How to Make Future Bass: Chords, Drops & Vocal Chops Explained

What Is Future Bass?

Future bass is an electronic music style that developed in the 2010s, blending dubstep's bass weight with warmer, melody-driven production and trap-influenced drums.^[1] Where dubstep leans abrasive, future bass leans euphoric — thick detuned chord stabs, shimmering leads, and emotional builds that detonate into densely layered drops.

The genre was pioneered by Scottish producers Rustie and Hudson Mohawke, whose work in 2010–2011 (including Rustie's Glass Swords LP, released in 2011) defined the early sound.^[1] It crossed into mainstream awareness in 2013 when Flume's remix of Disclosure's "You & Me" reached wide audiences, inspiring a generation of producers — San Holo, Illenium, Louis the Child — to push the sound further.^[1]

This tutorial walks through every core production element: supersaw sound design, extended chord progressions, the iconic LFO-modulated drop, vocal chops, sidechain pumping, drums, and arrangement. By the end you will have a complete framework for building your first — or best — future bass track.

Future Bass at a Glance: Quick-Reference Table

Before diving into individual elements, use this table as a production compass. Future bass lives in a specific tempo range — typically 140–160 BPM — but uses a half-time feel for drums, so the groove often lands slower than the raw BPM suggests.^[2]

Supersaw Chords: The Signature Drop Sound

The supersaw is the defining sound of future bass. A single oscillator produces one sawtooth wave; a supersaw stacks multiple sawtooth oscillators together — typically 7 to 16 voices — each detuned slightly from the others, anywhere from a few cents up to 30+ cents spread.^[3] The beating interference between those voices creates the wide, shimmering, alive quality that a clean synth can never achieve.

In synthesizers like Serum, Vital, or Sylenth1, this is called unison detuning. Set unison voices to at least 7 and experiment with detune amount — smaller amounts (5–10 cents) give a subtle warmth; larger amounts (20–30 cents) deliver the full wall-of-sound drop texture. Add a little unison stereo spread so the voices pan across the field rather than stacking in mono.

Play these supersaws as extended chords — not simple triads. Stack thirds all the way up: a Fmaj7 becomes F–A–C–E; an Fmaj9 adds G on top. This is what gives future bass its lush, harmonic richness and separates it from simpler EDM genres.^[4]

Supersaw Patch Checklist

Start with a sawtooth oscillator → enable unison (7–16 voices) → set detune spread (15–25 cents for classic FB) → add a gentle low-pass filter with moderate resonance → apply a slow attack envelope (20–50ms) so chords swell in rather than click → finish with hall reverb (pre-delay ~30ms) and a stereo widener. Keep the sub octave below 120 Hz in mono; the width lives in the mids and highs.

Extended Chord Progressions (7ths, 9ths, Sus2)

Future bass chord progressions rely on extended harmony. Replace every triad with its 7th or 9th equivalent and you immediately get the genre's emotional quality. A workhorse starting point is Imaj7 – Vmaj7 – VIm7 – IVmaj7 in a major key — the added 7ths smooth the resolution and give chords a weightless float.^[5]

Sus2 chords — built with a root, major 2nd, and perfect 5th instead of a third — add open, cinematic colour without committing to major or minor. Use them at structural pivot points, the start of a build section, or under a riser to build tension before the resolution at the drop.

For more sophisticated progressions, try modal interchange: borrow a minor iv chord into a major key passage (e.g., Fm in the key of C major) for a brief darkening that makes the return to the tonic feel explosive. This technique appears throughout Flume's catalog and gives the harmonic movement its characteristic emotional push-pull. Cross-reference the chord progressions guide for theory foundations.

• Imaj7 – Vmaj7 – VIm7 – IVmaj7 "The feels" progression. In C: Cmaj7 – Gmaj7 – Am7 – Fmaj7. Familiar, uplifting, works at any tempo.
• IVmaj7 – Vmaj7 – IIIm7 – VIm7 The "anime" progression. Slightly more dramatic; builds narrative arc across 4 bars.
• Im7 – bVIImaj7 – bVImaj7 – bVIImaj7 Minor-mode loop. Dark but still lush; pair with a major-key release in the drop for maximum contrast.
• Isus2 – IVadd9 – Vmaj7 – VIm9 Open, contemporary sound. Sus2 avoids definitive major/minor; add9 adds shimmer without dissonance.

The Drop: LFO Modulation and the "Wub" Effect

The future bass drop is defined by what happens to the supersaw chords in the filter domain. Route an LFO to the low-pass filter cutoff of your supersaw patch and sync it to the project tempo. As the LFO sweeps the cutoff up and down, the chord's harmonic content rhythmically opens and closes — this is the "wub" or vowel-like movement you hear in virtually every major future bass record. The Wikipedia entry for future bass specifically describes LFO modulation on filter cutoff as one of the genre's defining technical signatures.^[1]

A slow LFO rate (1/4 or 1/2 note sync) creates a long, slow swell; a faster rate (1/8 or 1/16) creates rhythmic gating. Most producers use 1/4 or dotted 1/8 for the classic feel — long enough to be heard as a harmonic movement, short enough to lock into the groove.

Pitch modulation is a secondary but important layer: automate a sharp +1 or +2 semitone pitch jump at the very start of each chord stab, or at the chord boundary, to add bounce and momentum. Some producers also pitch the sub bass to follow the chord root with subtle pitch slides between notes, which makes the low end feel live rather than static.^[6]

Drop Chord Chops

On top of LFO movement, chop the chord pattern rhythmically: cut it on kick and snare transients to create breathing space, then add one or two unexpected off-beat cuts for groove. Combine chops with sidechain ducking so cuts and pumps interlock. The sidechain compression tutorial has detailed setup for this workflow.

Vocal Chops: Melodic Hooks from Sliced Samples

Vocal chops in future bass serve as a lead melodic voice rather than a background texture. The goal is to make sliced vocal syllables play your chord melody — they sit at the harmonic center while the supersaw fills the spectral width around them.

The proven workflow: write your melody on a synth first so you know which pitches you need, then pitch-correct a vocal sample (auto-tune set to the track's key), load it into a sampler, and copy the melody MIDI over.^[7] Short syllables — single vowel sounds, breaths, consonant-vowel combos — work better than full words because they sustain cleanly when pitched.

Process the chops lightly on the main channel (light compression, high-pass around 200 Hz) and route occasional syllables to a wet FX return with long reverb and stereo delay — this creates the sense that certain notes float away into space, which is characteristic of San Holo's vocal work. Keep the majority of chops relatively dry to maintain rhythm and clarity in the mix. For a deeper dive into slicing and processing, see the vocal chop tutorial.

Sidechain Pumping and Drums

Sidechain compression is not optional in future bass — it is structural. The rhythmic pumping it creates gives the chords and bass their characteristic breathing pulse that drives the drop forward. Route a compressor (or a dedicated tool like LFO Tool or Kickstart) on every non-percussive element, triggered by the kick drum. A ghost kick track — a silent kick copy at high volume — is a clean way to drive the sidechain signal without audible bleed.^[8]

Set the compressor to a very fast attack, a release tuned to let the element fully recover before the next kick (typically 100–250ms depending on tempo), and a high ratio (4:1 to ∞:1 for the most aggressive pump). The supersaw pads, bass, and leads should all duck to the kick; hi-hats and cymbals are usually left uncompressed so transients remain sharp.

Drum Programming

Future bass drums are trap-influenced but lighter: a punchy 808-style kick on beat 1 (and optionally beat 3), a snare or clap on beat 3 (half-time feel), and rolling 16th-note or 32nd-note hi-hat patterns with velocity variation for humanisation. The kick is usually pitched higher than in trap or hip-hop — it punches without dominating the sub bass. Add occasional drum fills at the end of 4- or 8-bar phrases: a quick snare roll, a crash, or a reversed cymbal leading into the next section. These fills are a genre staple that maintain listener engagement across long drops.^[6] For layering the kick and snare with additional transient punch, the synth layering guide covers harmonic stacking principles that apply equally to drum layering.

Arrangement: Build, Drop, and Energy Management

A standard future bass arrangement follows a clear emotional arc: Intro → Verse → Build → Drop → Verse → Build → Drop → Bridge → Outro.^[7] The power of the drop depends entirely on how well you strip back the verse and build sections — if the verse is already saturated, there is nowhere to go.

In the verse, use a simple pad (not full supersaw), a minimal melody, and a reduced drum pattern. The build section (typically 8 or 16 bars) introduces tension incrementally: a riser synth, filtered drums that gradually open up, increasing hi-hat density, and a low-pass filter sweep that slowly reveals the full chord frequency range over 4–8 bars. Remove the kick on the final 2–4 bars of the build (the "breakdown drop") to create the maximum impact moment when the drop hits.

The drop itself should introduce elements gradually across 4- and 8-bar boundaries — start with kick + bass + chords, add the vocal chops in bar 5, add a counter-melody in bar 9. Never have all elements play simultaneously from beat one of the drop: staggering entries maintains momentum. For the second drop, add a reversed-chopped vocal or a new counter-melodic layer not heard in the first drop.^[7]

1. Write the chord progression
   Choose 4 extended chords (maj7, min7, add9, sus2). Sketch them as simple MIDI in 4 bars. This becomes the harmonic template for every section.
2. Design the supersaw patch
   Open Serum, Vital, or Sylenth1. Sawtooth oscillator → unison 7–16 voices → detune 15–25 cents → add slow attack (20–50ms) → hall reverb → stereo width. Save as a reusable preset.
3. Program the drop chord pattern
   Apply the chord progression to the supersaw. Add rhythmic cuts on kick and snare. Automate a filter LFO (1/4 note sync, low-pass) for the wub swell. Add pitch automation (+1–2 semitone bump) at chord onsets.
4. Add the sub bass
   Use a simple sine or slightly distorted sine on the root note of each chord. Pitch-slide between roots (5–10ms glide). Keep below 120 Hz in mono. Automate pitch to match chord root movement.
5. Create vocal chops
   Import a vocal sample, apply auto-tune (track key), load into a sampler. Copy your chord melody MIDI to the sampler track. Route occasional notes to a wet reverb/delay return for depth.
6. Set up drums
   808 kick (beat 1 and optionally beat 2.5 or 3), half-time snare on beat 3, rolling 16th hi-hats with velocity variation. Add snare rolls and crashes at phrase endings.
7. Apply sidechain compression
   Create a ghost kick MIDI track (inaudible). Route a compressor (high ratio, fast attack, 150ms release) on the supersaw pad, bass, and leads, all triggered by the ghost kick. Verify the pumping locks to the kick visually on your level meter.
8. Build the arrangement
   Intro (8 bars, minimal): chord pad only. Verse (16 bars): simple melody, reduced chords, light drums. Build (8–16 bars): riser, filtered drums opening up, increasing density, kick dropout last 4 bars. Drop (32 bars): full energy. Repeat with second drop variation.

Tools for Future Bass Production

Future bass does not require expensive tools — Vital (free) can produce a fully professional supersaw patch and LFO-modulated drop sound. The techniques matter more than the specific synth.

For sidechain pumping, LFO Tool (Xfer) or Kickstart (Nicky Romero) give more precise control than a stock compressor and are worth adding to your chain early. For vocal chops, any sampler with pitch correction works — FL Studio's Edison + Pitcher, Ableton's Sampler with Auto Filter, or Logic's Quick Sampler all handle the workflow.

Sample packs built for future bass can accelerate loop and one-shot sourcing significantly. The best EDM sample packs guide covers options across budgets. See also how to make house music for overlapping chord and sidechain techniques that translate directly to future bass. All free plugins and sample packs on the Plugg Supply libraries page are available without registration.