When we think of instruments and types of audio to use the effect of chorus on, bass isn’t usually the first thing which comes to mind. That said, in the right contexts, chorus can be a valuable effect to achieve more fatness, lushness, and size to your bass.
Let’s talk chorus bass and how to use it to get the best results.
How to Use Chorus on Bass
As I explained in my overview on what is chorus, this is a modulation based effect which alters the pitch and timing of your audio in realtime which creates authentically unique sounding copies of your track.
You can then blend in the amount of those copies by way of the “Mix” parameter on most chorus plugins.
The two reasons we don’t normally think of it as being an effect we’d pair with bass is because one, chorus typically affects the pitch of the audio we apply it to, and two, chorus creates the illusion of width, and we typically want to keep our bass centered.
In the right circumstances, a little bit of chorus can fatten up our bass to give it more space in the mix and even give it a little color to help it stand out a bit more.
Best Chorus Plugin for Bass
I like Arturia’s Dimension-D chorus plugin in particular on bass for giving your bass a bit more depth and size without affecting the pitch as much.
The Dimension-D chorus plugin is more about size:
This is useful when we don’t want to affect the pitch of our bass considering it’s a constant in the mix, not to mention the representation of the key of the song.
I like the “Bass Embrace” preset which engages buttons two and four to give the bass a little taste of that chorus effect with an emphasis on subtle width without compromising or altering the pitch:
Note you can push your bass a little farther back by adjusting the width alongside the Mix dry/wet percentage. You can also vary the flavor of the tone by way of “Dynamic Color” for a bit of saturation.
All of this together helps give the bass a fatness which sounds perfect in the right contexts.
Adjusting the “Mix” dry/wet percentage in general (when the effect is used as an insert vs a send) is a good way to dial in the sound you like to taste whether that’s more or less aggressive.
This is one of the main drivers of the sound considering the incredible simplicity of the interface. Incidentally that’s another thing I like about this plugin.
Bass Chorus Settings
Incidentally, if you’re using more of a conventional chorus plugin like Arturia’s Jun-6, you’ll probably want to keep the chorus depth below the max setting so that the pitch doesn’t sway too far unless you’re going either a one-off or constant particular aesthetic effect:
I find anything at 3-4ms or below works decently well for adding some lush fatness to your bass. The “Mix” dial can be adjusted to taste for a more conservative (sub 50%) or aggressive (plus 50%) sound.
Remember from our overview on chorus rate, this parameter controls how quickly the depth range transitions are enforced.
I like to keep this below 1Hz (above it’s at .75Hz) to give it a subtler, fatter sound. This is in contrast to the choppiness you get closer to the max.
While I generally prefer to use chorus on bass in short segments of a mix to vary up its feel and keep the listener on their toes, you can certainly keep this going as the sound across an entire mix, particularly at more conservative wet/dry (favoring dry) amounts to add a subtle bit of size, fatness, and even lushness to your bass.
