Recreating Beyonce's Back to Black Bass using NI Massive

This tutorial shows you how to recreate Beyonce’s Back to Black Bass using Native Instruments’s Massive Synth!

This tutorial shows you how to recreate Beyonce’s Back to Black Bass using Native Instruments’s Massive Synth. As a 3-Oscillator patch with minimal effects, this is an awesome bass sound that does a great job of using custom envelope shapes to subtly highlight the different aspects of the sound. This NI Massive Back to Black Bass can be used in a number of creative ways straight out of the box, but try experimenting with different effects and filters to and make a truly one of a kind bass sound.

Start the NI Massive Back to Black Bass by setting the Wt-position and Intensity of OSC1 to 60%, and the Amp to 85%. Assign OSC2 a Roughmath II Wavetable and set the Wt-position to 40%, the Intensity to 95%, and the Amp to 50%. OSC3 should be assigned an Additivmix 1 Wavetable with the Pitch dropped to -12 semitones (an octave). Set both the Wt-position and Intensity to full, and drop the Amp to about 70%. Activate the Modulation OSC and turn the Phase on for Oscillator 2.

The NI Massive Back to Black Bass effects are pretty straight forward. Filter 1 should be assigned a Lowpass 2 filter. Turn the Cutoff all the way down, and set the Resonance to about 20%. Assign a Tele Tube distortion to FX1 and set the Dry/Wet to 60%, the Drive to 30%, and the mix left at 50%. Enable the EQ and lower the High Shelf to 30%, but slightly boost everything else. Activate the Noise module, and set the Amp to 50%. Insert 1 should be assigned a Sine Shaper, and the Dry/Wet set to 25% with the Drive set to 40%.

Finally, Envelope 3’s parameters should be Delay all the way down, Attack at 30%, Attack Level at 75%, Decay at 40%, Decay Level at 20%, and Release set to 80%. Assign Envelope 3 to modulate the Cutoff of Filter 1 completely. For Envelope 4, turn both the Delay and the Attack all the way down, but set the Attack Level at full, the Decay at 35%, the Decay Level to 70%, and the Release to 50%. Set LFO 5 to a Ratio of 1 over 32, and choose both Curve Selects to be Sine wave. Enable Pos, Sync, and Restart. Assign LFO 5 to modulate the Amp of OSC3 by a little amount. This completes the NI Massive Back to Black Bass.