6EN BASS User Guide
MIDI Bass Line Generator · by GDP Audio · macOS & Windows
Download the PDF · 6EN BASS product page · Release notes
Overview · Controls · Factory Presets · Support
Overview
6EN BASS writes 808 and bass lines with glides, as MIDI for the bass instrument of your choice, and is the second module of the 6EN series. Load it on an instrument track and it plays in sync with your host. Pick a style, key and scale; the line phrases like a player, with slides, approach notes, runs and ghost notes where the style calls for them. It can follow your kick and the chords from 6EN CHORDS, add fills from a library of 16, start from 27 presets, and drag the finished line into your project as a MIDI clip. It makes no sound of its own.
System Requirements
| macOS | macOS 12 Monterey or later — Intel & Apple Silicon |
| Windows | Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit |
| Formats | macOS: VST3, Audio Unit (AU) Windows: VST3 |
| DAW | Any VST3 or AU host that supports instrument plugins (Ableton Live, Logic Pro, FL Studio, REAPER, Cubase, Bitwig Studio, Studio One, etc.). How the MIDI output is routed to other tracks depends on the host. |
Installation
macOS
Run the 6EN BASS macOS installer (the .pkg file you downloaded) and follow the on-screen steps. The installer places files at:
| VST3 | /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/VST3/MIDI6EN_BASS.vst3 |
| AU | /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/Components/MIDI6EN_BASS.component |
Windows
Run the 6EN BASS Windows installer (the .exe file you downloaded) and follow the on-screen steps. The installer places files at:
| VST3 | C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3\MIDI6EN_BASS.vst3 |
Most DAWs find 6EN BASS automatically on their next plugin scan. If it doesn't appear, rescan plugins from your DAW's plugin manager.
Licensing
6EN BASS runs in demo mode until a license is activated. In demo mode the plugin's audio output plays a brief noise burst approximately every 45 seconds, the MIDI output occasionally drops a bar, and EXPORT MIDI is disabled. Everything else remains fully functional.
To purchase a license visit gdpaudio.com.
To activate:
- Click the UNLICENSED - CLICK TO ACTIVATE pill in the plugin footer.
- Paste the full contents of your license file into the text box.
- Click Activate. The pill will change to LICENSED TO followed by the name on your license.
Your license file carries the name it was issued to, and the pill shows it (shortened if it is long). A license that carries no personal name simply shows LICENSED. Either way it unlocks the plugin in full.
Your license is stored at:
| macOS | ~/Library/Application Support/GDP Audio/MIDI6EN_BASS/license.settings |
| Windows | %APPDATA%\GDP Audio\MIDI6EN_BASS\license.settings |
Using another computer — activate 6EN BASS there with the same license file. No internet connection is required.
Uninstalling
macOS — open MIDI6EN_BASS Uninstaller.app from your Applications folder and follow the prompts.
Windows — go to Settings → Apps → Installed apps, find 6EN BASS by GDP Audio, and choose Uninstall.
Both remove the plugin files and the documentation. Your license file is kept, so reinstalling 6EN BASS later doesn't require re-activation.
Controls
PRESETS — The preset box in the header shows the preset's number, its family and its name. Click it for the list, grouped by family, or step through with the arrows on either side (or scroll over the box). A preset sets the style, key, scale, octave, bars, glide settings, swing, density, octave jumps, velocity, seed and fill. An asterisk (*) after the name means you've changed something since loading it.
MIDI OUT — The light flashes whenever a note is sent. CH sets the MIDI channel (1–16, default 1). NOTES shows the root note the line is built on (set by KEY and OCTAVE) and the kick note FOLLOW KICK listens for. ROUTE shows how to send the line to a bass instrument in the host you're using, how to set it up for glides, and a SEND TEST NOTE button to check the connection.
BPM — Tempo for the play button in hosts that don't report a tempo. When the host reports one, 6EN BASS follows it. Drag up or down, or double-click to type.
PLAY / STOP — Runs the line while the host is stopped, for auditioning. Whenever the host transport plays, 6EN BASS follows the host's position instead.
RESET — The round arrow at the top right: back to the style's base line, undoing edits, fills and variations.
STYLE ENGINE — Pick a style from the dropdown, grouped by family, or step through them with PREV and NEXT. Choosing a style loads its base line and its glide amount, octave jumps, swing and density. Below it you'll find the style's character, family, typical tempo and how often it glides. See Styles below.
KEY & SCALE — KEY transposes the line without changing it. SCALE sets the notes the line is written in: Minor, Major, Harmonic Minor, Phrygian, Dorian, Minor Pentatonic or Major Pentatonic. Changing the scale writes the line again (locked notes stay). Out-of-scale notes come only from approach notes, runs, side-steps and your own edits.
FOLLOW KICK — The line plays where your kick plays, plus pickup notes between kicks. Choose where the kick comes from: MIDI IN (kick notes coming into this track) or PATTERN (a kick you draw in the KICK lane). See Follow Kick below.
FOLLOW CHORDS — The line follows a chord progression: each chord's bass note first, chord tones on the beats, runs into the next chord. Get the chords from 6EN CHORDS over 6EN LINK, with PASTE, or by dropping a MIDI file on the plugin. See Follow Chords below.
BARS — Loop length: 1, 2, 4 or 8 bars. The line is always written 8 bars long; BARS only decides how much of it loops and shows, so switching never changes it. Lines repeat a 2-bar riff with something new at the end of each phrase.
SEED — The line's number: the same settings and the same seed always give the same line. Click it for a new one. The arrows either side step back and forward through your last 64 variations, with your note edits and fill.
OCTAVE — Moves the whole line up or down an octave (0–4), without changing it. With KEY, it sets the root note: octave 1 in F is F1.
PIANO ROLL — Rows run from the root up and grow to fit the line; notes outside the scale are dimmed. Click an empty spot to add a note (drag right for a longer one), drag a note to move it, drag its right edge to resize it, double-click to delete it. Right-click a note for Glide into this note, Lock and Delete. Click a note name on the left to hear it. Changes while dragging are previewed and applied when you let go.
LOCK — A locked note stays when the line is written again (a new variation, a new scale, density or style, or RESET). Lock the notes you like and generate around them. Fills keep locked notes too.
GLIDE LANE — The lane under the roll. Click under a note to slide into it from the note before; the note before is lengthened to touch it. Click again to remove the slide.
KICK LANE — The lane above the roll shows the kick the line follows. With FOLLOW KICK on PATTERN, click or drag across it to draw kicks.
ADD FILL — Plays the fill shown next to it at the end of the loop; press again to remove it (the button is lit while a fill plays). Pick the fill in the box beside it: click for the list, step with the arrows, or scroll over it. The list also sets its length: 1 beat, 2 beats or 1 bar (at most half the loop). See Fills below.
EXPORT MIDI — Drag the button onto a track in your host to drop in the line as a MIDI clip as long as the loop, glides included; or click it to save a .mid file.
GENERATE VARIATION — A new line in the same style and settings, from a new seed. Variations use more rhythms and note choices than the base line, and never repeat any of your last few. Locked notes stay.
LEGATO / PITCH BEND — How glides are sent. LEGATO overlaps the two notes, so an instrument in mono mode with glide (portamento) on slides itself. PITCH BEND holds the first note and bends it to the next one, so it works with any instrument. See Glides below.
TIME — How long a slide takes: 10–500 ms.
AMOUNT — How many notes slide. Changing it adds or removes slides but never moves notes.
BEND RANGE — ±2, ±12 or ±24 semitones (PITCH BEND only). It must match your instrument's pitch-bend range.
SWING — Delays the off-beat 16th notes, up to a dotted 16th. Range: 0–100%.
DENSITY — How many notes the line plays. Turning it up only adds notes. Range: 0–100%.
OCTAVE (knob) — How often notes jump up an octave. Most styles lift only the root or the fifth; Fusion Funk lifts any note. Range: 0–100%.
VELOCITY — The base velocity (1–127). Downbeats are a little louder, other notes a little softer, and ghost notes much softer.
MIDI Output
6EN BASS makes no sound itself: put your 808 or bass instrument on a second track and route 6EN BASS' MIDI output to it. In most hosts you set that track's MIDI input to 6EN BASS and turn on its monitoring. The ROUTE button shows the steps for the host you're using. Logic Pro, GarageBand and MainStage don't pass MIDI from instrument plugins to other tracks: drag EXPORT MIDI onto a software instrument track instead.
Ableton Live: keep 6EN BASS on its own MIDI track. On the bass instrument's track, set MIDI From to the 6EN BASS track, choose 6EN BASS in the chooser below it, and set Monitor to In. Don't put Live's Scale device after 6EN BASS: it would pull the approach notes, runs and side-steps back into the scale. 6EN BASS can't read Live's own key and scale, so set KEY and SCALE to match (all seven scales have the same names in Live).
The line goes out on MIDI channel 1 (change it with CH). Exported MIDI files use the same channel and include the glides.
Glides
LEGATO — the note before a slide is held into the sliding note for the glide TIME. Set your instrument to mono (or legato) with glide / portamento on; most 808 instruments have this. The slide's speed then comes from the instrument's glide setting, so set it to taste.
PITCH BEND — the sliding note sends no new note: the held note bends to it over the glide TIME, then the bend resets. This works with any instrument, including ones without a glide mode. Set BEND RANGE to the instrument's pitch-bend range (±12 is common for 808s). A slide wider than the bend range is sent as LEGATO instead.
Slides are never wider than an octave and never land on a ghost note.
Transport and Sync
While the host is playing, 6EN BASS follows the host's tempo and position, so the line stays locked to your project and the loop starts on a bar line. While the host is stopped, PLAY runs the line at its own BPM for auditioning.
Follow Kick
Turn on FOLLOW KICK and choose a source. The line puts a note on the kicks (more of them as DENSITY goes up) and adds pickups between them.
MIDI IN — 6EN BASS listens for the kick note in the MIDI coming into its track. Put a clip with your kick on the 6EN BASS track, or take MIDI from your drum track (in Ableton Live: MIDI From = the drum track, Monitor = In). The default kick note is C1 (36), the first pad of most drum racks; to change it, click NOTES and choose Learn kick note, then play a kick, or pick the note from the list. Press play: after one whole loop heard from its start, the KICK lane fills in and the line is written around it. Change the kick and it updates after the next whole loop. Kick notes are used up here; they don't go on to your bass instrument.
PATTERN — draw the kick in the KICK lane. Use it when there's no kick MIDI, and to keep the kick with the session for export.
From 6EN DRUMS — press COPY KICK in 6EN DRUMS, then PASTE in 6EN BASS: the kick goes into the PATTERN lane and FOLLOW KICK turns on. No MIDI routing needed.
Follow Chords
With FOLLOW CHORDS on, every chord change gets a note on the chord's bass note, other notes come from the chord, and runs and fills lead into the next chord. KEY still transposes everything.
6EN LINK — open 6EN CHORDS on the same LINK letter (A–D, default A) and the line follows its chords, key and scale as you change them, with no copy / paste. The first time chords arrive, FOLLOW CHORDS turns on. Click LINK to choose the letter, HOLD (keep the current chords and kick while you change things in the other plugin), or Clear chords. LINK works between plugins on the same computer, but not in sandboxed hosts such as GarageBand.
PASTE — press COPY CHORDS in 6EN CHORDS, then PASTE here; key and scale come along. You can also drop a MIDI file on the plugin: 6EN CHORDS' exported file carries the exact chords, and any other file's chords are read from its notes.
Styles
Nine styles in four families. Each has its own rhythm, note choices and playing habits; the tempo is a guide, not a limit.
Trap 808 — TRAP & DRILL · 130–150 BPM · long subs, sliding pickups
Drill — TRAP & DRILL · 138–145 BPM · sliding, syncopated, octave jumps
Boom Bap — HIP-HOP & R&B · 85–95 BPM · short, dusty and swung
R&B — HIP-HOP & R&B · 60–80 BPM · long notes that move
House — HOUSE & GARAGE · 120–126 BPM · off-beat root and fifth
UK Garage — HOUSE & GARAGE · 130–135 BPM · shuffled and bouncing
Neo-Soul Rap — SOUL & FUNK · 75–100 BPM · laid back, half-step approach notes
Half-Step Funk — SOUL & FUNK · 95–115 BPM · stabs, a half step up and back
Fusion Funk — SOUL & FUNK · 80–105 BPM · busy and melodic, runs up the neck, ghost notes
Playing habits: approach notes — a quick note a half step below or above the next note; runs — four 16ths on the last beat of a bar into the next bar; ghost notes — very quiet short notes in the gaps; side-steps — the end of a bar played a half step up, then back home. Each bar still starts on the root (or, with FOLLOW CHORDS, the chord's bass note).
Fills
A fill rewrites the end of the loop and leads back into bar 1. Locked notes stay.
CLASSIC — Root pickup · Walk up · Walk down · Fifth bounce
SLIDES — Octave dive · Slide climb · Slide down · Sub drop
RUNS — Chromatic up · Chromatic down · Scale run · Enclosure
RHYTHM — Stop · Push · Stutter · Ghost roll
Troubleshooting
Nothing plays. Use ROUTE and SEND TEST NOTE. If you don't hear the test note, the bass instrument's track isn't getting 6EN BASS' MIDI (check its MIDI input and monitoring), or it listens on a different channel than CH.
No slides. In LEGATO, the instrument must be in mono / legato mode with glide on. In PITCH BEND, BEND RANGE must match the instrument's. Check that AMOUNT isn't at 0.
Slides land on the wrong note. BEND RANGE doesn't match the instrument's pitch-bend range.
FOLLOW KICK doesn't change the line. The host must be playing, the kick note must match (NOTES), and one whole loop must play from its start. In Ableton Live, set Monitor to In when you take MIDI from another track.
Notes are pulled into the scale. A scale or key device after 6EN BASS (such as Live's Scale) removes the approach notes, runs and side-steps. Take it out.
Extra notes from somewhere else. Check that nothing else sends MIDI to the bass instrument's track: a clip on that track, or a MIDI keyboard with the track armed or monitoring set to In.
Factory Presets
27 factory presets are included, three per style. Click the preset box in the plugin header to open the list, grouped by family, or step through them with the arrows.
| Preset | Description |
|---|---|
| 01 NIGHT RIDE | Trap 808 · F minor · 2 bars — the plugin's defaults |
| 02 LONG SLIDES | Trap 808 · C# minor · 4 bars · long pitch-bend slides, octave-dive fill |
| 03 BOUNCER | Trap 808 · G Phrygian · 2 bars · busy, octave jumps, stutter fill |
| 04 SLIDE DRILL | Drill · F# minor · 4 bars · lots of slides |
| 05 COLD STEPS | Drill · D# Phrygian · 2 bars · pitch-bend slides, chromatic-up fill |
| 06 OCTAVE CHASE | Drill · A harmonic minor · 8 bars · lots of octave jumps, slide-climb fill |
| 07 DUSTY FINGERS | Boom Bap · D Dorian · 2 bars · short and swung |
| 08 HEAD NOD | Boom Bap · A minor · 4 bars · root-pickup fill |
| 09 BASEMENT LOOP | Boom Bap · E minor pentatonic · 1 bar · sparse, no slides |
| 10 LATE NIGHT | R&B · D# major · 4 bars · long notes, soft |
| 11 SLOW WIND | R&B · A# Dorian · 8 bars · slow pitch-bend slides, walk-up fill |
| 12 VELVET | R&B · G# minor · 4 bars · enclosure fill |
| 13 OFF-BEAT | House · A minor · 2 bars · off-beat roots |
| 14 WAREHOUSE | House · F Dorian · 4 bars · driving, fifth-bounce fill |
| 15 DEEP ROOT | House · C minor · 8 bars · sparse, walk-down fill |
| 16 TWO-STEP | UK Garage · G minor · 2 bars · shuffled |
| 17 SKIPPY | UK Garage · D Dorian · 4 bars · busy and swung, stutter fill |
| 18 SHUFFLE SUB | UK Garage · B minor · 4 bars · pitch-bend slides, sub-drop fill |
| 19 BEHIND THE BEAT | Neo-Soul Rap · E Dorian · 2 bars · laid back |
| 20 SUNDAY SEVENTH | Neo-Soul Rap · F# major · 4 bars · enclosure fill |
| 21 SOFT POCKET | Neo-Soul Rap · C# minor · 8 bars · scale-run fill |
| 22 SIDE STEP | Half-Step Funk · E minor · 2 bars · stabs and side-steps |
| 23 PUSH PULL | Half-Step Funk · G Dorian · 4 bars · busy, push fill |
| 24 PUNK FUNK | Half-Step Funk · A Phrygian · 4 bars · hard and busy, slide-down fill |
| 25 UP THE NECK | Fusion Funk · E Dorian · 2 bars |
| 26 COSMIC RUN | Fusion Funk · A minor · 4 bars · scale-run fill |
| 27 SIX STRINGS | Fusion Funk · D Dorian · 8 bars · an octave higher, pitch-bend slides, enclosure fill |
Support
Support: support@gdpaudio.com · Release notes: gdpaudio.com/6en-bass-release-notes
GDP Audio and the names of our products are trademarks of GDP Audio LLC. All other product and company names mentioned in this guide are trademarks of their respective owners. They are used only to describe the character of a sound or for compatibility, and do not imply any affiliation with, or endorsement by, those companies.