How to Make a Reese Bass in Serum and Vital, from Classic DnB to Modern

If you’ve ever heard a dark, rolling bass that seems to breathe and churn underneath a drum and bass tune, you’ve heard a reese. The name traces back to Kevin Saunderson’s 1988 track “Just Want Another Chance”, released under his Reese alias, and the sound became a cornerstone of jungle and DnB (Wikipedia: Kevin Saunderson). The core idea is simple: two or more detuned sawtooth waves beating against each other. Everything else is seasoning.

This guide builds one in Serum 2 and in Vital, which is free, then takes it from classic to modern.

Which synth? Quick and honest

• Vital has a free Basic tier with the full synth and every feature. The paid tiers (Plus and Pro) add presets, wavetables and extras, not extra synthesis power (vital.audio).
• Serum 2 costs $249, or $9.99 a month for 25 months on Splice rent-to-own. It’s a free upgrade if you already own Serum 1 (Splice: Serum 2 FAQ).

For a reese, Vital is genuinely enough. The steps below work in both. Only some of the labels differ.

Step 1: Set the tempo and an init patch

Drum and bass usually sits around 170 to 175 BPM. Set 174 BPM if you want a starting point.

Load an init (blank) patch:

• Serum 2: Menu → Init Preset.
• Vital: Menu → Initialize Preset.

Step 2: Two saws, detuned

This is the heart of it.

1. Oscillator A / OSC 1: set the wavetable to a basic saw (in Serum, the “Basic Shapes” table with the position on saw; Vital’s init oscillator also starts on a basic shape you can move to saw).
2. Oscillator B / OSC 2: turn it on and choose the same saw.
3. Detune one against the other. Use the fine tune on OSC B and push it to around +10 to +20 cents. Some producers set OSC A slightly negative and B slightly positive instead.
4. Play a low note, say E1 or F1, and listen. You should hear a slow phasing “wow” as the two waves drift in and out of phase.

The rule: less detune gives a slower, deeper churn, which is the classic sound. More detune gives a faster, nastier movement.

Step 3: Add unison, carefully

Both synths let you stack unison voices per oscillator.

• Try 2 to 4 voices per oscillator with a low detune amount at first.
• Too much unison at low pitch turns the bass to mush and kills your mono compatibility.

Keep the low end in mind here. We’ll handle the sub separately in Step 6, so it’s fine if the reese itself gets wide.

Step 4: Filter it

A raw reese is bright and harsh. Tame it:

1. Turn on the filter and route both oscillators through it.
2. Choose a low-pass filter. 12 dB or 24 dB both work; 24 dB is darker.
3. Set the cutoff to around 300 to 800 Hz as a starting point, then adjust by ear.
4. Add a touch of resonance, but not much, or it starts whistling.

For movement, assign an LFO to the cutoff:

• Serum 2: drag the LFO 1 handle onto the filter cutoff knob.
• Vital: drag LFO 1 onto the cutoff in the same way.

Set the LFO to sync at a slow rate, 1 bar or 2 bars, with a modest amount. That gives the classic “breathing” reese.

Step 5: Distortion and character

Now dirty it up. In the synth’s effects rack, or after it in your DAW:

• Distortion: start with a soft clip or tube mode, with drive around 20 to 40% and the mix to taste.
• Chorus: a little chorus adds width. Keep the mix low.
• EQ: cut below about 100 to 150 Hz on the reese itself. The sub will take over down there.

For modern reeses, the distortion goes in before and after the filter, sometimes with OTT-style multiband compression to bring out the mids. Serum 2 and Vital both include multiband compression in their effects.

Step 6: A clean sub

This is the step beginners skip. A wide, detuned reese has a smeared, out-of-phase low end that falls apart on club systems and phone speakers.

Fix: add a separate, clean sub.

• Use the synth’s sub oscillator (Serum has a dedicated Sub; in Vital you can use a third oscillator set to a sine).
• Set it to a sine, an octave below or at the same pitch as the reese.
• Keep it mono, with no unison and no distortion.
• Low-pass or EQ it so it only covers roughly 30 to 120 Hz.

Many producers put the sub on its own track so they can process it separately. Either way, the reese above it and the sub below it should crossfade around 100 to 150 Hz.

Step 7: Play it properly

• Play long, held notes. The reese needs time to phase.
• Use legato with glide (portamento). In Serum and Vital you set the voice mode to mono/legato and turn up glide, starting at around 50 to 150 ms.
• Stay low, roughly E1 to A2.
• Sidechain it to the kick and snare a little, so the drums cut through.

Classic vs modern: the quick differences

	Classic (90s jungle and DnB)	Modern (neuro, techy, liquid)
Oscillators	2 saws, light detune	2 to 3 oscillators, sometimes wavetable warps
Filter	Low-pass, slow LFO	Low-pass and band-pass, faster modulation, filter envelope
Distortion	Light, warm	Heavy, layered, multiband
Stereo	Mostly mono	Wide mids, mono sub
Movement	Slow phasing	Automated macros, wavetable position sweeps

Modern tip: map the filter cutoff, distortion drive and wavetable position to macros, then automate them across the phrase. That’s where the “talking” modern reese comes from.

Quick troubleshooting

• It sounds thin: drop the cutoff, add a touch of distortion, check the sub is actually on.
• It disappears in mono: reduce unison and the stereo spread, and make sure the sub is mono.
• It clashes with the kick: sidechain harder, or tighten the low-cut on the reese.
• It’s too static: add a slow LFO on the cutoff, or automate the detune.

Told straight

The reese is two saws arguing with each other. Every famous reese is a variation on that one idea. Start with the classic version in free Vital, learn what detune, filter and distortion each do, and only then think about spending $249 on Serum 2. A paid synth won’t make your bass better. Knowing why it sounds the way it does will.

Prices and features checked against vital.audio and Splice in October 2026. Serum 2 is priced in US dollars, so the UK price depends on the exchange rate.