I am pretty much a beginner at this aswell, but from what I gather is try not to make your kick too bottom heavy and add a bit of mid range bite to it. Then your bassline should (theoretically) sit underneath it so to speak. When you've got a bassline and a kick drum that you're reasonably happy with, stick them both through a compressor together to get the bass ducking under the kick, this should clean it up even more. In terms of creating funky basslines, if you're ever suffering from writers block, use the step designer or a step sequencer (Step Machin is good) on your bassline and keep hitting the random button until something inspires you. Some might say this is cheating, but who knows, maybe Mills made "The Bells" this way! haha, doubt it though. Anyway like I said, I'm no expert at any of this, so I wouldn't be suprised if my comments are corrected over the next few posts. :lol: