How to sound like Royal Blood
Royal Blood is one bass split two ways at once: a clean, tight low end and a fuzzed, octave-up "guitar" on top, played hard and slow. The fastest way to that sound is to drop La Bestia on your bass and push Dirt.
That is the whole trick in a sentence, and if you just want the vibe, the box above gets you there in a minute. But if you want to understand why it works, who built it, and how to dial it in properly, here is the full picture: the history, the gear, and the exact chain I would use.
| Stage | What it does | Pedal or plugin type |
|---|---|---|
| Splitter | Sends one bass to two rigs at once | A/B-Y box or crossover; La Bestia does it inside one plugin |
| Bass side | Keeps the low end clean and tight | Bass amp, little or no drive |
| Guitar side: octave | Adds a note an octave up so the bass reads as a guitar | Polyphonic octave pedal |
| Guitar side: dirt | Fuzz or heavy overdrive for the snarl | Fuzz or high-gain drive into a guitar amp |
| Hands | Drop tunings, slow riffs, hard attack | Tune with a chromatic tuner first |
A short history of the Royal Blood sound
Royal Blood are a two-piece rock band from Brighton, England: Mike Kerr on bass and vocals, and Ben Thatcher on drums. Their self-titled debut landed in 2014 and went straight to number one in the UK, and the thing everyone asked immediately was the same thing people still ask now. How are two people making that much noise. There is no guitarist. There is no second bassist. And yet it sounds like a full, heavy rock band.
The answer is that Kerr treats the bass as both instruments at once. Instead of playing bass and letting a missing guitar be a hole in the sound, he built a rig that fills the hole from the same strings. It was not a brand-new idea. Bass-and-drums duos had chased it before, and you can hear cousins of it in Death From Above 1979, in Muse's fuzz-bass moments, and in blues-rock two-pieces going back further. But Royal Blood made it the entire identity of the band, refined it into something clean and enormous, and got name-checked by Jimmy Page and Josh Homme for it. Four albums in, the split-bass sound is basically their signature.
The players and their gear
If you want to chase a sound honestly, it helps to know what the person actually did, so here is the documented version. The exact pedals in Mike Kerr's rig have changed over the years and a lot of the fine detail is kept close to the chest, but the core has stayed the same the whole time.
- A split signal. His bass hits a splitter and runs into two completely separate rigs at the same time. One path stays a bass. The other becomes a "guitar."
- The bass side stays clean and tight. A bass amp holds the low end, so no matter how filthy the top gets, the floor never disappears. This is the part most people skip, and it is the most important part.
- The guitar side gets fuzz and an octave. The second path runs a fuzz or heavy overdrive and a pitch-shifter set an octave up, into a guitar amp. That octave is what makes a bass read as a guitar sitting on top of itself. Kerr has leaned on octave and pitch-shifting pedals and big, aggressive amps to get there.
- Played hard, tuned low, kept simple. The parts are often in drop tunings, played with a heavy right hand, and left plenty of space. The tone does a lot of the work, so the riffs do not have to be busy.
Other people worth listening to for this same idea: Death From Above 1979 (nastier and more dance-punk), Tigercub and Nova Twins (modern takes), and Muse's Chris Wolstenholme any time the bass is doing the guitar's job. Same principle every time. One instrument, two roles.
How to get it: the Siesta plugin chain
You can build the split by hand with a real crossover, two amps, a fuzz and an octave pedal, and it is worth doing once so you understand it. I wrote the full routing walkthrough separately if you want to go deep: how to make one bass sound like a whole band. But the reason I built these plugins is so you do not have to rebuild that rig every time you change how hard you are playing. Here is the chain I would reach for.
The Royal Blood chain, in the box
- Tune down first. Most of these riffs live in drop tunings. Use the free Cafecito and its built-in chromatic tuner to get your bass into drop C or drop A cleanly before you commit.
- La Bestia on the bass track. This is the whole split in one plugin. It runs a clean bass rig and a fuzzed guitar rig at once, already gain-staged so the low end does not collapse. Turn Dirt up for the snarl, and set Blend so the "guitar" sits on top of the bass without swallowing it.
- Push it, then back off five percent. Get it to where it is almost too much, then ease off just slightly. That last touch of restraint is the difference between "huge" and "harsh."
- Optional: add Drown for extra doom. If you want it filthier and heavier than Royal Blood, follow La Bestia with Drown for a thicker fuzz. For a cleaner, punchier take, leave it off.
La Bestia splits your bass into a whole band
One bass through a clean bass rig and a fuzzed guitar rig at once, gain-staged so it hits hard without collapsing. Dirt drives both rigs, Blend balances the tight bottom against the screaming top. Mac, Windows and Linux, offline license, and if you grab it with Drown the discount comes off automatically.
Get La Bestia · $39 →Dialing it in
However you get the split, the same moves lock in the sound:
- Keep the bass rig cleaner than feels right. The weight you would lose to distortion is exactly the weight you are trying to keep.
- Let the "guitar" live in the mids. The guitar illusion sits around 800 Hz to 3 kHz, not in the highest highs. Push the mids on that side.
- Play slow and hit hard. This tone rewards space and a heavy hand, not fast riffing.
- Balance to the room, not the meter. Too much guitar rig and it thins out. Too little and it is just a fuzzy bass.
That is the Royal Blood sound, start to finish. One bass, split two ways, played like you mean it. Get the vibe instantly with the box up top, or take your time with the chain and make it your own.
Quick answers
What bass pedals does Royal Blood use?
The documented core is a signal splitter, an octave pedal and fuzz or heavy overdrive on the "guitar" side, with a cleaner bass amp holding the low end. The exact models have changed over the years, so match the roles rather than chasing a part list.
How does Royal Blood get their tone with only bass and drums?
Mike Kerr splits his bass into two rigs at once: a clean bass rig and a fuzzed, octave-up guitar rig. Blended together, one instrument covers both parts.
What tuning does Mike Kerr use?
Many Royal Blood riffs sit in drop tunings, which is why tuning down is the first step before you touch the tone.
Sources: Royal Blood, Royal Blood (2014 debut album, UK number one); Artist interviews and rig features on Mike Kerr's split bass setup.