How to Make Neurofunk: Resampled Basses and Tight Breaks

What is neurofunk?

Neurofunk is a dark, technical style of drum and bass built on complex, constantly shifting mid-range basses and precise two-step drums. Critic Simon Reynolds coined the term in The Wire in December 1997, pointing to Ed Rush and Optical's 1997 single "Funktion" and their 1998 album Wormhole as the break from techstep^[1].

Reynolds described the new sound as cleaner than techstep, with intricate basslines, subtle timbral changes and more regular two-step rhythms^[1]. Later producers pushed the sound design much further, among them Noisia, the Dutch trio who run the drum and bass label Vision Recordings^[2].

This is the sound-design end of DnB. For the genre basics, read how to make drum and bass; for the soft, chord-driven opposite, see liquid drum and bass.

What is a neurofunk drop made of?

A neurofunk drop is a clean sub, an aggressive, edited mid-bass, a thin top layer and hard-hitting drums, each owning its own frequency zone. Computer Music's neuro bass walkthrough stresses the same split: a busy, moving spread of mids and highs on top of a solid, consistent low end^[3].

Set your project to 174 BPM, the tempo that walkthrough uses too^[3]. Then plan the layers before designing anything.

How do you design a reese or FM source for neuro bass?

Start with a harmonically rich tone that moves on its own, because every later processing stage exaggerates what is already there. Computer Music recommends wavetable, FM or phase distortion synthesis over plain subtractive patches for exactly this reason^[3].

Reese sources

A reese is two or more detuned saws beating against each other. For neuro, keep the detune modest so the phasing is audible but not seasick, add a gentle low-pass, and let an LFO move the filter or the wavetable position. The full recipe is in the reese bass tutorial.

FM sources

FM gives you metallic, talking tones. Modulate a sine carrier with a second sine at a ratio of 1:1 or 1:2 and automate the modulation amount; integer ratios keep the result pitched, while odd ratios turn clangy. Dexed is a free FM plugin closely modeled on the Yamaha DX7, available for macOS, Windows and Linux in VST, AU and LV2^[4]. Vital's free Basic tier is the full synth and supports audio-rate modulation^[5]. The FM synthesis beginner's guide explains operators and ratios.

1. Pick a moving waveform
   Load a wavetable with several distinct frames, or set up a two-operator FM pair. Disable random phase so each note starts the same way.
2. Modulate the harmonics
   Route an LFO to wavetable position or FM amount. Computer Music's Serum example uses an LFO amount of 55 on wavetable position, a two-bar rate and retrigger on each note^[3].
3. Add a warp or distortion stage
   Oscillator warp modes, wavefolding or a pre-filter drive add upper harmonics for the processing chain to grab.
4. Set mono and glide
   Mono mode with portamento lets notes slide. The same walkthrough uses 250 ms of portamento for octave glides^[3].
5. Play long notes
   Record four to eight bars of held notes and slow sweeps at the track tempo. Long, varied material gives you more to chop later.

How does a neurofunk resampling chain work?

Resampling means recording your processed bass to audio, processing that audio again, and repeating until the sound has character no single synth patch could give it. Computer Music notes it is extremely difficult, if not impossible, to get Noisia, Phace or Mefjus-style basslines straight out of a synth without resampling^[3].

In Ableton Live, choosing "Resampling" as an audio track's input routes the Main output into that track so you can record it; Live stores the results in the Set's Samples/Recorded folder^[6]. In other DAWs, bounce or render the track in place. The broader technique is covered in resampling techniques.

For the multiband stage, Xfer's OTT is freeware for Mac (VST, AU, AAX) and Windows (VST, VST3, AAX)^[7]. Run it at 20-50% depth on a bass bounce; full depth adds a lot of noise and hiss. Remove the sub from every resample with a high-pass around 100 Hz, because you will add a clean sub back later. After three or four passes, you should have a folder of bounces that sound nothing like the original patch.

How do you write a neurofunk bassline from resamples?

Chop your best resamples into short one-shots, load them into a sampler or arrange them as audio, and sequence them as a riff that answers the drums. A neuro bassline is an edit, not a performance.

Think in call and response. Play a main bass shape for a beat, leave a gap, then fill the gap with a different growl or stab; Computer Music's example project imports a separate growl made specifically to fill the gaps in the main bassline^[3]. Keep most hits on the sixteenth-note grid and leave space around the snare on beats 2 and 4.

• Bank of 8-16 one-shots Enough variety to avoid repetition, few enough that the riff still feels like one instrument.
• Short fades A 1-5 ms fade-in and fade-out on every slice removes clicks at edit points.
• Pitch sparingly Transpose slices to follow the root note, but keep most hits within a few semitones so formants stay believable.
• Variation every 4 bars Swap one or two slices each phrase and change the fill before bar 8 and bar 16.
• Separate sub track Program a sine sub on its own MIDI track following the root notes. It plays under the mid-bass but never through its processing.

How do you get tight neurofunk drums?

Tight neuro drums are a strict two-step of layered one-shots with short tails, controlled transients and very little loose break material. The snare is the anchor, so it should hit at the same level every time.

Build the snare from two or three layers: a body with weight around 180-250 Hz, a crack with energy around 2-5 kHz, and a short room or noise tail. Gate or fade the tails so they stop before the next sixteenth, and align all layers so their transients line up to the sample. For the kick, pair a short, clicky top with a clean low body, then cut the kick's lowest lows if they fight your sub.

1. Program the skeleton
   Kick on beat 1 and the "and" of beat 3, snare on beats 2 and 4, at 174 BPM. Add ghost kicks only where the bass leaves room.
2. Add sparse tops
   One hat or ride pattern, often on eighths, plus a high-passed break at low level if the loop feels robotic.
3. Shape transients
   Use a transient shaper to shorten kick and snare sustain by a few dB so the bass can speak between hits.
4. Clip the drum bus
   Soft-clip the drum group 1-3 dB to shave peaks and gain loudness without pumping.

How do you mix mid-bass in neurofunk?

Mix neuro mid-bass by keeping it separate from the sub, carving space for the snare, and controlling its level with compression and automation rather than raw fader volume. The goal is a bass that sounds loud and moving while the drums still punch through.

Keep everything below about 100-150 Hz mono and let the sub track own it. Sidechain the sub, and lightly the mid-bass, to the kick. Duck the mid-bass 2-4 dB around 1-4 kHz whenever the snare hits, using a dynamic EQ or multiband compressor keyed from the snare. Keep mid-bass width modest; wide stereo movement collapses unpredictably in mono clubs. Parallel saturation often reads louder than more gain on the main channel, as shown in parallel distortion on bass.

Finally, check the balance on small speakers and in mono. If the riff disappears on a phone, the top layer is too quiet; if the sub vanishes in mono, a stereo effect crept into the low end. For club translation, the sub bass for club systems guide has a full checklist.