Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad McGowan
the synth patch is very fat and the parts are long sustained bass notes. So there's really not much attach or punch to work with...
From the description, it sounds like the problem is that the synth bass is playing the wrong part for these tunes. You're just not going to get 'punch' out of long slow sustained notes. Perhaps you need to retrack with a bass part that plays a lot of punchy percussive quarter notes instead of the pedal tones.
But aside from that, here are a few tips for punchy synth bass sounds (some of these may not be possible on some simpler synths):
Detuned oscs can fatten up a pad or lead sound, but they can cause annoying level fluctuations in a bass part. Try a bass patch with only one sawtooth osc or one fat pulse osc (like 53% duty cycle).
To add more oomph, add a hard-sync'd sine osc. This will boost the heck out of the fundamental while assuring that you don't get the level fluctuations of detuned oscs. If possible, mix this osc in AFTER the filter but before the VCA. You may need to invert the sync'd sine wave for best results.
If you still want some of the detuned osc fatness, try keeping one main osc at full level and one or two more detunes oscs at a much lower level.
24dB/octave filters often sound much punchier than 12dB or 18dB filters for bass sounds.
If your synth can do this, send some of the filter output back to the input creating a filter feedback loop. This will boost the low end a lot.
If possible, add a HIGHPASS filter (Yes, a HIGHPASS filter) after the standard LPF. Now set this HPF to track the keyboard 100% and tune it to the fundamental of the osc(s). Now crank up the resonance, and the HPF will boost the heck out of the fundamental.
If you want to get fancy, you can use a keyboard tracking multimode filter with simultaneous HP/BP/LP outs to split the signal and process the high, mid, and low harmonics separately and then mix them together again. For example, add some overdrive to the middle harmonics while keeping the fundamental and lowest harmonics clean.
DP