The newer firmware allows access to nearly every under the hood parameter with quickly-learned set of gestures that become pretty intuitive. Hard sync, osc reset etc all from the front panel. Same for the lfo waveforms, etc.
The sub phatty is nice but it is less frequency stable, takes longer to warm up, and has a keyboard making it much larger than necessary and I prefer the Minitaur sounds. It has a character, for sure. But I wouldn’t call it rubbery, and I would definitely call it immense.
Again, to each their taste. But the boom star costs far too much for what you get, imo, and it’s controls are definitely on the fiddly side. To me studio electronics stuff sounds thinner and more modern, which is fine too, but I wouldn’t call it any more flexible or versatile than the Moog by any means.
How high can the minitaur go? The bass sounds are huge, but me personally I don’t like the idea of buying a synth only for bass, when there are other synths, that are good at bass and leads etc
Yes, for such a relatively simple architecture it’s a very very musical synth. It’s a quite good value too. I would say there are “different” bass synths and different synths that do bass well (heck, the Novation Bass Station II does bass very well, but I would by no means say “better”), and most other synths are not limited in range, but then again most of them compromise a purity of focus for more versatility. That’s another reason why I find the Minitaur so particularly wonderful for this sort of thing - it’s single-minded focus makes it a monster.
Off topic, but only slightly: the SH-01 in 4-voice unison also makes some really delicious bass sounds, but in an entirely different direction. I do love a poly-unison bass, too. But those take quite a bit of tweaking to get really meaty as they tend to get phase cancellation and other nasty side effects if you don’t really take care in your patch design.
I really dig MFB Dominion Club. Great for both bass & leads as it boasts 2 oscs, 2 sub oscs, noise generator and an FM digital osc. It also has 2 lfo’s seq/arp that can be motion recorded. A pretty slick analog mono indeed!
Consider the Korg Monologue. It’s not usually considered a bass monster, but in the right hands it is a quite capable bass synth thanks to the 2nd OSC which can act as a SUB OSC, and (my favorite feature) the snappy shared filter/amp envelope.
The filter self resonates and can be its own OSC and shape/pwm go a long way on both of the main OSCs.
And it sits nicely in a mix.
I’m also keen for an easy but weird semi-modular desktop synth. Miss the patching madness of my ms20 mini, but the form factor of that thing is hard to work around. Pittsburgh Microvolt is probably the main contender just now…
Personally I still think it’s helpful when people make suggestions even if it’s a little outside of what the OP is asking (yet still fits the majority of the requirements) seeing how numerous people read these threads.
& never know…someone could suggest a mono synth for bass, that has keys, yet the OP has never heard of it, OP pulls up demos to listen & finds it to have the exact sound he is looking for. The need for no keys could become less important.
Never used it, but I thought the Minibrute 2s sounded pretty good from demos…has pads tho…but no keys
Minitaur:
It seems to be true that the resonance is thinning out the low frequencies, as most Moog ladder filter do. But AFAIK it is not as extreme as on the Minimoog-Model-D or the Voyager. Moog and some reviewers on YT say that the Minitaur has circuits, which keep the low frequencies as strong as possible. AFAIK the Minitaur will shake your speakers most
Minimoogs:
Minimoog Model-D and Voyager show the effect of reduced low frequencies quite strong, but that is known from Moog synths and I think, most clones will show it as well.
But it might be different with the Phatties. My Sub37 can keep the low frequencies quite well, if the feedback and the Multidrive are used.
Nyborg 24:
Similar to Moog style filter …
Nyborg 12: (Telemark ↔ SEM like filter)
I Don’t have this device, but a Fusebox and a SEM, which should be similar to the Nyborg 12. The SEM filter, which is in those units, is very different from the Moog ladder filter. It’s 12 dB/oct vs 24 dB/oct and it’s variable-state filter vs LP. If I compare the sound of the SEM filters to the sound of a ladder filter, I would say, the bass sounds are quite different. Both can give us deep and strong basses, but the SEM will have more of high harmonics in the tone and is in my opinion more creamy and brassy compared to Moog. The Moog sounds seem to be more smacky and smudgy.
Behringer Neutron:
Generates very good bass sounds with much low end thanks to it’s Moffat filter.
I compared Moog, Oberheim SEM, and Moffat filters in the studio. All can give us great basses, but with quite different timbres. I recommend to compare and decide, which is best for you.
Thanks for the useful comparison! I was looking into the Neutron and it seems the oscillators run into the filter too hot, causing it to be overdriven unless you patch in attenuation. Did you run into this?
There are facilities to do this, but we don’t need to use them. There is a particular drive-knob in the VCA section. If this is not set to zero, the sound is quite hot and overdriven before it hits the filter. Maybe you run into this?
Sounds awesome in demos and is damn cheap. But takes more space
