A Reese bass is a detuned, filtered bass whose beating oscillators give warm, moving low-end

A Reese bass (named after Kevin Saunderson’s ‘Reese’ alias) is made by running two or more oscillators detuned slightly against each other, so they beat and phase, giving a thick, chorusing low-end with a sense of internal movement even on a held note. In future garage this bass is specifically a ‘warm filtered reese’ — the MusicTech spec Wikipedia cites calls for a subbass or square-wave bass with a modulating filter, so the filter sweeps slowly and adds an evolving, opening/closing quality on top of the detune beating. Saw or square oscillators are common because they give the filter rich harmonics to move through. The result is the dark, sustained, breathing bass that anchors the genre’s mood.

Examples

Detune two saw oscillators a few Hz apart and mix them: the low end beats and thickens. Add a low-pass filter with a slow LFO on cutoff and the bass now sweeps as well — the ‘warm filtered reese’ future-garage sound. Increasing the detune widens/roughens the beating.

Assessment

Build a Reese bass: detune two oscillators until you hear beating, then add slow filter modulation. Describe how increasing the detune changes the character, and what the modulating filter adds on top of the detune.