Best synths for round bass sounds?

[d1rtynyc]

Johnny-
Have you tried anything with a sub oscillator? For me just mixing in a sine in my sub round my bass out nice.
The Mopho has it & can do it pretty well as the Tetra.

[lain2097]

Juno 106 bass (16')+sub and low-pass filter down, wow.

Yeah FM is really great on low low bass too - my DX7 when programmed right can make my monitors rattle! Just eq the highs off or else its FM artefacts show up.

[jonnypowell]

Yeah, on both SH-5 and Code-6.
That will make a sound fuller but that's not what I'm after.. Not sure my description is doing me any justice..
If you refer to the examples I have you might get a better understanding of what I'm looking for.

[msl]

Sylenth gets me those kinda "Booka Shade" basses real easy. Virus too.

Personally I don't think the Mopho excels at those clean bass tones, or at least I can't program them as easily.



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[abayer]

FXpansion D-Cam: Strobe will nail it

[jonnypowell]

Originally Posted by msl

Sylenth gets me those kinda "Booka Shade" basses real easy. Virus too.

Personally I don't think the Mopho excels at those clean bass tones, or at least I can't program them as easily.



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I agree 100% re Mopho.. Couldn't get any sounds like that out of it.. Tried for hours.
Had a crack with the Virus today, and I simply don't like the sound of that thing. Doesn't sit in a mix either..

[centurymantra]

I am by no means a synth expert, though I love the classic analog synths. That being said, I recently had someone come over specifically to track some nice round bass synth for a song. They used a Studio Electronics ATC-X and I have gotta say that thing sounds very nice. The bass tone we got was beautiful. I'm not sure if it does the 'subby' thing as well, but I was digging pretty much all the tones they were pulling up with the machine.

[BlueHexagon]

DX7 oozes with round bass.

[rushton]

i like my voyager with a square and and triangle waves with a low cutoff

[relis]

Originally Posted by centurymantra

I am by no means a synth expert, though I love the classic analog synths. That being said, I recently had someone come over specifically to track some nice round bass synth for a song. They used a Studio Electronics ATC-X and I have gotta say that thing sounds very nice. The bass tone we got was beautiful. I'm not sure if it does the 'subby' thing as well, but I was digging pretty much all the tones they were pulling up with the machine.

Oh yes, ATC-X does sub basses on the dope, just make sure to turn the on-board analog distorsion a bit and your'e onto Juno's teritory.


For Juno's stereo wideness, something like EHX Stereo Chorus or MXR Stereo Chorus would be neccesary. I'm huntin' one of those for that purpose.


But it won't give the basses jonnypowell's mentioning. FM-synth, eather DX7, TX802, or similar, layered with Juno 60 sub-bass could do the job just right, imo.

Howard Jones once said he prefers DX7 basses over the old analog machines, due to DX's digital stability. In other words, it's easier to control them. Must agree on that.

[pyvnd]

NL3 does it. Tx81z did it. Fs1r has some great slinky bass too.

[msl]

Originally Posted by jonnypowell

I agree 100% re Mopho.. Couldn't get any sounds like that out of it.. Tried for hours.
Had a crack with the Virus today, and I simply don't like the sound of that thing. Doesn't sit in a mix either..

I've only had the Virus for a few weeks now, so far I like the basses I'm getting, but it can dominate the mix real easy if your not careful. Do try the Sylenth demo if you haven't, like with the Virus ignore the many trance presets, find a bass thats close and tweak it a bit, it really nails the whole Booka Shade sound.


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[THEODICY]

For round solid analog bass, I've found the yamaha cs-10 to pull it off really well. As long as midi is not an issue it might be one to check out.

[Oli]

I think for analogue sub bass, try something with a decent sine wave. Many switched square waves, which are good, but I think possibly not what you are looking for. I seem to recall an Oakley modular doing something like this in way which I really liked. Not certain if it would be your thing.

For FM bass, I rather like the Nord Modular 1, though it may tend to be a bit more grainy than what you want. For a smoother deep FM bass, the G2 works well for me. You could try the demo, if interested.

Some analogue filters will do really nice self oscillation basses, which can sound very round to me. Not all will self oscillate at really low frequencies, though.

Do you like the Neptune 2 basses?

[analogbass]

Sounds like that are so easily obtained with most analogs that i think you have to go back to the drawing board and learn/understand better how to program. After which it will be unnecessary to buy anything else unless you're hooked on a specific sound for a particular source.

[Dave Peck]

Rather than suggesting this synth or that synth, here's a few tips & tricks for bass sounds that can be applied to many synths:

1. Boost the fundamental by using a second osc, set to sine wave, tuned to the same pitch as the main osc and and hard sync'd to the main osc.

2. If your synth has two filters that can be patched in series, boost the fundamental using a second filter that is set to HIGH PASS (yes, that's right, high pass) and tune this HPF to the same pitch as the osc, set KYBD TRACKING to 100% and crank the resonance. This will cause the resonance to boost the fundamental of the osc.

3. If your filter has variable slopes, you may find that 24dB works better than 18 or 12dB.

4. For a bigger sound, you may want to add one or more detuned oscs, but for a bass sound this will usually work best if you keep the volume of the detuned oscs lower than the volume of the main osc. Bring them up just enough to add some motion but not enough to cause drastic changes in the overall level as the oscs move in & out of phase.

5. If your synth can add waveshaping or distortion to the individual oscs before sending them to the filter (like a Waldorf, a Nord Modular, or a hardware modular) try applying waveshaping to the osc to "round off" the sawtooth wave before filtering it. This will increase the levels of lower harmonics in the waveform.

6. On some synths like the Oberheim Matrix 6/M1000, the sawtooth wave can be shaped between sawtooth and triangle. Try setting the sawtooth just slightly toward triangle, just enough to get rid of the vertical edge of the waveform. This will greatly reduce all of the high harmonics.

[monads]

great tips Dave! I usually stack up oscillators, detune the 2nd & 3rd and play around with the filter settings. It's pretty easy on the Cwejman Mk2, but I always have the song playing in the background to see how the bass will sit.

monads

[peglegjoe857]

Originally Posted by pyvnd

NL3 does it. Tx81z did it. Fs1r has some great slinky bass too.

Yes Yes. TX-81Z. This is THE machine for this sound. Lately bass. Lately bass.

[Beermaster]

Originally Posted by BlueHexagon

DX7 oozes with round bass.

Naaaarrr

DX does not sound round it sound digital - great for twangy bass but no real filters and no resonance and no VCO so NOT round !


To get Round sounding bass tones use a square-ish wave from an analogue synth and maybe add a bit of pulse width modulation at a slow lfo rate and depth

Beer

[peglegjoe857]

SH-101 bass is always right. Also Larry Heard used the Juno's for all his stuff, he gets pretty dope, round, bouncy sounding bass.

But digital can do good bass, it just aint analog bass. Darker, tighter, and sometimes cheesy on it's own... but surrounded by a few things it sounds dope.

[inthere]

If you want something that will out solid bass the solid bass sound, nothing gets fatter bass sounds than a TB-303. Just resist the temptation to do live tweaking like all the acid house wannabes.

SE-1 Blue is also great.

[nofi]

Originally Posted by jonnypowell

A good example of the bass I'm talking about is the DX preset - Solid Bass or can be heard on a lot of Booka Shade tracks..

just buy a TX81z. it does the sound you're wanting, takes up 1u of rack space, and will cost you about $100 on ebay. I think "solid bass" is actually a DX100 preset, but the tx81z can load that into it. also tx81z has "lately bass" which is also an awesome if very recognisable sound.
:-)

I found the JD800 could do something reminiscent of the tx81z bass tonality with its bass sounds, but using a more normal subtractive synth architecture which gives you a lot more control over the sound... but I don't think they're really worth what they have been selling for on ebay lately.

[kilon]

Originally Posted by Beermaster

Naaaarrr

DX does not sound round it sound digital - great for twangy bass but no real filters and no resonance and no VCO so NOT round !


To get Round sounding bass tones use a square-ish wave from an analogue synth and maybe add a bit of pulse width modulation at a slow lfo rate and depth

Beer

fm does not need filter or resonance and can sound round if you know how to programm fm.

[jonnypowell]

Originally Posted by Beermaster

Naaaarrr

DX does not sound round it sound digital - great for twangy bass but no real filters and no resonance and no VCO so NOT round !


To get Round sounding bass tones use a square-ish wave from an analogue synth and maybe add a bit of pulse width modulation at a slow lfo rate and depth

Beer

Have to disagree with you here.. Some of the DX bass I've heard is very round.
Basically I want a clean sound with no bite too it. Am yet to ever hear this from an analogue. If someone thinks elsewise I'd love to hear some examples??

[diogo_c]

I'm glad no one mentioned Wardolf Pulse - that thing can get you looooow!

[peglegjoe857]

Yes, actually the TX-81Z will set you back less than 100. I got mine for 45 bucks, and that's after shipping costs. They are really cheap right now, have more waveforms than just sine as in the earlier DX (which makes up for being only a 4 operator), they are 8 voice multi making them great units for digital percussion, and yes.. only 1 U of space!

And the lately bass! I showed the machine to my buddy, who is more of an analog guy, and he says "damn... I would buy that thing JUST for the presets". I have a kenton and love making my own sounds with it, but there are several good presets that with a little reverb sounds great.

You should just eat top ramen for your next two meals and buy a TX-81Z with the money you saved.

[jonnypowell]

Originally Posted by diogo_c

I'm glad no one mentioned Wardolf Pulse - that thing can get you looooow!

It's not low bass we're talking about though.. Clean, Round bass is what I'm after..
Owned a waldorf pulse and it still had too much bite..
Someone mentioned the NL3, and I actually used to get lots of nice round bass sounds from that, but once again I didnt like the way it sat in a mix..

[danielb]

+1 for Sylenth1 and Access Virus. Both are rather underrated for bass but do it really well.

I have an old Emax II sampler, that does bass that can move furniture.

Also, the above mentioned DX Solid Bass sound is pretty good. It is not only a DX100 preset, it also appears on he DX-21 and the FB-01, both of which will cost less than the little little plastic fantastic.

However, one of the best bass sounds I have ever made was done by sampling the DX-21 Solid Bass into the Emax II and processing it with the Emax filters. Absolutely awesome bass sound.

[beingmf]

jonnypowell, i think i now what sound you're after, after you've mentioned that the Pulse and NordLead didn't persuade. if you can't get the sound you're after with a
- SE1
- ATC-1
- Juno106
or digitally
- TX802
- FM Heaven VST
something's wrong with your monitors or room. or you listen too loud (i know same advice every time, but there's the rub most of the time).

have you seen this thread btw: Booka Shade

everything ITB...