Hey folks!
Lately I am looking for some piece of hardware to make some deep bass lines. The DN is not getting me there and the microKorg is almost getting me there but not quite. What would you recommend / what are people using for this to make the deep bass lines in (neo) Deep House … like Extrawelt etc.? Should I take a deeper look at the boutique Synths from Roland (Ju-06 or SH-01)? Or is a bass station 2 maybe more what I want?
Sh01a is certainly great for bass and is very immediate. Ju06 should go in the same direction (juno basses are great)
Bass station 2 has also rolandy character and is an awesome synth for the price. Gives you more functions, a second oscillator and full size keys for probably less money. Also the bigger knobs are better for fine adjustments, i found that a bit hard on the sh01a.
If you want something portable then the boutiques have their advantage 
Other cheap analogs for bass would be the korg monolog and the new behringers model d and neutron.
well i would recommend the only boutique by Roland that is driven by Voltage Controlled Oscillators … the se-02 (the letters stand for Studio Electronics as the unit is a collab project).
unreservedly recommend this delightful instrument of lush and tough bass vibes.
but then again i am in the “honeymoon phase” of the first three months or whatevs, so perhaps my enthusiasm should be tempered with a few grains of salt.
it does take some exploring although i was smitten with the first patch sound. everything else is a bonus.
playing an OB6 alongside it and the se-02 easily holds its own, as regards richness and sound design options.
also the se02 is cool for lead sounds. has its own unique and workable character.
the OB6 is truly awesome - i certainly intend to use some OB6 bass sounds for tracks, but no more than half the time. and the se-02 will also be featuring on melody vibes some of the time.
it’s that good.
all that said, everyone has their own tastes and directions, and right now i’m simply luxuriating in the resonant warmth of the voltage controlled oscillator experience. but that isn’t to say that digital synths don’t interest me. it’s just that i haven’t played analogue synthesizers in such a long time, so that is most likely influencing my extravagant sense of appreciation.
Korg Monologue is good, relatively cheap and small in size. Does great bass.
Even the korg volcas are pretty great i saw a set on saturday where a volca bass and kick were smashing out dark, heavy bass lines. Generally you are safe with anything that has a decent filter on it, and then something to saturate or distort it a bit afterwards. The oscillators aren’t as important (in my opinion), as you can get deep bass from almost anything, because it’s just about having fundamentals in that 20-200khz range.
Depends on your personal taste and how much you would like to invest.
I suggest to check out this uncomplete list of synths, which have not been mentioned yet - I think - and are well known to deliver deep basses:
) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfD8RmALHwQ )Generally speaking, we can create great deep analogue basses if we have and use:
There is one thing to be mentioned. If we focus on very low end sounds, we can loose definition. Sometimes it can be hard to tell, what the pitch is supposed to be. To prevent this, it’s sometimes a good idea, to add some mid- and/or high-range partials, which will tell the pitch.
I love my Korg Monologue. Big bass sounds from that fella. The envelope section is a bit weak, though, as it only has one, with no sustain. However, that doesn’t actually stop you making punchy, fat and very warm/analogue bass sounds. Plus it gets weird if you want it to, thanks in no small amount to the LFO, which is a lot of fun.
I’ve also just got an Arturia Microbrute, which is also pretty good, but can’t store presets, so has to be used in a different way.
I have a really hard time to get a grasp of the capabilities of those synths from all those youtube videos. None of the demos convinced me at all - they all make generic weird sounds - great - but not what I am looking for. And I have watched a lot of demos in the past weeks.
Guess I have to try those you all recommended myself in a store. The microKorg makes awesome bass and has everything you mentioned, right? …so I guess I should stick to that for now. Just have started to make music anyways.
And having the Moog D on the iPad is also nice for getting into bass lines for a start.
Thanks for the input everyone!
You can get great basses out of a microKorg and a model D app for sure! no doubt.
Here is a example of the neutron (8:03). Doesn’t sound like a generic weird sound to me.
For sure … that one doesn‘t sound weird. But actually that sounds like I could achieve similar sounds with my microKorg without spending 500 bucks or even more.
Probably I have more of a problem using the synths in the right way to achieve what I am looking for and less the synths itself which are more or less all capable of creating the sound I am after.
for what kind of bass you are looking for??
Deep dub style bass for dub techno etc?
Best is to go with sinewaves and add a little saturation to get some overtones.
You can run it through a tape plugin to get some more lowend or use 2 or 3 compressors serial, dipping 1 - 2 db each - which is a common trick by dub producers.
The digitone does earth shaking bass (because its basicly all based on sinewaves modulation each other)
Korg Volca bass is great too … but not really earth shaking. The oscilators have no phase reset … so if you using all 3 osc detuned you will get this kind of soft attack on some notes.
Aturia Minibrute has also sinewave osc 2 octaves down, which can go really deep.
for example:
One reason for the microKorg not getting you there exactly, might be that it is a VA-synth. To get this thick “humpf” at the bottom end or this warm and thick growling, I have to use real analogue synths. Even a Virus or System 8 wouldn’t get me there.
It depends, wheter you want to get more a classic creamy bass sound or a more modern gritty tone. Sometimes a synth excels at the one or the other. An audio example of your dream bass would be helpful to narrow down the selection.
Well …those melodic, dark but euphoric bass like Boris Brejcha, Extrawelt … and everybody else is using in that kind of music. I suppose most of them are using old synths like the Juno and Moogs?
Here‘s another example:
Now this is an excellent example.
Let me make an educated guess. This deep growling bass might be based on the use of frequency modulation of the filter by using an audio-range oscillator to modulate the cut-off frequency. In this case I would make my first try with a triangle wave to modulate the filter (or a sine-wave).
I don’t know much about the microKorg. But if there is no OSC–>Filter modulation, or the LFO doesn’t support audio-range modulation, this kind of sound - if my guess is right - migth be not possible. Many digital synths of some age don’t support audio-range LFOs.
But a synth having VCO-out to filter-frequ-in modulation (most semimodular do, some standard like the Voyager or the Matrixbrute do too) or a fast enough LFO could do the job.
do you see the grey SH101 on the photo?
I always recommend the Shruthi 1… Amazing synth, probably the most portable. If you are looking for cheap and you don’t need the keys, is a great option IMHO.
Not 1-knob-per- function though…
I really wanted a Minitaur back in the day when I got it - amazing deep bass… But more limited in options, and more expensive ( although since then they’ve added some features)
As some said, iOS is getting better with some really really good sounding synths
immediate impression was maybe a sh101 layered with a model D moog or a Jupiter 8.
volca fm or any fm synth. If the Digitone is not getting you there you may be in trouble.
There might be a chance that you will not arrive there.
You got me on the right track.
Of course the growling (the word I was missing) is from a LFO. So I just patched that in the microKorg onto the amp and cutoff and boom there we are.