Future bass is built on big detuned supersaw chords that swell and bend, pitched vocal chops for the hook, and a heavy half-time drop, usually bright, major-key and emotional. It runs roughly 140 to 160 BPM but is felt in half time, so it lands slow and heavy rather than fast. The moving chord synth is the whole point, almost a voice in itself. Here is what each part is and how they fit.
Works in any DAW, with any synth and any drum sounds, hardware or software. Nothing here needs a particular plugin.
Future bass is built on three things: big detuned supersaw chords that move and bend, pitched vocal chops for the hook, and a heavy half-time drop, usually in a bright major key that gives it its emotional lift. It runs roughly 140 to 160 BPM, but the drums land in half time, so the whole thing feels slow and heavy rather than fast. The signature is the chord synth: a detuned stack of saw waves playing lush 7th and 9th chords, with pitch bends sliding between the chords and a filter and pitch wobble on top, all sidechained hard to the kick so it pumps. It is closely associated with producers such as Flume, Marshmello and Illenium.
The ingredients are consistent from track to track. Get the moving chord synth locked in first, because everything else is built around it, then the style you lean into is mostly a matter of which parts you push:
| Part | Typical | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Tempo | 140 to 160 BPM, in half time | The future bass range, felt slow and heavy |
| Chord synth | Detuned saw stack, 7th and 9th chords | The moving lead chord, the main event |
| Pitch bends | Slides between chords | Makes the chords glide and feel vocal |
| Filter and pitch wobble | LFO or automation | Opens and wobbles the chords so they breathe |
| Sidechain | Hard, to the kick | The heavy pump that makes the chords pulse |
| Vocal chops | Pitched to the chords | The hook, a tuned vocal melody on top |
| Drop | Big and simple, half-time | The chords loud and wide, the payoff |
| Bass | Warm supersaw or reese | Fills the low end under the chords |
| Key | Usually major | The bright, uplifting, emotional feel |
Future bass overlaps with neighbours like melodic dubstep and future bounce, and softer offshoots lean harder on the vocal chops and bright synths, but the moving chord synth and the half-time drop are the common thread that tells you it is future bass.
Build a detuned stack of saw waves, play lush 7th and 9th chords with it, bend the pitch between the chords, and put an LFO or automation on the filter and the pitch so the chords open, wobble and breathe. Then sidechain the whole thing hard to the kick. That moving, almost vocal chord is the centre of future bass, so it is worth spending most of your time here.
Start from a supersaw, a stack of several saw waves detuned against each other so it sounds wide and thick instead of thin. Most synths have a supersaw or unison mode that does this for you; turn up the number of voices and the detune until it is broad and lush but not seasick. This is the same wide, detuned starting point behind most big electronic chords, and there is a full walkthrough of building one from detuned voices, a slow filter and reverb in the synth pad guide.
Future bass leans on extended chords, mostly 7ths and 9ths, rather than plain three-note triads, which is a large part of why it sounds so rich and emotional. Voice them wide, spread across a couple of octaves rather than bunched into a tight cluster, and keep them mostly in a major key for the bright, uplifting feel the style is known for. A simple four-chord loop is plenty; the voicing and the movement carry it, not clever changes.
Two things make the chords feel alive instead of static. First, pitch bends: slide the whole chord up or down a little as it changes, so the chords glide into each other rather than stepping cleanly, which is what gives future bass its human, vocal quality. Second, movement on the sound itself: an LFO or drawn automation opening and closing the filter, and a slower wobble on the pitch, so the chord swells and shimmers while it is held. Kept musical, this is the sound people recognise before anything else in the track.
Future bass sidechains harder than most styles. Duck or compress the chords sharply to the kick so they drop out on every kick hit and pump back up in between, which gives the drop its heavy, breathing pulse. Here it is a strong, obvious effect rather than a subtle one, and it is a big part of why the chords feel like they are pulsing at you. There is a full walkthrough of setting it up in the sidechain compression guide.
The drop is big and simple, with the moving chords as the main event. Underneath them sits a half-time kick and snare, so the beat leans back and feels heavy rather than fast, and a warm supersaw or reese bass fills the low end. Future bass drops are not busy; they hand almost all the attention to the loud, wide, sidechained chords and the vocal hook and let them ring.
At 140 to 160 BPM the drums would normally feel fast, so future bass plays them in half time: the kick and the snare land half as often, with the snare on beat three instead of on beats two and four. The tempo underneath is still quick, which keeps the hi-hats and small details rolling, but the backbone feels slow and heavy. That contrast, fast detail over a slow backbone, is a big part of the weight.
In a lot of dance music the drop is a lead riff or a bass line. In future bass the drop is usually the chords themselves: the same moving, bending, wobbling chord stack, now loud, wide and sidechained, carrying the vocal chops on top. Keep the arrangement clear underneath so the chords have room, and let their movement and the sidechain pump do most of the work.
Under the chords, most future bass uses a warm bass that fills the bottom without fighting them. That is often a supersaw bass an octave down from the chords, or a reese, a detuned and slightly gritty bass that beats against itself. Keep it mostly on the root note of each chord and let it sit low, so the chords own the middle and the bass owns the floor.
Take a short vocal sample, chop it into small pieces, and pitch each piece to the notes of your chord progression so it plays back as a tuned melody in key with the track. Those pitched vocal chops are the hook of a lot of future bass, the part that sits on top of the drop and that people sing back.
Load a vocal, a single word, a short phrase, or a held note, and cut it into small slices. Then map those slices across a sampler so each key plays the sample at a different pitch, and play a melody with it that follows your chords. Because every note is pitched to the key, the chops sit in tune with the moving chords underneath rather than clashing with them.
A few touches turn chops into part of the track rather than a sample pasted on top. Sidechain them to the kick like the chords so they pump in the same rhythm, add reverb and a little delay so they share the same space as the chords, and keep them mostly in the same major key so they feel emotional and bright rather than random. Formant and pitch tricks can push them further from the original voice if you want them less recognisable.
Loop just the chord synth on its own, bending between two or three lush chords with the filter opening and the sidechain pumping. If that alone already sounds emotional and almost sings, with no drums and no vocal, the track will work, and the chops and the drop are what you build on top. If the chords sound flat on their own, the fix is in the chords, the voicing and the movement, not in a louder drop.
Everything above is a set of decisions you can make by hand, and it is worth learning to make them. The slow part is the chords themselves: writing a lush progression of 7ths and 9ths and getting that moving, bending, evolving chord bed future bass is built on, then keeping it alive so it never sits still.
ARGISH is a self-playing chord and pad synth. You set a key and it builds the lush, evolving chord beds future bass is built on, moving and shifting without repeating and always in key, which you then shape, bend and sidechain into a drop. You get the moving chord bed to start from without programming every detune, filter and LFO by hand, which is the fastest way to find the progression a track hangs on.
It runs free in your browser with no install and no account, and as a plugin in your DAW as an Audio Unit, a VST3, an AAX and a standalone app, so the same chords you sketch in the browser are the ones you build the track around.
Free to hear in the browser, no signup. Everything on this page also works by hand in any DAW, which is rather the point of writing it down.
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