How To Make Tearout Dubstep Bass In Serum 2: 2026 Gun Bass & Sustain Guide

Stop Making Loud Noises With No Impact.

Tearout dubstep is supposed to feel violent.

Not just loud.

Violent.

The best tearout basses hit like weapons. Gun basses snap through the speakers. Sustains feel like a chainsaw pinned to the limiter. Screeches cut through the drop without turning into painful noise. The sub stays controlled while the midrange goes completely feral.

But most beginner tearout basses have the same problem.

They are loud, distorted and aggressive, but they do not actually hit.

The transient is weak. The sub is messy. The bass is too wide. The snare disappears. The sustain has no movement. The gun fill sounds like a random pitch envelope instead of a real impact.

That is not tearout.

That is chaos with a limiter on it.

In this guide, we are going to build a proper tearout dubstep bass workflow in Serum 2: gun basses, sustain basses, FM, pitch movement, distortion, clipping, macros, resampling, Ableton racks, arrangement and mixdown control.

Use this as the blueprint.

Then make it disgusting.

What You Need Before You Start

You can follow this workflow in Serum 2, Ableton, FL Studio, Logic, Cubase or any DAW that lets you program MIDI, automate synth parameters, process audio and resample sounds.

Here is the basic toolkit:

• Serum 2 for gun basses, sustains, screeches, growls, subs and FX.
• A clean sub layer so the low end stays heavy and controlled.
• Short MIDI patterns for gun fills, call-and-response hits and sustain rhythms.
• Distortion, compression and clipping for aggression and density.
• Filters, pitch envelopes and LFOs for movement and impact.
• Resampling to turn simple patches into brutal one-shots, fills and drop phrases.

If you do not want to start from an empty patch, grab the free Serum presets, free MIDI files and free Ableton racks first. Then use this guide to understand why the sounds hit and how to push them harder.

Start With The EDMT Free Vault

The easiest way to practice tearout sound design is to start with stronger source material.

That is why we upgraded the EDM Templates Free Downloads Vault with 1,545 Serum presets, 1,552 MIDI files, 244 Ableton racks and thousands of samples inside a massive 14GB+ collection of 7,300+ royalty-free production files.

Inside the vault, you get a complete production arsenal built for modern EDM, dubstep, drum & bass, riddim, tearout, midtempo, hybrid trap, future bass and more.

Vault Content	Count	How To Use It For Tearout
Serum Presets	1,545	Load basses, gun basses, growls, screeches, sustains, subs, reeses and FX as starting points.
MIDI Files	1,552	Create gun rhythms, fakeouts, bass fills, sustain patterns and call-and-response drops faster.
Ableton Racks	244	Process raw tearout basses with distortion, EQ, parallel chains, clipping, macros and resampling tools.
Ableton Project Files	56	Reverse-engineer full arrangements, routing, buses, drops, transitions, mixdowns and sound-design chains.
Sample / Audio Files	3,890	Layer impacts, drums, bass shots, risers, downlifters, fills, metal hits, atmospheres and FX.

What Is Tearout Dubstep Bass?

Tearout bass is the most aggressive side of modern dubstep sound design.

It is built around impact, violence, short explosive movements, guttural sustains, metallic screeches, gun basses, brutal transients, distorted midrange and heavy negative space.

A good tearout bass usually has:

• A violent transient so the hit punches immediately.
• A controlled low end so the drop stays heavy instead of muddy.
• A brutal midrange layer for aggression, bite and character.
• Pitch or FM movement so the sound feels like it is tearing forward.
• Distortion and clipping for density and pressure.
• Resampled edits so the bass becomes a custom phrase, not a preset demo.

The important part is intent.

Tearout sounds chaotic, but it should not be random. The kick, snare, sub, gun fills, sustains and FX all need to work together.

The bass can be disgusting.

The system still needs to be clean.

The Quick Tearout Bass Recipe

Here is the fast version before we go deep.

Step	What To Do	Why It Works
1. Bass Role	Choose whether the sound is a gun, sustain, screech, growl, sub, fill or impact.	Every tearout sound needs one job before you process it.
2. Core Tone	Start with a gritty wavetable, FM bass, spectral source, metallic texture or resampled waveform.	The patch needs harmonics before distortion can create useful aggression.
3. Pitch / FM Movement	Add pitch envelopes, FM amount, warp, sync or wavetable movement.	This creates the tearing, screaming, gun-like motion.
4. Distortion	Add saturation, tube distortion, downsample grit, compression and clipping.	This creates density, pressure and bite.
5. Sub Control	Use a clean sub layer and high-pass the distorted layer when needed.	This keeps the low end stable while the midrange gets destroyed.
6. Resampling	Bounce the bass to audio and chop the best shots, fills and tails.	Audio editing turns a patch into a real tearout weapon.

Step 1: Choose The Bass Role First

Before touching Serum, decide what the sound is supposed to do.

This matters more than the wavetable.

A gun bass, sustain bass, screech, growl and sub are not the same job. They should not be built, processed or arranged the same way.

Use this breakdown:

• Gun bass: short, explosive, pitchy, transient-heavy, used for fills and call-and-response hits.
• Sustain bass: longer, brutal, dense, distorted, used for heavy held notes and main drop pressure.
• Screech: high-mid focused, sharp, aggressive, used to cut through dense drops.
• Growl: vocal-like, moving, guttural, used for character and phrase movement.
• Sub: clean, stable, mono, used to give the drop weight.
• Impact / fill: short audio weapon used to reset energy between phrases.

Do not make one sound do everything.

That is how tearout gets messy.

Pick the role first. Then design the sound around that job.

Step 2: Build The Core Tone In Serum 2

The oscillator is the raw material.

The distortion is just the damage.

If the source tone is weak, the processing chain will only make the weakness louder.

Good tearout sources in Serum 2 include:

• Gritty digital wavetables
• Vocal or formant-style wavetables
• Metallic or spectral-style textures
• Reese-style bass sources
• Square-saw hybrid tones
• Resampled bass waveforms
• Short noise bursts for transient layers

Start with one main oscillator.

Move the wavetable position until the tone already feels angry before effects.

Then add a second oscillator only if it has a clear job:

• A hidden oscillator for FM movement.
• A brighter oscillator for bite.
• A darker oscillator for body.
• A noise layer for attack.
• A sub oscillator for support.

Do not overbuild the patch before you know how it will sit in the drop.

One strong oscillator with good movement will usually hit harder than three messy oscillators fighting each other.

Step 3: Separate The Sub From The Destroyed Layer

Tearout needs a heavy low end.

But that low end does not need to come from the most destroyed layer.

In fact, it usually should not.

A distorted, pitchy, wide gun bass is not always a good sub source. A screaming sustain with FM movement might sound huge soloed, but it can make the low end unstable once the kick and snare enter.

Use a clean sub layer for weight, then let the tearout bass handle the midrange violence.

A simple setup:

• Sub layer: clean sine, triangle, low-passed square or controlled sub patch.
• Main tearout layer: gun bass, sustain, growl, screech or distorted mid-bass.
• Top layer: optional transient click, metal noise, air, width or harshness layer.

High-pass the destroyed bass if the clean sub is already carrying the low end.

The sub should hit like concrete.

The midrange should sound like a malfunctioning weapon.

Do not make them fight for the same space.

If your drop sounds huge soloed but weak in the full track, read Why Your Layers Sound Weak before adding more bass layers.

Step 4: Make Gun Basses With Pitch Movement

Gun basses are all about the transient.

The hit needs to snap immediately.

The easiest way to create that gun-like movement is with a short pitch envelope, fast FM movement, distortion and tight audio editing.

Try this workflow:

1. Start with a short bass tone in Serum 2.
2. Add a fast pitch envelope that drops quickly.
3. Add FM, warp or sync movement for bite.
4. Use a short volume envelope so the sound does not drag too long.
5. Add distortion, compression and clipping.
6. Bounce multiple versions to audio.
7. Chop the best transient and tail into a one-shot.

Gun basses should feel like punctuation.

They are not always supposed to carry the entire drop.

Use them before a snare, after a fakeout, at the end of a phrase, or as a call-and-response answer to a sustain.

If every hit is a gun bass, none of them feel special.

Use them like weapons, not wallpaper.

Step 5: Make Sustain Basses That Actually Move

Sustain basses are where tearout gets brutal.

But a sustain cannot just be a long distorted note.

It needs movement.

Start with a gritty wavetable, FM source or resampled bass tone. Then make the sound evolve across the note.

Map an LFO or macro to:

• Wavetable position
• FM amount
• Filter cutoff
• Warp amount
• Distortion mix
• Phaser or flanger depth
• Volume shape

The movement does not need to be fast.

It needs to be intentional.

A good sustain bass can open slowly, choke, scream, collapse, widen, narrow, then snap into a fill.

That is what makes it feel alive.

The mistake is making the sustain equally loud, equally wide and equally distorted for the entire note.

That sounds big for one second.

Then it gets boring.

Step 6: Add FM, Warp And Spectral Chaos

FM is one of the fastest ways to turn a normal bass into tearout material.

But it has to move.

A static maxed-out FM amount usually becomes harsh noise. A moving FM amount creates the ripping, tearing, screaming texture that makes the sound feel alive.

Try this setup:

1. Use Oscillator A as the main bass source.
2. Use Oscillator B as the FM source.
3. Turn Oscillator B volume down if you only want it to shape the tone.
4. Apply FM, sync, bend, warp or spectral-style movement to Oscillator A.
5. Map the amount to an LFO or macro.

Small amounts add throat and grit.

Higher amounts add tearing aggression.

The goal is not to make the sound ugly all the time.

The goal is to make it become ugly at the right moment.

That is why macros are so powerful. A macro called Bite, Violence or Chaos can push FM, distortion, filter resonance and high-mid presence together when the phrase needs more aggression.

Step 7: Filter The Damage

Filters are not just for making a bass darker.

In tearout, filters shape the violence.

They decide whether the sound feels like a gunshot, a throat, a scream, a metal scrape, a chainsaw or a broken machine.

Useful filter types include:

• Bandpass for focused screaming movement.
• Notch for hollow tearing motion.
• Comb for metallic machine texture.
• Lowpass for darker sustains and controlled tension.
• Formant or vowel-style filters for guttural talking basses.

Move the filter with the rhythm.

For gun basses, the filter movement can be short and fast.

For sustains, the filter movement can be slower and more dramatic.

For screeches, use the filter to keep the sound sharp without making it painful.

Filter order matters too.

Filtering before distortion makes the movement more aggressive after the distortion catches it.

Filtering after distortion gives you more control over the final tone.

Test both.

Do not assume one chain always wins.

Step 8: Distort And Clip Without Killing The Impact

Distortion is essential for tearout.

But distortion is not the same thing as impact.

Impact comes from transients, contrast, timing, space, controlled low end and good clipping decisions.

Try this basic chain:

1. Filter or pitch movement
2. Distortion or saturation
3. Compression or multiband compression
4. EQ cleanup
5. Soft clipping
6. Optional stereo width on high-passed layers only

Watch out for:

• Muddy low mids that make the bass feel cloudy.
• Harsh upper mids that make the sound painful.
• Uncontrolled sub energy that fights the kick.
• Too much width in the lower bass range.
• Over-clipping that makes the transient smaller instead of harder.

Level-match before judging distortion.

If the processed version only sounds better because it is louder, it is not actually better.

Turn it down to the same perceived loudness and check again.

If it still hits harder, keep it.

If it sounds flatter, back off.

If your mix feels loud but messy, read Why Your Mix Sounds Muddy before adding another distortion plugin.

Step 9: Build Macros So The Bass Performs

A tearout bass should not be one frozen preset.

It should perform.

Macros let you turn one patch into multiple variations without rebuilding the sound every time.

Here are four macro ideas:

Macro	Controls	Use It For
Violence	FM amount, distortion drive, clipping, high-mid presence	Pushes the sound harder for phrase endings, fakeouts and heavier hits.
Throat	Filter cutoff, resonance, vowel movement, wavetable position	Makes the bass feel guttural, talking and alive.
Gun	Pitch envelope amount, transient layer, decay time, noise burst	Turns a bass into a sharper gun-style one-shot or fill.
Width	Chorus, dimension, top-layer spread, stereo FX	Adds size while keeping the sub layer controlled.

Once the macros feel good, record automation.

Do not draw perfect curves immediately.

Move the macros while the sound plays. Record multiple passes. Capture ugly accidents. Then bounce the best moments to audio.

That is where the good tearout usually appears.

Step 10: Process Faster With Ableton Racks

If you are working in Ableton, racks can speed up the entire tearout workflow.

Instead of rebuilding the same chain every session, you can save distortion, EQ cleanup, clipping, parallel processing, macro movement, sub cleanup, drum smash chains and transition FX into reusable devices.

Use racks for:

• One-knob tearout distortion chains.
• Gun bass transient shaping.
• Sustain bass clipping and EQ control.
• Parallel crunch layers.
• Sub cleanup and mono control.
• Transition FX, pitch drops and fakeout movement.

This is where the 244 free Ableton racks in the EDMT Free Vault become useful. Load a raw bass, drop a rack after it, turn the macros, resample the best movement and chop it into the drop.

The rack is not the final sound.

It is the shortcut to the impact.

Step 11: Resample The Bass Into Audio

This is where the sound becomes yours.

Serum 2 gives you the weapon.

Resampling gives you the kill shot.

Render long notes. Move macros. Automate the filter. Push the FM. Change the pitch envelope. Clip too hard. Make the patch do something ugly.

Then bounce it to audio.

Now you can:

• Chop the best gun hits.
• Cut the transient from one bass and the body from another.
• Reverse tiny sections before impacts.
• Pitch down one tail into a fill.
• Stretch a growl movement into a sustain.
• Layer a clean attack over a destroyed body.
• Render the audio through another rack.

This is how tearout basses become unique.

Not by finding one perfect preset.

By building a strong patch, recording movement, printing it, cutting the best parts, processing it again and arranging the audio like a weapon.

Print it.

Break it.

Keep the parts that make the drop feel dangerous.

Step 12: Arrange Tearout In 4-Bar Weapons

Tearout drops need violence, but they also need structure.

If every sound is screaming all the time, the drop feels smaller.

Use a 4-bar phrase as your basic weapon:

Moment	What Happens	Why It Works
Bar 1	Main sustain or growl establishes the drop.	The listener understands the core sound immediately.
Bar 2	Gun bass answer, screech or shorter response.	Creates aggression without abandoning the main idea.
Bar 3	Heavier sustain variation, pitch movement or call-and-response switch.	Raises energy and keeps the drop evolving.
Bar 4	Stop, fill, fakeout, impact, reverse or pitch drop reset.	Sets up the next phrase cleanly.

The goal is contrast.

Heavy sound. Space. Heavy sound. Fill. Reset.

Do not paste one sustain across 16 bars and expect the limiter to make it exciting.

Give the listener a hit, then give them a reason to want the next one.

If your drop feels like one loop copied eight times, read The Loop Trap.

Step 13: Mix Tearout Bass Without Killing The Drop

A tearout bass can sound insane soloed and still destroy the track.

That usually happens because the bass is fighting the kick, snare, sub or other bass layers.

Use this checklist:

• Use a clean sub layer so the low end stays stable.
• High-pass the destroyed layer when the sub is already handling the weight.
• Keep the deepest low end mostly mono for translation.
• Leave room for the snare so the drop keeps its neck-snap.
• Cut muddy low mids before pushing more distortion.
• Tame harsh upper mids so the bass is brutal without being painful.
• Use clipping carefully so the transient gets denser, not smaller.
• Delete layers that do not have a job instead of stacking endlessly.

The goal is not to make the bass as loud as possible.

The goal is to make the drop hit harder.

If the snare disappears, the drop is not heavy.

It is crowded.

For a deeper heavy-drop mixdown workflow, read How To Mix A Dubstep Drop.

5 Tearout Bass Recipes To Try

1. The Machine Gun Bass

Start with a short bass patch, add fast pitch envelope movement, FM bite, distortion and clipping. Bounce multiple one-shots and arrange them rhythmically.

Best for:

• Gun fills
• Fakeouts
• Phrase resets
• Call-and-response hits

Keep the hits short. The transient matters more than the tail.

2. The Guttural Sustain

Start with a gritty wavetable or vocal-style source, add FM movement, vowel filtering, distortion and macro automation.

Best for:

• Main drop pressure
• Dark tearout sustains
• Long heavy bass notes
• Second-drop variation

Make the sustain evolve. A static distorted note gets boring fast.

3. The Metallic Screech

Start with a bright wavetable, add comb filtering, FM movement, distortion and aggressive EQ control.

Best for:

• High-energy fills
• Snare-call responses
• Fakeout moments
• Layering above lower basses

Screeches need control. If it hurts, tame the upper mids before adding more distortion.

4. The Horror Growl

Use a vocal or formant-style wavetable, add vowel filter movement, distortion, pitch automation and dark FX.

Best for:

• Scary intros
• Dark breakdowns
• Cinematic bass moments
• Guttural call-and-response drops

If you want a deeper growl workflow, read How To Make Dubstep Growls In Serum 2.

5. The Tearout-Riddim Flow Bass

Use a heavier tearout patch, shorten the notes, separate the sub and arrange it with riddim-style call-and-response.

Best for:

• Tearout x riddim drops
• Live-set friendly flow
• Short aggressive bass chops
• Second-drop rhythm switches

If the rhythm is the weak point, read How To Make Riddim Bass In Serum 2 and apply the flow ideas to heavier sounds.

Common Tearout Bass Mistakes

1. Confusing Loudness With Impact

A clipped bass is not automatically a heavy bass.

Impact comes from transient shape, timing, silence, low-end control and contrast.

2. Destroying The Sub

A distorted sub can be useful sometimes, but a random unstable low end will wreck the drop.

Use a clean sub layer when the main bass gets too wide, distorted or pitchy.

3. Making Every Sound A Sustain

Sustains are powerful, but tearout needs shots, fills, pauses, screeches, fakeouts and resets too.

Use different bass roles instead of dragging one long sound across the whole drop.

4. No Space Before The Snare

The snare is the anchor of heavy dubstep.

If the bass covers it, the drop loses its punch. Shorten the bass tail, duck the bass, or leave space before the hit.

5. Overusing Gun Fills

Gun basses are supposed to feel like punctuation.

If every phrase is full of gun fills, the drop gets annoying instead of heavy.

6. Never Resampling

If you only use the live patch, the drop can start feeling like a preset demo.

Resample the bass. Chop it. Reverse it. Pitch it. Render it again. Make it yours.

7. Fixing Arrangement Problems With Plugins

If the drop is overcrowded, EQ will not save it.

Mute layers. Delete fills. Shorten tails. Let the important hits breathe.

Want More Tearout Bass Sounds?

Designing from scratch is powerful, but sometimes you need high-quality source material, project files and presets that are already built for the genre.

These EDMT packs are strong next steps if you want tearout gun basses, sustain basses, Serum 2 presets, project files, Ableton racks, MIDI, metal vocals, brutal samples and heavy sound-design tools.

Pack	Best For	Why It Fits This Workflow
TRICK OR TREAT VOL. 2.5 | The Forbidden Chapter	Serum 2 tearout, gun basses and modern heavy riddim	Includes 50 elite Serum 2 bass presets, 207 brutal bass samples, 75 haunted atmosphere loops and 7 metal guitar loops for darker tearout drops.
Ultimate Tearout Dubstep Collection Vol. 2	Complete tearout production toolkit	Includes 722 Serum presets, 900 heavyweight WAV samples, 8 Ableton project files, 62 custom FX racks and 378 MIDI files.
RAPTOR | Tearout X Riddim Serum Preset Pack	Tearout x riddim flow, gun basses and project-file learning	Includes 100 Serum presets, 137 WAV samples, 34 aggressive wavetables, 2 Ableton project files, a custom Phat Rack and 19 gun MIDI files.
NEW_CORE | Tearout Dubstep Sample Pack & Serum Presets	Modern tearout and industrial bass design	Includes 550 professional WAV samples, 112 Serum presets, 15 Ableton racks and a full demo project for studying heavy drop construction.
DEMON(S) | Tearout Dubstep & Hybrid Trap	Dark growls, screeches and aggressive drops	Includes 131 Serum presets, 12 MIDI songstarter kits and 11 Ableton one-knob racks for darker sound design and monstrous drops.
UNHOLY | Hybrid Trap & Tearout Dubstep	Cinematic tearout, hybrid trap and aggressive Serum basses	Includes 136 Serum presets, 12 MIDI songstarter kits and 9 Ableton racks for machine-gun basses, monstrous growls, screamy sustains and 808s.

Related EDMT Guides

Want to build the full tearout workflow? Start with the bass, then use these guides to tighten the sound design, arrangement, drums and mixdown.

Guide	Use It For
The Best Tearout Dubstep Sample Packs of 2026	Find more tearout-specific sample packs, Serum 2 presets, project files and heavy bass production tools.
Free Sample Packs: 7,300+ Free Production Files Vault	Download the full EDMT Free Vault with samples, Serum presets, MIDI, Ableton projects, racks and more.
Ultimate Free Serum Presets List	Start with free Serum bass presets and reverse-engineer how modulation creates movement.
Free MIDI Files For EDM Producers	Build gun rhythms, fakeouts, bass fills, sustain patterns and call-and-response ideas faster.
Free Ableton Racks For Bass Music Producers	Process raw tearout basses with distortion chains, macro racks, parallel processing and resampling tools.
Free Ableton Project Files List	Reverse-engineer full sessions, bass routing, drum buses, drop structure and project workflow.
How To Make Dubstep Growls In Serum 2	Learn a related growl-bass workflow for FM, filtering, distortion, macros and resampling.
How To Make Riddim Bass In Serum 2	Use flow, call-and-response and short-note rhythm to make heavy tearout drops bounce harder.
How To Mix A Dubstep Drop	Apply low-end, sidechain, clipping, stereo and bus-processing principles to heavy tearout drops.
Creative FX And Automation	Use automation, reverb throws, glitch edits and transition FX to make brutal drops evolve.

FAQ

What makes a tearout bass sound professional?

A professional tearout bass usually has a strong transient, controlled low end, aggressive midrange, intentional pitch or FM movement, clean arrangement space, tight clipping and resampled edits that make the sound feel custom.

What is a gun bass?

A gun bass is a short, explosive tearout bass hit that uses fast pitch movement, FM, distortion and transient shaping to create a weapon-like impact. It is often used for fills, fakeouts and call-and-response drops.

What is a sustain bass?

A sustain bass is a longer aggressive bass sound used to hold pressure in the drop. In tearout, sustains usually need movement from FM, filters, wavetable modulation, distortion, macros and resampling so they do not feel static.

Can I make tearout bass in Serum 1?

Yes. The core workflow still works in Serum 1: choose a strong wavetable, add FM or warp movement, use pitch envelopes, filter, distort, clip, EQ, resample and arrange the audio. Serum 2 gives you more modern sound-design options, but the fundamentals are the same.

Should I use a separate sub for tearout bass?

Most of the time, yes. A separate clean sub gives you more low-end control while the destroyed tearout layer handles midrange aggression, distortion, movement and stereo character.

Why does my tearout bass sound muddy?

Your sub, kick and distorted bass layer are probably fighting. Use a clean sub, high-pass the destroyed layer, control low mids, keep the deepest low end mostly mono and make sure each bass layer has one clear job.

Why does my tearout bass sound loud but weak?

You may be over-clipping, flattening the transient, covering the snare, or filling every gap with noise. Tearout needs impact, not constant loudness. Use space, transients, contrast and clean low-end control.

Should I resample tearout bass?

Yes. Resampling is one of the fastest ways to make tearout bass sound unique. Print the patch to audio, chop the best hits, reverse tiny sections, pitch them, stretch them and process them again.

Are Serum presets cheating?

No. Presets are starting points. Load one, study the modulation, change the rhythm, move the macros, resample it and turn it into something new.

Conclusion

Tearout bass is not just distortion.

It is controlled violence.

The transient gives you impact. The sub gives you weight. The midrange gives you aggression. The pitch movement gives you the gunshot. The FM gives you the tear. The distortion gives you pressure. The resampling makes it yours.

Do not chase a heavier drop by making everything louder.

Choose the bass role. Build the core tone. Separate the sub. Make the transient hit. Move the FM. Clip carefully. Leave space for the snare. Resample the best moments. Then arrange the drop like a weapon.

That is how you make tearout bass that actually hits.

If you want a head start, grab the free Serum presets, free MIDI files, free Ableton racks and thousands of samples inside the EDM Templates Free Downloads Vault.