Ultimate Bassline synth

The Lounge Other Gear
364

From the synths I no longer own:

  • Moog Minimoog

From the synths I own now:

  • Behringer Model 15 is the fattest
  • Novation Summit is the most versatile. I’ll sometimes double the Summit with the PRO-800 at about 20% of the volume (like having an extra oscillator) and it gives it a sound that’s both modern & analog.
  • REV2 is also a versatile synth and there’s videos on how to do a dub bass. The unison mode allows you to stack all the available voices and you combine that with the ‘slop’ knob and various LFO’s.
  • Digitone 2 has quite a few trance, dance, & atmospheric patches. The Octobass patch sounds like something you’d hear in a dance break. You can customize with filters, lowering the bit depth, and stacking it with another bass. And of course, FM is always good with those acoustic walking bass patches.
  • Behringer Proton is not the fattest but it’s the wildest and can get you some fun chiptune stuff

It just depends on what you’re going for.

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Moog DFAM: It’s just perfect! I don’t use the sequencer — I turn it off for both oscillators and tune Oscillator 2. It’s sequenced by the Oxi One. Slow Envelope mode, pretty short decay adjusted, and mostly just Oscillator 2 as a Triangle with no or very little resonance. I use the resonance basically to get rid of a bit of the low end if it’s too much. It’s a balance between the resonance and the length of the envelope. The oscillator, filter, and envelopes are just ace-tuned for bass duties.

Another cool thing: the pitch envelope! This way you can make it nicely funky — “portamento”-like, but in its own style. I combine it with glide on the Oxi. Ace for groovy sub-bass that fits perfectly with the kick. But you can make many other bass types with it: add a bit of filter envelope, FM from Osc 1, or use the square wave.

I’ve sometimes thought about replacing it with a smaller analog oscillator + filter to have it in my Eurorack case, but there’s no replacement because every part is so well-tuned in the DFAM. Absolute bass machine — and of course, you still always have the opportunity to do the you-know “DFAM thing” with the integrated fun sequencer and make those 8-step techno sequences. But for me it’s much more important as a bass module sequenced by my main sequencer.

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I’m also using a Pro-1 for bass sounds at the moment and really like it. I find it to be a nice combination of the analogue grunt and pretty snappy (digital?) envelopes, so you can get a really nice bass pluck out of it. However, the filter resonance can really fuck up your sound as you say. It would be great if it had the option of resonance compensation, although I guess then it wouldn’t have been so cheap.

Although I often like to high-pass my bass synths and add a clean, digital sub bass beneath them, so that fixes it to an extent.

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Pioneer Toraiz AS-1. Like a modern Pro-1 in mini desktop form. Tight envelopes.

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Model D is the fattest I have by far. Great leads too. It just sounds very alive and thick.

Sometimes I use my two Neutrons stacked. It is cool because resonance does not eat the low end.

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I really need to try sequencing my DFAM with the Oxi One. It’s easy to forget the oscillators can be played like a ‘normal’ synth rather than mangled by the sequencer. :smiley:

As for me, I’m still using the DB-01 for bass duties. Not necessarily for the sound (which I happen to really like) but for the immediacy of playing the scale-locked arp into the sequencer then messing with the LFO. It’s such a simple thing on paper but it will never get old for me…:joy:

I picked up an Uno Synth Pro X for dirt cheap. That thing is incredibly for analogue bass duties, the best in class for the price point and far beyond I’d say. I just haven’t enjoyed using it as much as the DB-01 because there’s so much more going on with it. Need to dig into it more but can’t recommend it enough, especially for the prices at the moment.

I’m very interested in the Wirehead Instruments Basilisk and Freaq FM. Those look like perfect little desktop bass brutes.

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I absolutely love what you can get out of the DFAM if you bypass the internal envelopes and the sequencer. Just get like 4-5 CV signals coming from the Oxi, and you’ll get an amazing mono.

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Sequencer bypassing yes ! The envelopes ? No, they are really good ! For bass just switch them to slow response!

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Yes! The DFAM sequencer action is funny, but yeah… it gets a bit old for me and it’s a bit cumbersome to always keep it in sync with the other sequencers. For the bassline I mostly don’t want trigs on the kicks, and when I stop my setup and want to restart, I have to adjust the DFAM sequencer back to the last step before triggering it again — and I want it to be in tune too, so that’s why I switched up the usage a bit.

Instructions for Oxi → DFAM marriage (till they die…) :clown_face:
Turn off the sequencer for both oscillators. Just put the sequencer step on step 1 (I use the first step) = full velocity and pitch full CCW. If it’s fully warmed up, then the VCO 2 pitch knob is mostly tuned right in the middle. Can vary a bit from unit to unit.

Like mentioned: slow response for the envelope and VCA envelope decay between 11 and 12 o’ clock. No filter resonance, and triangle waveform. Patch pitch CV from the Oxi into VCO 2 CV, and gate out from the Oxi into trigger.

Filter cutoff around 11 o’clock, no filter envelope amount. Mixer: VCO 1 full CCW, noise full CCW and VCO 2 = full CW (full volume) = already very nice subbass territory. Now adjust the pitch envelope length between 11 o’clock and 12 o’clock. Now give VCO 2 a slight negative offset (turn it a bit to the left) for the VCO 2 EG. Uff… MORE FUNKY subbass!

From here you can experiment: open the filter a bit more, or give it some filter envelope amount, or use a bit (or more) FM from OSC 1 (which is still muted on the mixer) and filter it heavy. I like triangle a bit more because I like the bass nice siney/subby to blend with the kick. But yeah, the tools are there for all different tastes. I play it pretty low, but of course you can try different octaves.

And I think it’s really a bargain when you look at it from the Eurorack perspective. You get 2 oscillators, a multimode filter, 3 envelopes, countless VCAs, FM, noise… and it’s all really good OG Moog quality, and you can patch nearly all of it however you want. Try getting that as separate modules and look at the bill! :slight_smile:

And it just sounds nice and hey, IT’S A MOOG! Bass in your face! :facepunch:

We are in a crazy time for musicians. There is so much choice! I can’t even keep up anymore! It’s not just this and that product by that company anymore. For me it’s: oh, I didn’t know a company like this — Wirehead! Looks ace. DB.01 is cool too! All good tools! So many choices! We are spoiled. I just don’t need more sequencers. It’s the TR-1000 for drums and the rest by the Oxi. I only have two hands to perform with, and my brain capacity is starting to send me a “full capacity” message! I guess it’s the age and information overflow kicking in! But yeah, we are so blessed with the choices! Exciting times!

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I can’t wait to try this out, can’t get enough FUNKY BASS. :smiley: Thanks for sharing!

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Nothing wrong with the built-in envelopes, but I prefer the flexibility of ADSR envelopes when I’m not making percussion. It’s a personal preference thing, of course.

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Prophet 10, OB-X8 and P12, all 3 are pretty great for synth bass. Nonetheless, for funky bass, Osmose is more expressive than anything analog.

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Tempest, because flexible, and envelopes are steep.

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An alternative way to use the sequencer on the dfam is to use each step as a different state. Almost like a preset. Manually hit advance step and now it has more noise or cutoff. Or maybe the oscillators are tuned to a 5th. Dfam is killer for bass and can get funky or acidic. Wish it had pwm.