Remaking the bass synth from the 2015 song "Wombass" by Oliver Heldens can be an exciting challenge for any synthesizer enthusiast. Here’s how you can create the "Wombass" bass patch and play this iconic sound on most hardware or software subtractive synthesizers (Serum, Vital, Pigments, Prophet, Korg, Moog, etc). We've included the preset download directly for your convenience, but we strongly recommend you use our programming tutorial to recreate it yourself.
Original Audio
The angry, distorted “wah” bass that opens Tiësto & Oliver Heldens’ “Wombass” is the track’s main hook and appears immediately in the intro and throughout the drops. It’s defined by a heavily resonant low-pass filter swept by an envelope or LFO to create a rapid wah motion, plus heavy saturation/distortion for grit and metallic bite. The tone is typically built from stacked oscillators (one pitched higher to add harmonic grit) and mild wide unison on the upper voice.
Our Remake of The Bass Synth sound
This audio clip is how close we've matched the original tone of the bass synth from the song "Wombass" by Oliver Heldens, giving you a reference point as you design your own synthesizer preset. Play it as often as you need to familiarize yourself with the nuances of the sound.
Synth Patch Programming Recipe
Getting Started
- Start by initializing your synthesizer to a plain saw with no filter, modulation or effects. For soft synths use the "init"/"default" preset or the the button to reset all parameters to their default factory values.
- No two synths are exactly alike, so treat the values below as approximate, and use your ear.
- Percentage values (e.g. 50%) represent the relative position of a knob or slider within its full range. The full range of each parameter may differ from synth to synth, so use your ear.
Voices
- Voice Mode: Mono
Amp Envelope
- Attack: 0 ms
- Sustain: 100%
- Release: 20 ms
Oscillators
- Oscillator 1
- Waveform: Saw
- Volume: 50%
- Oscillator 2
- Waveform: Saw
- Pitch: +31 Semitones
- Volume: 50%
- Unison
- Oscillators: All
- Voice Count: 2
- Detune Range: 3 Cents
- Stereo Spread: 100%
- Reset All Oscillators Phase On Note Start: No
Filter
- Type: Low Pass
- Cutoff: 35%
- Resonance: 50%
Filter Envelope
- Modulation Amount: 20%
- Attack: 200 ms
- Decay: 1450 ms
- Sustain: 10%
Distortion
- Drive: 78%
Reverb
- Mix: 10% Wet
- Size: Big
Velocity
- Destination: Volume
- Modulation Amount: 0%
Note: the patch settings may slightly differ in the Syntorial challenge.
Explore More
- Wombass (Wikipedia)
- Tiësto and Oliver Heldens’ brainchild ‘Wombass’ finally sees release (Dancing Astronaut)
- Create Oliver Heldens & Tiesto – Wombass Lead Bassline – SERUM TUTORIAL #5 (YouTube)
- Massive Tutorial – Oliver Heldens Future House Bass – YouTube
- Tiesto & Oliver Heldens – Wombass (FL Studio Remake) – YouTube
Preset Downloads
Don't want to learn synth programming now? Use our synth preset as your starting point and tweak it from there. Register an account with Audible Genius and download the presets for free for the following synths:
- Primer, our free synthesizer VST
- Vital
Comments
This recipe is the result of a Syntorial community preset remake request. Need support remaking this sound? Have comments?
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