Bass synth

Thank you guys for all the good recommendations and hints. Instead of listen to even more sound demos, i grabed my Mininova and tweaked it for the last three hours with some success. It doesn’t sound exactly like a Minitaur but with some tweaking it is possible to design sounds which are close enough for me and i’m sure i can even get more out of the synth with more time. And if i really have the need for another synth in the future, i can come back to this thread and check the recommendations again. :slight_smile:

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Yes, almost unbelievable that they choose that colour! Feature and sound wise it seems pretty tasty though.

You really won’t get a hardware digital synth that will compete with the analog monosynths for bass. The difference becomes apparent in the mix.

Or, you could put the Mininova through some analog overdrive /compression box (or pedal) …

Respectfully disagree.
Heaps of digital hardware and softsynths as good if not better with the options digital can only provide.
Wavetable synthesis a number one candidate for incredible bass

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Fm Basses as well. Incredible low end punch

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How bout we layer a huge fat analog bass with a super deep punchy digital one and call it good… :smile:

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Hopefully it’s good with no phase issues :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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than then we cut the super huge low end with an eq cause it doesn’t fit in the mix :wink:

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What if out of the two we made one waveform with 50/50 duty cycle?
analog waveform: AAAA
digital waveform: DDDD
new waveform: AAAADDDDAAAADDDD
:thinking:

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Less is more imo
You don’t want the bass getting weird, phasy and muddy by combining too much.
My bass patches generally only consist of two oscillators max.
One main oscillator and a sub oscillator one or 2 octaves below.
Phase reset on key trigger critical imo, particularly on rolling type basses.
As usual a good eq is absolutely critical to sculpt the bass.
Compression not so much, just a little ideally with adjustable high pass sidechain to not crush the lows

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It all depends on taste and style.
There are endless types of different bass sounds.

I said “hardware” and I stand by that statement. Unless you want FM bass.

I am not an elitist, but I do have some experience in synthesis, And I don’t like the mininova at all.
I bought one many years ago, tempted by all it’s features, and I am glad I sold it.
It just doesn’t sound good, even the most simple patches, and with great attention to gain staging sound unclear and pastered. Effects sound ugly. Programing is difficult due to the interface, exacerbated by all the features it has, and the keys are some of the worst i have played.
If you aren’t happy neither but need a polysynth in that format and price range, maybe try something like a microkorg XL+. It is also hard to program because of menu diving but sounds much clearer and the effects are well crafted, also the minikeys play better than the mininova’s

I’m having a Dominion 1 for bass duties and you can pry that from my cold dead hands. So - for the specs I would really consider Dominion Club.

Yes and it saves some money. :slight_smile:

I guess it is that “warmth” and “imperfection” which i miss in the sound. The Mininova has some features to make the sound somewhat less digital, i’ll see if that helps.

I guess i know what you mean. I also bought it mainly because of value vs price and used it just as preset box most of the times. The menu structure is very very deep, which is due to the many functions. I don’t even understand every parameter or know exactly what it does yet, but that is the point why i will give it another try. I ereased all patches from the Mininova and start to build my own. As noted before, i was really surprised what i can get out of it. Sure, i would prefer a decent little bass synth with a knob for every function which would be much faster for creating patches, but that will come next if i’m really not able to create the sounds with the Mininova.

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To be honest you don’t need anything very fancy or complex for bass synths - most things can sound decent with a bit of detune and drive. Have you fully tested the gear you have to be sure you can’t get the sound from it? I was using my blofeld with unison and non-retriggering envelopes today and it sounds killer for bass.

Nice.

I’m on it. :slight_smile:

Take a look at the analogue solutions treadstone, it’s perfect for nice analog bass.

It’s only new out and is tiny and powerful.

Here’ a demo of it, multi track into Logic.

No effects or post mixing applied just the dry sound:

And no temptation to use shitty presets as it has none :slight_smile:

Sorry, I haven’t read your positive experience!
If you are getting somewhere with it Then go for it!

I honestly think almost any synth can create great bass.
Comes down to eq and or filter and envelopes really.
Not much if any modulation needed so any modern crappy hardware synth, either analog or digital is fine with the right programming