Mono Synth for bass

The Lounge Other Gear
#1

Hey friends, I need some help…

I just finished one more album and finally had the chance to get rid of a bunch of gear to put a Digitone in the studio, I am now looking for a new monosynth… (Just sold a Bass Station 2, nice synth, too vanilla, don’t need the keyboard).
With this new flood of monosynths in the market I am kinda lost tbh…
I am looking for something small, without a keyboard. The monosynth would pair with this gear below and handle bass. I want something that can be massive on its own, with a lots of sub content and character. Analog is a must, because all of my synths are digital. Important to have great filter, bonus points if does not remove bottom end while being resonant (mother 32 for example). Anyone got recomendations? Would be nice to hear your experiences…

My current studio is:

  • Novation Peak
  • Digitakt
  • Digitone
  • Roland Ju-06
  • Google Nsynth Super

Some information about my music: Mostly Eletronica, Lounge, Deep House, Dub Techno. You can hear it on my profile.

Currently eyeballing: Moog Minitaur, Behringer Model D, Analogue Solutions Nyborg…

:zombie:

#2

afaik that’s a ladder filter thing, so I assume minitaur behaves in a similar way.
But it’s very often recommended as bass synth

#3

Oh, didn’t know that!
I guess that is not a huge downside anyway, but I thought is specially noticiable on the Mommy32 filter sweep…

#4

Minimoog has this, too I believe

#5

Behringer Model D - I love mine it’s so cheap as well …

#6

Neutron has an incredible/consistent low register and has character by the bucket full, super musical oscillators/filter and nasty too - not to mention patch fun and paraphony and a stunning BBD - only criticism is that the PSU cable is shorter than some and the knobs aren’t marked super clearly (as per moog)

check one out in store or scan the positive reviews, absolutely not just for the modular crowd either

3 Likes
#7

I’d say Model D for sure but I prefer my Grandmother. The G’Ma is far more versatile than some of the others and stays in tune a lot better than the Boog.

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#8

Pioneer AS-1.

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#9

AS-1 is a good shout. SE-02 as well despite the filter behaviour.

#10

I have an neutron and on that BBD I find the mix knob a little underwhelming as it takes so much away from the main out… I was wondering about using the BBD directly by patching external gear through it in isolation… plus I have enjoyed using my neutron as a filter box by patching a pocket operator in, using an SQ1 to sync the PO and CV to control the filters on the neutron… personally I am not a massive fan of the pure oscillator sound from the neutron but as far as additional features i dont think can be beaten… on the subject of a pure bass synth I personally would still pick the model D

1 Like
#11

Minitaur, no question. Excellent price, tons of synth for your money, huge feature set, and terrific bass sound. Filter is great, no worries about resonance losing oomph.

And, the resonant LPF losing bass thing is not entirely accurate - what happens is that as you increase the Q, the peak stays at, say, unity gain and the bandpass region will drop in comparison to the peak, thus sounding weaker - this is more or less how Q is supposed to work, although different filter implementations balance the gain at Q versus dropping the bandpass region differently. Multimode filters usually have the hardest time with this, from my experience, so dedicated LPFs tend to be better - the Moog ladder filters are usually quite good at bass response as pointed out already, but they aren’t the only topology to do this well. That said, you could theoretically implement a ladder filter that does exhibit a drop in the bandpass region as Q increases.

I own a Subsequent 37 and a Minitaur. The Minitaur filter tends to leave much more bass in as resonance increases, but the '37 happily chops it right off - this is partly due to the much larger range of Q on the '37 (a desirable feature) and partly due to the fact that the '37 is much more tightly gainstaged internally - not a bad thing, but one to be aware of when doing sound design. Both are capable of earthshaking bass, but the Minitaur has that squarely in it’s sweet spot and the '37, for me at least, takes a bit more working to get to.

The answer in all cases is simply to adjust either the volume or the amp levels in conjunction with the filter if you find that your preferred synth has an issue with this.

But, if you’re looking for a high quality, portable, and insanely capable little bass synth, you won’t go wrong with the Minitaur at all. The latest software for it gives it pretty much all the fully modern synth features like patch storage/recall, full MIDI integration, and true DAHDSR filters.

6 Likes
#12

tell you what looks cool the ELTA Music Polivoks Mini Desktop Analogue Synthesiser !!

1 Like
#13

Thank you so much for the thoroughly detailed explanation my friend, now I am really interested on the Minitaur, the size is excellent indeed, and I am a sucker for the moog tone…

2 Likes
#14

Ha ha you’ll get a zillion different recommendations and your brain will be fried:

I nominate the Nyborg 24 for bass and no resonance issues:

Here’s an all Nyborg song (bar percussion as I was probably feeling lazy)

ex demo on reverb: https://reverb.com/item/15434810-analogue-solutions-nyborg-24-analog-synth

Here’s the Nyborg 24, Fusebox and Treadstone(worth a look also) running a mix up along with the Octatrack (A Eurovision themed mix up so expect a strange choice of songs :slight_smile: ) Loads of Treadstone tweaking in this so you can see how flexible it is and fast to use on the fly.

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#15

Here in Canada a Nyborg costs twice (after import, duties, etc) what a Minitaur costs. It’s a great synth, and if you have the cash for it, go for it! But for what you get with a Minitaur, at half the price, it’s not even a question in my mind. Of course, it’s all a matter of taste after that.

1 Like
#16

Resonance amplifies frequencies at the cutoff frequency, emphasizing any signal frequencies that appear there.
image

#17

Exactly. There are two ways you can accomplish this: let the peak rise above the nominal gain of bandpass region, or keep the maximum gain the same and thus, as the peak extends, the bandpass region itself must by definition drop.

2 Likes
#18

The Minotaur is great for bass, and it doesn’t lose bottom when you raise the Q, the filter is specifically tailored for this. I say go with that one! Behringer D does lose bass with high resonance.

1 Like
#19

Have you taken a look at the Dreadbox line of monosynths? Either the Nyx or Erebus would satisfy those bass needs.

#20

I’d say Sub Phatty all day, but if it must be without keyboard and as you say, you’re a sucker for the Moog thang, check out an SE Boomstar 5089… Those things sound immense.

The Minitaur is cool, but so much of it is under the hood that it’s frustrating to dial in and to me, it’s limited in the sound pallette. It’s very very good at those squelchy or perhaps ‘rubbery’ bass sounds, but harder to get much variety out of than other synths.