of 2, and never touches the snare. Ab and C at the end climb the chord and fall a fifth back to F. Dirty Sub saturates everything above 90 Hz, so the roll still reads on a laptop.

Neuro · Growl Bass

16ths   1   e   &   a   2   e   &   a   3   e   &   a   4   e   &   a
Bar 1   F2  F2  .   .   .   .   F3  Gb2 .   .   F2  —   .   .   Gb2 F2
Bar 2   F2  F2  .   .   .   .   Ab2 Gb2 .   .   F2  —   .   .   Eb2 E2

Short 16th pairs that answer the drums: a stab with the kick, silence under the snare, a stab after it. The G flat a half step above F is the Phrygian menace, and the E natural at the end pulls the loop back to F. Growl Bass puts a moving filter and detune on every note, so even a 16th snarls.

Jump-up · Wobble Bass

16ths   1   e   &   a   2   e   &   a   3   e   &   a   4   e   &   a
Bar 1   F2  —   —   F3  —   —   F2  —   .   .   F2  —   —   Ab2 Bb2 —
Bar 2   F2  —   —   F3  —   —   F2  —   .   .   Eb2 —   —   Db2 C2  —

Dotted 8th, dotted 8th, 8th: the 3-3-2 bounce that jump-up is built on, with the octave doing the talking. Bar 1 climbs, bar 2 falls to C, the fifth, and the loop drops back onto F. Set Wobble Bass's LFO to 8ths at this tempo, and every held note wobbles in time.

Want the classic detuned growl instead? The Reese bass page has four long-note lines built for it.

Why drum and bass bass works like this

Half time underneath, double time on top. At 174 BPM a bar lasts 1.4 seconds. A bass that moved at the drums' speed would turn to mush; phrasing at 87 BPM gives each note time to be heard.

The snare gets its own space. None of these lines lands a new note on 2 or 4. The snare cracks through an empty moment rather than fighting a bass attack.

Sub and mid are two jobs. The lowest octave carries weight and should stay steady; the movement lives above it. That's why a Reese gets a Sub Bass layer, and why a big wobble or growl often does too.

Write it with CoProducer

At daw.veena.studio, sign in with Google and paste:

Make a 174 BPM liquid drum and bass track in F minor over Fm7, Dbmaj7, Abmaj7 and Eb, one chord per bar: a two-step break with the kick on 1 and the 'and' of 3 and the snare on 2 and 4, rolling 16th hats; a Sub Bass line that holds each root through the first half of the bar, hits it again with the second kick and walks into the next chord on the last 16th; Electric Piano chords; a Soft Lead melody in the drop. Intro 32 bars, drop 32, break 16, second drop 32, outro 16.

CoProducer sets 174 BPM, writes the break, then reads its kick and snare notes before placing the bass. You get 3 options for the bassline; hover to hear each against the drums and press Enter on one. Then steer it in words: "make the bass a neuro growl in the second drop", "add a slide into every fourth bar".

Lock the movement to the tempo

Growl Bass and Wobble Bass ship their LFO at 4 Hz, which is an 8th at 120 BPM, not at 174. Open the clip's synth panel, find the LFO card and set Rate:

Then MOVEMENT sets how deep it goes. For slides, overlap two notes in the piano roll; Growl Bass glides 30 ms by itself, and the Glide knob on the same LFO card stretches it.

Where drum and bass basslines fall apart

1. Busy bass under a busy break. One of them has to be simple.
2. A new note on the snare. Move it a 16th either side.
3. Drawn too low. An F1 on a synth bass sounds at 21.8 Hz, below any system. Draw octave 2.
4. A wobble off the grid. At 4 Hz on a 174 BPM track, the wobble drifts against the drums.

The break itself is in drum and bass drum pattern grids, and the whole track on how to make drum and bass. The bassline generator writes new lines against any break you have, after the chord progression generator sets the harmony.