Point Blank Tutorial: Make Future Bass Chord Arps Like ODESZA & Flume

In this tutorial, Point Blank LA’s Everett Pearson shows how you can make a future bass-style chord arp synth in Ableton Live like ODESZA and Flume.

Popular in the realms of future bass, all the way to techno and beyond, staggered synth plucks and chords progressions are a common go-to in electronic music. Using this technique can add unexpected grooves to your track and even create one of the most memorable components of your composition. This tutorial is predominantly focused on the mechanics behind the tempo sync adjustments of the main synth and shows how you can slow down or speed up any synth element of your choice. What’s great about this technique is that you’ll be able to apply it to any sound you choose.

Point Blank LA’s music production tutor, Everett Pearson, is a producer from Portland and is part of the Indie electronic group, Meridian. The duo has rapidly created a lane for themselves in the chill electronic scene through several EPs on Th3rd Brain Records. In addition, Meridian has supported the likes of Emmit Fenn and Forester on their US tours.

If you’d like to find out more about how DAWs such as Ableton Live or Logic Pro work, why not sign up for a Point Blank course? Plus, they’re currently offering 15% off their popular Professional courses in London, Los Angeles, Online and Ibiza until 18th April using the code EASTER15 – so there’s no better time to sign up than now.

To kick off the tutorial, the PB lecturer shows how you can create the main synth sound using Ableton Live’s in-built Wavetable synthesizer and unison, delay and panning effects. Moving on to the main component behind this technique, he loads up Ableton Live’s Arpeggiator to trigger the synth’s chord progression using Chord Trigger. He then switches the arpeggiator’s sync mode to “Free” so the transitions between the tempo change are smooth and unstaggered. He then drops some essential knowledge on how to get your beat and time calculations lined up to help further the organic flow of the tempo change.