Help Getting This Bass Sound On Poly D

The Lounge General Discussion
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Hello all,

This is my first post on this forum.

I am a guitarist but recently got a Poly D to play around with.

Can anyone please help me get the bass sound at the beginning of this video demo, starting around 35 seconds:

Many thanks in advance!

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Hey! Welcome to the forum!

I’ll assume you know a bit about synthesis. If it’s not the case, you might want to find a quick video about the basics.

I would start with only one oscillator, sawtooth wave form and quite low foot settings, may be 16".

Amp enveloppe: attack set to 0% i.e. the shortest, sustain to 100%, decay let’s say 10-20%, release should be almost zeroed.
Filter envelope: attack set to 10-20% (i.e. slower than the amp envelope’s), susteain should be 50% or less. Set decay longer than for the amp, let’s say 20%, and release just as on the amp’s envelope.

Add resonance to the filter, lower the cutoff frequency and start adding envelope amount.

Play a bit and adjust filter and envelopes parameters to taste.

Finally, you can try to mix in -progressively- a second oscillator set as the first one.

Hope this helps!

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But how are you supposed to resist the temptation to crank up all the oscillators and detune them all across 8 octaves?

I wouldn’t be strong enough. Let us know how it turns out and good luck!

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Hey and thank you so much for taking time to answer this question!

I followed your suggestions and I got the sound! Amazing.

I know a little bit about synthesis, I watched lots of videos and went through Starsky Carr’s video series, but as I am just starting out there’s so much to get your head around and I am confused by synths of different features.

Do you know course or instructional videos specific to Minimoog or Poly D? Something with examples on how to create sounds.

And also, if you have time, could you also tell me how to make the pad sound from this video? I can make a pad sound but it doesn’t sound this good.

Many thanks for your help!

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Cool, glad it helped :slight_smile:

I’m not a good audience for youtubers… so I won’t be able to recommend anything particular. What I can say though is that the Minimoog is kind of the ABC of substractive synthesis. So any content you can find about substractive synthesis will help you for sure… and practising on your Poly D will teach you the basics without being distracted by too many features.

For the pad sound, I’m not sure which one you’re talking about… plus, as mentioned before, I’m terrible at staying in front of YT for minutes :wink:
That being said, I’m confident the patch you obtained for the bass is a good starting point. Now, think that way:

  • A pad is often used at higher pitches than a bass: increase the foot/octave settings of the oscillators;
  • A pad often starts and dies slower in volume: make the amp attack and release times longer;
  • Listen to how the “brightness” of the sound evolves: is it quicker? Slower? Adapt the filter envelope parameters. Is it deeper? Play with the filter envelope amount, and with the cutoff frequency as it will be the “base” setting for your filter.
  • Oh, you may want to play it polyphonically, not sure how to do it with your synth but do it.

Once you have the… structure of your pad, tweak the oscillators waveshapes and the filter resonance for changing the flavour of it (In many things, I personally need to have a global structure before focusing on details…)

To go further, you can try to change the octave settings of one oscillator (up or down) and try to mix it very low at first and then adjust…
Explore, I’m sure you’ll obtain several good pads on your way :slight_smile:

Finally, when you have a good pad, make envelopes attacks fastissimo, decays slower, filter brighter and enjoy your new stabs patch!

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That !
Fully agree

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I was talking about the pad sound from the above video. Sounds almost like a Juno 106 pad. I can get close to it but not quite.

And another thing- Poly D (or Minimoog) doe snot have the release control. Apparently, the release is the same as decay. In this case, what would you prioritise? You said “decay let’s say 10-20%, release should be almost zeroed”, so in this case, what would you prioritise?

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Good observation.
Well, turning the release off is like setting it to zero, so you can set the decay and turn the release off.

But more important than that: you should try different possibilities prioritise what sounds best to your ears :slight_smile:

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This is the thing- I don’t think you can turn it off on the Poly D. Rather, it is always set to the same values as Decay. Regardless, I think just using ears works! Many thanks again!

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There is a decay switch to the left of the loudness contour.

If it’s set to OFF, the decay will be whatever the decay knob is set to, and the release will be zero.

If it’s set to ON, the decay will be whatever the decay knob is set to, and the release will be the same as the decay,

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Cool! Thank you for clarifying!

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VoilĂ ! Thanks @Nils :slight_smile:

EDIT: The switch is strangely named, but well, you get it.

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