How To Make Bass Wobble for Dubstep Using Garageband

For this tutorial, i'll be using Garageband '09 but it should work on most other versions.  First start by creating a new song, name it, and click create.  This should bring you to you main page for creating you song.

You'll start off with a basic piano track on the left hand side of your screen.  But, we want a good bass wobble.  Make sure the blue letter "i" in the bottom right hand corner is highlighted (if not, click on it) and it should give you a list of instruments.  Click on "Bass" and i chose to use the "Deep Round Synth Bass" but feel free to mess around and make your own style.  Next open the keyboard by going to Window at the top of the screen and clicking on "Musical Typing".  This is how you will be creating you riff.  You can mess around with the keyboard for a while to find what you want your riff to sound like.  I used the key of C minor for my riff.  Next, once you have something that sounds pretty good, use the red circle near the bottom of the screen to start and stop recording.  Once you have this done we can start adding the effects.  (During this process, feel free to mess around with any of the different sound settings to find something you like)

Finally, to make the iconic Bass Wobble for your dubstep, click on the "Edit" tab in the top right corner of the page. Under the words effect, you'll see that a compressor should be there and there are blank spots under it. You can choose to use the compressor or not, this is up to you. Next, click in the first blank space under the compressor. A list should pop up of different effects. Click on "DISTORTION" and it should be added to the list. Then click on the drop down menu next to the word "default" and choose "Distortion 4". This will add distortion to your recording. Next, click on the empty space under your newly added Distortion. This time, click on "AUTO FILTER". After it's been added to the list, click on the picture next to the words "Auto Filter" and some sliding bars on a pop-up window should appear. You can set the frequency and intensity to whatever you think sounds best. But, for the best results, turn the RESONANCE down and make sure the mode is set to UP & DOWN.  Using the SPEED sliding bar, you can change how fast your wobble will go.

If you really want to make your Dupstep sound good, click on the Downward facing arrow on your bass track. This should make a second level appear under your track with a Green line going through it. Click on the words "Track Volume" to make a drop down menu appear. Click on "Add Automation" and a pop-up will appear. Click on the Arrow next to Automatic Filter and choose "SPEED" then click ok.  Make sure the Green Box next to the word SPEED is highlighted.  Now, the green line under your track will control the speed at which your bass will wobble. You can click anywhere on the line to change where, when, and how fast your wobble will be. This is very useful for adding that epic drop that your song needs to be considered a real dubstep. Thanks for reading.