How to Write Future Bass Songs

You want emotional chords, glassy vocal chops, and drums that hit like a plot twist. Future bass is the genre where lush harmony meets cinematic energy. It is emotional music for headphones, festival sets, and late night playlists. This guide gives you the songwriting, production, and mixing moves to create tracks that sound modern and feel personal. No theory cloister, no nerd flex, just practical steps and hilarious analogies to get you from idea to finished track.

Everything here is written for millennial and Gen Z producers who want results fast. Expect raw examples, plug in recommendations, and real life scenarios that make complex terms make sense. Acronyms and technical words will be explained like you are texting your best friend five minutes before a gig.

What is Future Bass

Future bass is a style of electronic music built around warm chord progressions, detuned synths, rhythmic vocal chops, and punchy percussion. It blends emotional songwriting with electronic production techniques. Think big chords that feel like finding an old love note, vocal slices that giggle and cry at the same time, and drums that have both bounce and weight.

Future bass tracks often sit between 140 and 175 BPM when played double time, but the groove can be flexible. Producers like Flume, San Holo, and ODESZA brought the sound into the mainstream. The genre is not a rigid rule set. It is a palette. Use it to paint feeling with chord motion and timbral drama.

Tools You Need

You do not need expensive gear or a room that looks like a spaceship. Here is what actually matters.

• DAW which stands for digital audio workstation. This is your software studio. Popular options are Ableton Live, FL Studio, Logic Pro, and Cubase. Pick what feels fast for you and learn the shortcuts.
• Wavetable or subtractive synth like Serum, Vital, or Massive. These make those thick, detuned chords and squelchy bass textures.
• Sampler such as Simpler in Logic or SImpler Sampler in Ableton for vocal chops. Many DAWs include a native sampler that is fine for starters.
• EQ, compressor, reverb, and delay basic mixing moves keep your track clear. Stock plugins are fine to learn the craft.
• Reference tracks pick three songs you love and import them at low volume to match tonal balance and loudness.

Real life analogy

Think of your DAW as your kitchen. A cheap stove can make a Michelin meal if you know your recipes. A fancy synth is a nice knife set but not required to cook a banging dinner. Start with the kit you have and upgrade when you know what you are missing.

Core Elements of a Future Bass Song

Future bass is built from a few repeatable elements. Master them and you have 90 percent of the sound.

• Chords lush and often voiced in close harmony.
• Vocal chops small samples sliced and pitch shifted into melodic phrases.
• Lead synths bright, detuned, with movement from LFOs and filters.
• Bass sub that sits under the chords and mid bass that gives character.
• Drums punchy kicks, snappy snares, shuffled hi hats, and transient percussion.
• FX and transitions risers, reverse cymbals, tape stops, and pitch bends to animate form.

Start With the Chords

Chords are the emotional engine of future bass. The first rule is to pick a progression that states feeling before anything else. You can write a great future bass track with four chords repeated creatively for three minutes.

Progression ideas

Try these as starting points in any key. Play them on keys or piano sounds first. Simplicity is power.

• I major to vi minor to IV major to V major. This is emotional and familiar.
• vi minor to IV major to I major to V major. This flips the mood into something yearning.
• I major add9 to V sus2 to vi minor. Use add9 or sus chords to create modern color.

Voicing tips

Voicing means how you place notes of a chord across the keyboard. Future bass uses close voiced clusters and wide spreads. Try a close triad in the mid range with a doubled top note an octave up. Add a small melody note as the highest voice to give the chord a singing edge.

Real life scenario

Imagine you are texting a crush and you are trying not to sound desperate. The chord progression is the mood in the message. A close voiced chord is like typing a short curious message. A wide spread chord is like sending a long paragraph that says everything at once. Use both in the song to create push and pull.

Chord movement tricks

• Use suspended chords to delay resolution and then resolve into a major or minor. This creates emotional tension.
• Move the bass note while keeping the top of the chord the same. This gives harmonic motion with a stable melodic anchor.
• Use inversions to make the chord progression feel smooth. Try root position then first inversion then second inversion and listen for voice leading that sings.

Sound Design for That Signature Future Bass Texture

Sound design is where future bass gets its personality. You will build thick, detuned synth pads, evolving leads, and textured mid bass. Here is a workflow that actually works.

Synth layering approach

Think of your main chord sound as a sandwich. Each layer does one job.

• Top layer bright character. Use a detuned saw or wavetable with a little noise. This is the thing the ear recognizes in headphones.
• Middle layer body and movement. Add a filter envelope or LFO that modulates the cutoff to make the sound breathe.
• Bottom layer warmth. A pad or soft synth with slow attack and long release sits under everything to glue the chords together.

Detune without going nuts

Detuning gives width. Turn on two or three voices and detune slightly. Do not detune so much that your chord becomes a smear. Think of detune as a gentle nudge that makes harmonics glow.

Use envelopes and LFOs like seasoning

ADSR stands for attack decay sustain release. It describes how a sound evolves when you press and release a key. Set a snappy attack for clarity and a medium release for chords so they overlap tastefully. An LFO, which stands for low frequency oscillator, can modulate pitch, volume, or filter cutoff to create wobble and movement.

Real life analogy

ADSR is like opening, chewing, savoring, and swallowing food. LFO is like tapping your foot to a steady rhythm while you eat. Both shape how memorable the meal is.

Make the synth sing

Automate filter cutoff across the chorus. Move the reverb size and dry wet on different sections. Add slight pitch bends at the ends of phrases to make chords feel like breaths. This micro movement is what separates a static loop from an alive performance.

Vocal Chops That Sound Like Human Emotions

Vocal chops are often the melodic focus in future bass. They create ear candy and emotional punctuation. You can use a micro vocal from a friend or royalty free sample. The production trick is how you slice and process it.

Simple vocal chop workflow

1. Choose a short vocal phrase or one word that has character.
2. Import the sample into a sampler and slice into 16th or 8th note pieces.
3. Map slices across a small range so you can play them melodically like an instrument.
4. Pitch shift and time stretch small amounts to create variation without losing natural texture.
5. Add formant shifting to keep the human quality while changing pitch. Formant shifting moves the character of a voice without changing its speed.

Processing chain for vocal chops

• Light EQ to remove low end with a high pass filter at around 120 Hz.
• Compress gently to even out dynamics.
• Delay with ping pong for stereo interest.
• Reverb with a short pre delay to give chops space without washing them out.
• Glue with a saturator or tape emulation plugin. This adds harmonic richness.

Real life scenario

Think of vocal chops like texting sounds. A single chop is like a heart emoji. When you string them into a melody you create the equivalent of a paragraph that says I miss you but in a sound packet.

Bass That Holds the Whole Track Together

Bass has two jobs. First, give low end power so the chord hits feel heavy. Second, sit out of the way so the chords have space. Split your bass into sub and mid layers to achieve both.

Sub bass

Sub is a sine or low triangle tone that provides weight. Keep it simple. Use a low pass filter to remove harmonics and tune it to the root of the chord. Sidechain the sub to the kick so the low end breathes.

Mid bass

Mid bass is where character lives. Use an FM patch or a distorted saw with a bandpass filter. Give it an envelope so it attacks fast and decays quickly. This gives punch that sits above the sub and below the chords.

Tuning and phase

Always ensure your sub is mono and in phase with the kick. Use a phase meter or listen in mono to avoid cancellation. If the low end feels muddy when you collapse to mono you must fix phase or EQ.

Drums and Groove

Future bass drums are less about straight four on the floor and more about bounce and pocket. The drums should have snap and groove.

Kicks and transients

Use a punchy kick that fits the tempo. Layer if needed a clean click on top to cut through. Kick should have a round low and a short tail for clarity. Tighten the envelope to avoid long decay that competes with bass.

Snares and claps

Layer a snare with a clap for texture. Add reverb to the clap for width and then use a transient shaper to keep the click loud. Sidechain a little of the snare to the chords on strong backbeats so the hit feels decisive.

Hi hats and shuffle

Hi hats create the groove. Use triplet based shuffles or offset 16th patterns to make the track swing. Humanize velocity slightly and nudge some hits off the grid so the drum pocket breathes. Add subtle rolls for tension before drops.

Pocket tip

Record a clap or snap with your hands on a table and layer it. Human recorded transients give life that samples alone do not always provide.

Arrangement and Structure

Future bass songs reward contrast. You want big peaks and reflective valleys. Here is a reliable arrangement template you can steal and twist.

• Intro 16 to 32 bars with a motif and filtered chords.
• Build to first pre drop with vocal chop teaser and riser.
• Drop or chorus 16 to 32 bars with full chords, drums, and vocal lead.
• Verse or breakdown 16 bars with reduced elements to create space.
• Second drop with variation and added counter melody.
• Bridge with stripped elements, maybe a vocal verse, then final big drop.

Think of the drop here like the emotional chorus in a song. The intro is the hook tease. The breakdown is the scene where you explain the feelings and add a human voice. Use automation, filter sweeps, and rhythmic changes to keep repeated sections fresh.

Mixing for Clarity

Mixing future bass is about making space for lush chords while keeping punch. Here are the essentials.

EQ strategy

• High pass pads and vocal chops to remove unnecessary low end. This clears room for the sub.
• Cut muddiness around 200 to 600 Hz on chord layers if the mix feels boxy.
• Boost presence around 3 to 6 kHz on vocal chops for intelligibility.

Compression and sidechain

Sidechain is the technique of lowering the volume of one element when another hits. In future bass you sidechain chords to the kick or to the snare to create rhythmic breathing. Use a slow attack and medium release to preserve the transient of the chord.

Stereo field

Keep the sub mono. Pan chord layers wide but avoid phase problems. Use small chorus effects and stereo widening on the top layers but check in mono often. If your track collapses in mono and disappears you will have problems on club systems.

Loudness

LUFS stands for loudness units relative to full scale. For streaming targets aim around negative 14 LUFS for balanced loudness across platforms. Mastering louder reduces dynamic contrast and can make future bass feel lifeless. Preserve the dynamics of the drops and the space of the quiet parts.

Mastering Basics

Mastering should be subtle if you mixed well. Apply gentle multiband compression for glue and a limiter to raise perceived loudness. Reference industry tracks and do not push the limiter until the mix is mangled. If you need to boost more than 3 dB with the limiter you likely need to revisit the mix.

Common Mistakes and Fixes

• Too much low mid makes the chords muddy. Fix with a surgical cut around 250 to 400 Hz.
• Vocal chops are boring because they are static. Fix with automation on pitch, formant, and filter cutoff.
• Kick fights the sub because they are out of phase. Fix by aligning transient timing and checking in mono.
• Arrangement repeats without variation so listeners lose interest. Fix by adding a counter melody or changing the vocal chop rhythm on repeat.
• Overcompressed mix kills emotion. Fix by breathing with sidechain and reducing limiter gain reduction.

Workflow to Finish Tracks Faster

1. Create a one sentence emotional idea for the track. Turn it into a short melodic motif.
2. Build a four bar chord loop and lock it. Layer sound design on top until it sings.
3. Create a vocal chop idea and map it to a MIDI keyboard so you can jam melodies fast.
4. Make a simple drum loop with kick and snare. Add hats and fills to taste.
5. Arrange quickly with the template above. Remove anything that does not serve the feeling.
6. Do a rough mix. Export stems and test on different systems like car, phone, and headphones.
7. Master or ask a mastering engineer. Sleep and then listen fresh the next day for final tweaks.

Gear and Plugin Recommendations

These are options that help. None are required. Learn concepts first and then buy tools that solve a real problem you encountered.

• Serum or Vital for wavetable sound design.
• FabFilter Pro Q for surgical EQ. Stock EQs work fine too.
• Valhalla Room or Valhalla Vintage Verb for lush reverb tails.
• Soundtoys Decapitator or a saturator for color and grit.
• iZotope Ozone if you need a mastering toolkit. Learn one module at a time.

Real Life Examples and Tiny Edits That Change Everything

Example one

Problem: The drop sounds thin. Fix: Duplicate the main chord synth. On copy A low pass around 1.2 kHz. On copy B high pass at 600 Hz with chorus and detune. Blend so the low feels warm and the top feels sparkling.

Example two

Problem: Vocal chop sits behind the chords. Fix: Sidechain the chop very slightly to the kick and add a short delay with the delay set to quarter beats. The delay will create stereo tails and bring the chop forward.

Example three

Problem: The second drop feels like the first drop. Fix: Introduce a countermelody or change the rhythm of the vocal chop. Alternatively add a sustained lead that holds long notes for emotional contrast.

Exercises to Build Your Future Bass Muscle

Chord Sculpting Drill

Pick a four chord progression. For 20 minutes make 10 new voicings of this progression. Change a single voice each time and listen for which voice causes the biggest emotional shift.

Vocal Chop Jam

Load a vocal sample. Spend 15 minutes mapping chops across the keyboard and play a small melody. Record three takes and pick the best. Now automate filter cutoff across the best take.

Drum Pocket Test

Make a kick and sub that lock in one bar. Mute everything else and listen. If the groove feels boring you will hear it here. Add ghost notes or a percussive click to find the pocket. The drums must feel confident alone.

Terms Explained With Real Life Scenarios

• DAW A software studio where you arrange and process audio. Imagine it as your phone where all apps are instruments and effects.
• VST A virtual instrument plugin. Like an app you add to your phone that makes a particular sound such as a synth.
• ADSR Attack Decay Sustain Release. This shapes how a sound behaves when you press a key. Think of it like how you sip coffee. Take a slow sip for a pad. Take a quick gulp for a pluck.
• LFO Low Frequency Oscillator. It wiggles parameters over time. Picture a metronome gently nudging the filter to breathe.
• EQ Short for equalizer. It cuts and boosts frequency ranges. Like a pair of glasses for your mix. Put the right lens on the right frequency and clarity appears.
• HPF and LPF High pass filter and low pass filter. HPF removes low frequencies. LPF removes high frequencies. Use HPF to clean rumble from vocal chops. Use LPF to make a pad feel darker and more distant.
• BPM Beats per minute. The speed of your song. Pick what fits the vibe. Future bass can sit slow with big space or faster with lots of energy.
• LUFS Loudness units relative to full scale. A measurement of perceived loudness. Streaming services normalize loudness so aim for a balanced LUFS to avoid platforms turning your track down.

FAQ

What tempo should future bass be

Future bass varies. Producers often write at 140 to 175 BPM and play in double time to achieve different feels. The tempo choice depends on groove. Faster tempo gives energy. Slower tempo gives space. Try both and see which supports your vocal or chord idea better.

Do I need expensive plugins to make future bass

No. Stock synths and effects are enough to learn the core techniques. Invest in a wavetable synth when you need precise control. Buy tools that solve a problem you actually have. Learning craft matters more than gear.

How do I make vocal chops feel natural

Keep formant information when changing pitch. Use small amounts of pitch shift with formant control. Add subtle humanized timing and velocity variation. A touch of reverb and delay creates space and illusion of performance.

Should I sidechain everything

No. Sidechaining is a powerful tool but overuse kills dynamics. Sidechain bass and chord pads to the kick or snare where rhythm matters. Do not sidechain vocals or lead elements that need constant presence. Use subtlety and purpose.

How do I keep my tracks from sounding samey

Change voicings, add counter melodies, and vary vocal chop rhythms. Introduce one signature sound as a motif and then reintroduce it in new contexts. Small instrumental changes between drops keep listeners engaged.

How long should a future bass track be

Most sit between three and four and a half minutes. Keep the structure tight and remove sections that do not add new information. If the energy starts repeating without evolution shorten the arrangement.

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