How to make future bass in your browser

By Tongkit Leong · September 7, 2026 · 9 min read

Future bass runs on a huge, detuned supersaw chord stack, a sidechained pump that ducks the pads under every kick, and a pitch-bent vocal chop riding on top — and you can build all three from scratch in the Tracks browser studio, with no software to install and no account to create.

The anatomy of a future bass track

Future bass grew out of trap and dubstep production but swapped aggressive wobbles for lush, emotional chord work. A few ingredients show up in nearly every track:

• Supersaw chord stack — several detuned sawtooth synths layered on the same wide chord voicing, so the chord reads as one massive, shimmering wall rather than a single thin synth line.
• Sidechained pump — the chord stack visibly and audibly ducks in volume every time the kick hits, giving the drop its breathing, pulsing feel.
• Pitch-bent vocal chops — short vocal phrases sliced into one-shots, with individual chops bent up or down in pitch as a melodic hook.
• Half-time drop drums — sparse kick-clap patterns under the drop, closer to trap's half-time feel than a dance four-on-the-floor pattern.
• Long build sections — risers, filtered chord stabs, and snare rolls that strip the arrangement down before the drop hits at full volume.

Tracks covers every piece of this — a subtractive synth for layering detuned saws, sidechain ducking on the mixer, a 16-pad sampler for chopping vocals, automation for pitch bends and filter sweeps, and a limiter for the final export.

Step 1: Set your tempo

Open the Tracks studio and set the BPM in the transport bar:

• 150 BPM is close to universal in future bass, so start there unless you have a specific reason to deviate.
• Because the drop drums are sparse and half-time, the track is often felt more like 75 BPM even though it's programmed at 150 — similar to how trap and dubstep use the same trick.
• Lock the tempo in before writing the chord stack, since the sidechain ducking later needs to line up exactly with the grid.

Step 2: Layer the supersaw chord stack

Add three or four instrument tracks and open the subtractive synth on each. This is the core of a future bass sound, so give it real attention:

1. Pick a sawtooth wave on each synth layer, then detune each one slightly differently against the others — a few cents apart is enough to create width without sounding out of tune.
2. Open the piano roll and write the same wide chord voicing across all layers at once — spread the notes across a couple of octaves rather than clustering them close together, since future bass chords are built to fill space.
3. Vary the octave or a chord tone slightly between layers so the stack has depth instead of every layer doubling the exact same notes. See Chord progressions in the piano roll if you need a refresher on building the voicings first.
4. Round off harsh high end on each layer with a gentle low-pass on the synth's filter, then let a touch of Tracks' reverb send add space around the whole stack — see Reverb and delay explained.

Solo the stack and check that it reads as one cohesive wall of sound. If one layer pokes out, nudge its detune or trim its level in the mixer rather than removing it entirely — the layering is what gives future bass chords their size.

Step 3: Program the half-time drop drums

Add a drum track and open a drum machine. Keep the drop pattern deliberately sparse so the chord stack has room to breathe:

1. Place the kick on beat 1, with a second kick hit around beat 3 — not a repeating four-on-the-floor pulse.
2. Put a clap or snare on beat 3, landing with the second kick for a half-time backbone.
3. Fill the space between with busy, swung hi-hats and the occasional open hat for movement, using swing the same way covered in Quantize and swing explained.
4. Keep percussion minimal elsewhere in the drop — the chord stack and vocal chop are the lead elements, and the drums exist to support the pump, not compete with it.

Step 4: Sidechain the pads to the kick

The pumping duck under every kick hit is what separates future bass from a plain chord progression. In the Tracks mixer, route the kick track as a sidechain source into a compressor on the chord stack's bus:

1. Group the supersaw layers onto a single bus so you only need to set up sidechain ducking once — see Mix groups, buses, and sends for how bus routing works.
2. Set the kick as the sidechain trigger and dial in a fast attack with a release timed to the tempo, so the pads duck sharply on the hit and recover before the next kick.
3. For a full walkthrough of the ducking mechanics themselves, see Sidechain compression explained.
4. Push the amount further than you would on a typical dance track — future bass often exaggerates the pump into an obvious, rhythmic breathing effect rather than a subtle one.

Step 5: Chop and pitch-bend a vocal sample

A pitched vocal hook riding over the chord stack is future bass's other signature. If you don't have a source file, record a short phrase through the Tracks mic input first — see How to record and tune vocals in your browser.

1. Load the vocal file into the Tracks 16-pad sampler and slice it into short one-shots, using the same technique covered in How to chop and flip a sample into a beat.
2. Trigger a short sequence of chops that follows the chord stack's melody line, so the vocal reads as a lead rather than random stutters.
3. Automate a pitch bend on one or two of the chops — a quick upward or downward slide — for the melodic "wow" effect that defines future bass vocal hooks. See Automation in your mix for how to draw the bend.

Step 6: Arrange build and drop

Future bass leans hard on the contrast between a stripped-back build and a full, pumping drop:

1. Intro (4–8 bars): a filtered version of the chord stack alone, or just the vocal chop, to establish the melody before anything else enters.
2. Build (8–16 bars): strip most elements out, add a rising synth or noise riser, and bring in a snare roll in the final bar or two to signal the drop.
3. Drop (16+ bars): the full supersaw stack, sidechained pump, half-time drums, and vocal chops all running together at full volume.
4. Breakdown: pull the drums back out and let the chord stack and vocal carry a quieter section before building into a second drop.

Use the Tracks timeline to duplicate sections and mute individual tracks so you can audition exactly how much should drop out during the build without losing momentum.

Step 7: Mix and export

Before exporting, spend a few minutes balancing levels in the Tracks mixer:

1. Make sure the vocal chop sits above the chord stack rather than getting buried — a small EQ cut on the pads around the vocal's frequency range usually clears space.
2. Check that the sidechain pump is audible and rhythmic without pulling the pads down so far they disappear between kicks.
3. Keep the kick and clap punching through the wall of pads — a touch of compression on the drum bus can help them cut without raising the overall level too much.
4. Put a limiter on the master track, since a dense chord stack and sidechain pumping both push levels up fast.

When the balance feels right, export to WAV for a clean master file or MP3 to share online — see How to export your song to MP3 or WAV for the full walkthrough. Your project stays in your browser the entire time; Tracks never uploads it anywhere.

Frequently asked questions

What BPM is future bass?

Almost all future bass sits at 150 BPM. Because the drop drums are sparse and half-time, the track often feels closer to 75 BPM even though it's programmed at 150.

How many synth layers do I need for a supersaw chord stack?

Three or four detuned sawtooth layers on the same chord voicing is usually enough to sound full. Adding more layers past that mostly adds mud unless you also vary the octave or a chord tone between them for depth.

Why doesn't my sidechain pump sound as strong as reference tracks?

Future bass typically pushes the sidechain ducking further than most dance genres — a fast attack and a release timed to the tempo, with enough depth that the pump is an obvious, rhythmic part of the groove rather than a subtle level correction. Try increasing the amount before adjusting anything else.

Do I need a real vocalist to make a future bass vocal hook?

No. Many future bass hooks come from a short recorded phrase — your own voice or a royalty-free sample — chopped into one-shots and pitch-bent rather than sung as a full melody. Record a phrase through the Tracks mic input, slice it with the sampler, and automate the pitch bends from there.