How to Make Bass Slides Like Fred again..

Last night I was looping Fred again..'s “Jungle” at my desk, completely obsessed with that low “whooooom” bass slide that seems to pull the whole track into the drop.

I opened my DAW, drew some MIDI, messed with pitch automation—and everything I made either sounded like a frog falling down the stairs or a muddy sub that swallowed the whole mix.

If you've just searched "how to make bass slides like fred again" because you're stuck at the same point, this article is for you. No vague magic tricks—just practical ways to actually get that smooth, emotional slide feeling into your own tracks.

See It in Action: Video Companion for Fred-style Bass

If you prefer watching someone break this down on-screen while you follow along in your own DAW, this video pairs nicely with what we'll cover:

Watch a few minutes of it, then come back to this article and try building your own slide template and short groove-filling slides. The combination of seeing and doing will lock the concepts in much faster.

First: What Are Fred-style Bass Slides Really Doing?

Most people start with the wrong question: “Which synth and preset does he use?”

The more useful question is: what job does that bass slide do in the song?

When you really listen, those slides often show up in a few clear roles:

Pre-drop inhale

Right before the drums slam in, the bass slides up into the first note—like the track is taking a deep breath before shouting.

Little “sneak attack” fills

After a drum fill or in a small gap, there’s a tiny slide that kicks you back into the groove without stealing the spotlight.

Micro-movement inside long notes

Some long sub notes aren’t completely static; they have a tiny rise or fall that makes the low end feel alive instead of lifeless.

In other words:

Fred again..’s bass slides are not just “cool effects”.
They’re emotional and rhythmic gestures that tell your ears “something is about to happen” or “keep nodding with the groove”.

That mindset will help you a lot more than just copying someone’s Serum preset.

A Practical Template: MIDI + Pitch Bend You Can Reuse

Let’s start with the simplest, most reusable way to build Fred-style bass slides: MIDI notes plus pitch bend automation.

Once you set this up once, you can copy it across your entire track.

1. Basic synth setup (works in Serum, Vital, Operator, etc.)

Use whatever synth you like, but keep it clean at first:

Choose a simple bass sound: a sine or slightly harmonically rich sub works great
Turn off: big reverbs, heavy distortion, unnecessary effects—get the slide right first
Set pitch-bend range: start with ±12 semitones (one octave) so you have enough room to slide

Knowing your pitch-bend range is crucial; otherwise you’ll never really control how far your slides travel.

2. Draw your first “pre-drop” style slide

Say your target note is C2 (maybe the first note of your drop bass line):

1. In your MIDI clip, draw a one-bar (or one-beat) C2 note

2. Open pitch-bend automation for that MIDI part

3. At the very start of the note, set pitch bend to the minimum value (–1.0 or whatever your DAW shows)

4. At the time when you want to “land” on C2 (end of the bar, or just before the drums hit), bring pitch bend back to 0

What you’ve created:

The bass starts an octave below C2
It glides smoothly up into C2 over the time you’ve set

This is your classic “tension-building slide”—very Fred again.. coded.

3. Turn it into a template: don’t redraw automation every time

One real-world pain point:

“Every time I want a slide, I have to redraw the automation. It’s slow and never sounds consistent.”

Instead, make your life easier:

In one MIDI clip:
Build a pitch-bend curve you really like
Save that as your “slide template” clip
Elsewhere in the song:
Copy that clip where you want a slide
Only change the MIDI note (C2 → F1 → G1, etc.)
Leave the pitch-bend automation exactly as it is

Because pitch bend is relative, the shape and feel of the slide stays the same, even while the actual note changes.

You’re no longer “drawing art” every time—you’re placing a building block.

Little-Known Trick: Use Short Slides as Groove Fills

Most producers only use long slides at the start of notes.

Fred again.. often does something more interesting: tiny slides on rhythmic off-beats that glue the groove together.

1. Lock in a solid bass groove without any slides

First, forget slides for a moment.

Program a 4-bar bass pattern with no pitch movement:

Make sure it already grooves with your kick and drums
If the pattern is boring or stiff now, slides won’t magically fix it

Slides should enhance a good groove, not rescue a weak one.

2. Add tiny “ghost-note” slides in rhythmic gaps

Now look for small empty spaces in your pattern:

The second half of beat 4
Gaps after drum fills
Moments where percussion briefly drops out

In those spots:

1. Slice off a very short piece of your bass note (1/16 or 1/8 note long)

2. On that tiny note, draw pitch bend so that:

It starts at normal pitch (0)
Ends 2–3 semitones up or down

3. Keep the whole movement very fast and subtle

It’s like adding a ghost note on the drums—except it’s in the bass.

This is a rarely explained trick: use bass slides as rhythmic glue, not just as big dramatic swoops.

Helpful Tool: Tune Before You Record or Resample

If you’re recording live bass, guitar, or any instrument before you start sliding and processing it in your DAW, being slightly out of tune can make every slide feel wrong, no matter how perfect your automation is.

To avoid that, it helps to quickly tune your instrument first.

You can use our simple in your browser—no installs, no extra plugins.

Personally, I like to check the lowest string (or my main bass note range) against a tuner before any serious session. It takes 30 seconds, but it saves you from wondering later, “Is this slide weird because of the sound design, or because the source was out of tune?”

Fixing the Big Pain Point: “My Slides Sound Muddy or Too Loud”

Even with nice curves, a lot of people hit the same wall:

“I finally hear the slide, but now my low end sounds messy or way too in-your-face.”

Here are a few battle-tested fixes.

1. Your low end is too wide and too dirty

If your pitch-bend range is huge (±24 semitones, two octaves) and your sound is a super-thick, distorted bass, your slide is basically dragging noise all over the spectrum.

For Fred-style slides that still sit nicely in the mix:

Let a cleaner sub or mid-sub layer handle the slide
Save the heavy distortion, stereo spread, and crazy FX for a separate layer that doesn’t slide as much (or at all)

This way, the emotional movement is in a controlled part of the spectrum.

2. You’re using slides everywhere (ear fatigue)

Imagine a whole track where every single bass note is sliding.

By the 30-second mark, the listener is tired, even if they don’t know why.

A practical rule of thumb:

Per 4-bar phrase, use 1–2 obvious, dramatic slides at most
Everywhere else, use either tiny, almost invisible micro-slides or just static notes

You can think of slides in two categories:

Emotional slides: big, obvious, used for drops and transitions
Expression slides: subtle, short, used to keep the bass feeling alive

Fred again.. is very good at holding back most of the time and then picking one or two key spots where the bass really moves.

3. Quick reality check: mute everything except bass and harmony

Here’s a brutally honest test that always reveals if you’ve gone too far:

1. Mute drums, vocals, and leads

2. Leave only:

Bass
Pads / chords / supporting harmony

3. Play through 8 bars and ask yourself:

Do I still feel a clear sense of direction?
Or does the low end feel like a fog that never really lands?

If it feels foggy or aimless, try this:

Delete half of your slides (yes, half), then listen again
Keep only the ones that genuinely help the phrase move forward

Often, you don’t need more sound design—you need more restraint.

Wrap-Up: A Simple Order of Operations You Can Reuse

To recap, here’s a practical workflow you can repeat in future tracks:

Start with intent: decide if the slide is for emotion (transitions) or groove glue (small fills)
Set up a clean, controlled bass patch with a known pitch-bend range
Build one reusable slide template and copy it to different notes instead of redrawing automation
Use short, subtle slides to fill rhythmic gaps instead of overloading every note
Check your mix with just bass and harmony—if it feels blurry, delete slides until the low end feels anchored again

You don’t need Fred again..’s exact samples to get that feeling.

With a clear role for each slide, a solid MIDI + pitch-bend setup, and a bit of restraint, your bass will start to “breathe” in a way that actually serves the song—not just the sound design.