What is a Reese Bass?

You’ve heard it a million times. The low grumble that fills the extra space in a long breakdown. The razor-sharp distorted lead that cuts through the club at 4 AM on a DnB night. To the surprise of many, it’s all the same exact sound, just processed differently: the Reese bass.

While it may seem complicated, the Reese bass is actually quite simple. In fact, it’s little more than two or more detuned saw waves that engage in phase cancellation with one another.

Phase cancellation takes place whenever two signals occupying the same frequency fall out of “phase” with one another.

In the case of the Reese bass, you end with a brooding type of bassline that’s great to be used as a background ambiance, a lead, or even the top layer of sub-bass when done properly.

In the case of the Reese bass, you end with a brooding type of bassline that’s great to be used as a background ambiance, a lead, or even the top layer of sub-bass when done properly. While the Reese bass had a House music heyday in the 1990s, it’s recently come to popularity once again with the rise of bass. Holy Trap Mary Nexus Expansion is a free preset pack that contains 193 trap presets for Nexus 2. These high quality presets cover a variety of bass, arps, bells, keys, leads, strings, brass and a lot more.

I'm new to producing overall, and i've been trying to get a smooth synth bass in nexus. It sounds right and everything, but it's just not loud enough, and the output goes up and down; i want it to stay consistent. The radical styling of the Nexus range takes a new approach to delivering the best fidelity and coverage for club environments. Virtual Arc technology within the mid-top enclosure forms a common acoustic centre at the rear of the array, allowing the same aural experience to be had by all that are in the throw of the Nexus. Steinberg – Model E. The Model E is a useful 3 oscillator bass station capable of pumping out some.

While the Reese bass had a House music heyday in the 1990s, it’s recently come to popularity once again with the rise of bass-driven House tunes in the charts.

As a result, many producers wrongly believe that this is a sound that’s been borrowed from Bass Music. In reality, the Reese bass has been one of House music’s most prized possessions since the late 1980s.

Creating asub bass can be very easy: Open your favorite (bass) synth, turn on a sine ortriangle oscillator and boom, you got a nice and clean sub bass.

Sometimes,a sub bass like this won’t do, though – you might need a little more bombast. Forthis case, I’ve created the following list where I’m collecting free sub bassVST plugins and sample libraries.

Note: Make sure to use headphones or quality speakers to listen to the audio examples. Sub frequencies do not translate well on phone and laptop speakers.

Xsub

Format: VST, 32 bit + 64 bit
OS: Windows, Mac

Audio examples:

Xsub is a free808 sub bass VST brought to you by Hexloops and SimplySounds. According toHexloops, Xsub was created “using analog synthesizers, digital sine waves,guitar amps and other fancy gear.” A total of 36 different bass sounds areincluded, each spanning two octaves. I was surprised by how much the includedsounds differ in character. Some of the sounds include an 808-ish click in thebeginning, while others are smooth bass sounds. Many of the presets are more onthe distorted side – and while this means that Xsub might be a little dirtierthan some might like, this is also what gives some of the sounds their uniquetone and presence.

Xsub has abuilt-in ADSR envelope, a panning knob and even a reverb. There’s also a pitch-modulatingLFO.

You can download Xsub from the Hexloops website.

X-Eight Lite

Format: VST/AU, 32 bit + 64 bit
OS: Windows, Mac

Audio examples:

X-Eight Liteis the free lite version of X-Eight, an 808 and sub bass VST/AU plugin createdby Thenatan. While the paid plugin contains over 1000 presets, X-Eight Litecomes with a total of 80 sub bass and 808 presets. That’s a good amount ofpresets for a free plugin! What’s even better is that these sounds are all verydistinct, creative and fun to play with.

For some,the main issue with X-Eight Lite might be that many of the sounds are not subbyor subtle enough and will steal quite a bit of attention as they contain plentyof high frequency content. However, depending on the style of music you’remaking, this might also be a good thing – these samples bang hard!

If you wantto remove some of the high frequency content, you can use X-Eight’s built-inlow pass filter. Besides attack and release, you can also dial in the rightamount of glide. This feature makes X-Eight Lite even more useful for creatingengaging beats.

There’sanother issue with this particular preset selection if you’re looking for subbass for layering purposes. Most of the included samples feature a prominentkick or click sound in the beginning. While you can lengthen the attack or pulldown the filter to remove some of the kick/click sounds, this will also shapethe sound in a way that might not be practical for your purpose.

Sub Bass Nexus 3

I alsodiscovered an odd behavior that you should be aware of when using the filter:When the filter is completely at 0 and you start turning the knob up slightlywith your mouse, the knob will be sluggish and not move but the filter will, infact, open. (Note: I don’t know if this bug exists just in the context of mysetup or whether it’s reproducible somewhere else.) This is not a big problem,but it’s good to be aware of it.

To get X-Eight, you’ll have to add it to your cart on the Thenatan website. You can decide what you want to pay ($0 is okay as well) and are then redirect to a page where you have to type in your email address. After you’ve submitted your information, you will receive a download link in your email inbox.

Alternatives

Not happy with the selection? Here’s more:

• Beatmaker 808 Bass Module 2 Lite (VST, AU / Windows, Mac / 32 bit + 64 bit)
• subfreak (useable sound but GUI is TINY) (VST / Windows / 32 bit)

About thispage

Sub Bass Nexus V2

I decided to focus page exclusively on plugins and libraries that have their strength in the sub range. There are many other bass synths and libraries with a wider range of bass tones that I will cover in other articles.

Nexus Sub Bass Presets

Over to you

Sub Bass Nexus 4

If you knowof any other cool sub bass plugins, I’d love to hear from you! Write a commentbelow or get in touch here.