I’ve created for you a single audio file that illustrates the various steps involved in designing the target bass synth sound described in the main Cubase workshop article in SOS September 2025. The audio contains six short sections that repeat the same simple 1/8th note bass line, to demonstrate the various stages of building the sound using Retrologue 2.
A final further section demonstrates the end result of the same design stages for the sound using HALion Sonic.
www.soundonsound.com/techniques/cubase-14-create-driving-bass-sounds
The steps/sections are as follows:
a) Using Osc 1 to generate a simple low-frequency dominated foundation for the overall sound, with the filter Cutoff set at circa 50Hz.
b) As above, but with the Sub oscillator blended in to add a little extra low-end emphasis.
c) This demonstrates the settings used for Osc 2, and you can hear those here with Osc 1 and the Sub oscillator turned off and the filter Cutoff wide open. The sound has lots of mid/high-frequency content but has plenty of character to provide some grit and stereo width thanks to the multiple voices used and their detuning.
d) As above, so just Osc 2 can be heard, except that now the filter Cutoff is turned back down to around 50Hz. This provides a more subtle version of the same sound, with the emphasis on the lower frequencies but still providing character, saturation and a sense of stereo width. Note, however, that on its own it lacks a real sense of low end.
e) The finished version of the ‘low intensity’ sound design, with Osc 1, Osc 2 and the Sub oscillator blended, and the filter Cutoff at around 50Hz. It provides a solid low-end foundation but has enough character, saturation and stereo width to make it interesting.
f) The same settings as above, but now with the Mod Wheel modulation configured. In this longer section (the loop is repeated over eight bars) the Mod Wheel was used to move from the ‘low intensity’ sound to the ‘high intensity’ sound (created by opening the filter Cutoff and increasing the Distortion setting), and then back to the ‘low intensity’ sound again. Stranger Things-style scoring anyone?
g) The same extended version of the bass line can be heard again but, in this section, the sound itself is from the HALion Sonic version of the bass sound design process. While not exactly the same sound, it is in the same general ball park, and could be tweaked further as required.