I am continually disappointed with the sounds of the vsti's in the basslines i make. I have used junglist, oddity, mercury, and synth-1. every one else on the planet seems to have success with these, i am trying to create that deep whoomp kind of bass that hits you in the body, without sacrifcing kick and bass drums, actually if any one has hints on their techniques, for making their bass sound, or for mixing it in it would be greatly appreciated. Also I was wondering if anyone has had good success with deep bass with the likes of trilogy, or the new arturia moog, and if they are worth buying, because i bought stylus and i hate it, so trilogy worries me a bit.

reddwarf wrote:

I am continually disappointed with the sounds of the vsti's in the basslines i make. I have used junglist, oddity, mercury, and synth-1. every one else on the planet seems to have success with these, i am trying to create that deep whoomp kind of bass that hits you in the body, without sacrifcing kick and bass drums, actually if any one has hints on their techniques, for making their bass sound, or for mixing it in it would be greatly appreciated. Also I was wondering if anyone has had good success with deep bass with the likes of trilogy, or the new arturia moog, and if they are worth buying, because i bought stylus and i hate it, so trilogy worries me a bit.

Try layering your bass.
Use a deep sine bass, taking it down an octave at a time to where it's almost subsonic, then layer a dirtier or more gloopy lively bass sound over the top.
Some synths can do a better, cleaner subbass, others have problems with glitches. I've always got a CM101 sub in my tunes, cos I've found it cleanest of my vst's. Just add a slighly delayed attack to iron out the glitches, and you've got yourself something that can add that oooooof factor, ideal for adding deepness and drive.

You'll have to do some careful eqing so as not to add mush. A safe rolloff below 40Hz or so will be fine. And watch where your kick drum peaks, and cut the bass there.

I often write the basic parts, then transpose my whole tune to where the sine bass sits in the frequency range I want it.

I think Pentagon is great for basslines (and lots of other parts). But yeah, I think choochcat offers some great advice. Get that deep sine wave in there, you'll be surprised what it does to the sound.

TAU PRO

slainte rob

If you are interested in sampl players; look at Spectrasonic's Trilogy! It's amazing. You can't make such sounds with no synth...(you got all the noise playing a bass makes in there to)
Best for Ac Bass and Ebass. Great Jaco Pastorious stuff and very phatt Synth Basses as well.

The Acoustic and E Bass stuff sounds like a real recorded bass and can't really be held apart by a non pro or non bassist from the real thing...

iblit. punchy as hell.

Efficient, flexible, props to "The Flea2"

by Krakli at http://www.ianweb.dial.pipex.com/

Layering, compression, Fletcher-Munson EQ can work wonders.


PEACE

If you can't get the bass sound you're looking for out of Junglist then I'm not sure that much of the advice here, apart from choochat's, will help you. I think you probably need to lose any fancy effects like chorus/delay/flange, as they tend to wreck the really low bass, and concentrate on EQ. Layering should also help. Junglist has an incredibly deep bottom end so I am sure that it can deliver the goods if used wisely. Iblit is punchy as hell but not very big in the bottom end.

Junglist is a good synth for bass, and sonic synths bass collection is very nice as well.
not sure on trilogy, I am pretty sure out of the 3+gigs, there's something for you, but the demos didn't do it for me

I've heard Trilogy and it's so far past anything else I've heard it's ridiculous. If I had the funds I'd buy it in a heartbeat. The acoustic and electric basses are amazing and the synth basses are flat wicked.

Wrright on! The Synth stuff is phat and VERY usable, but the Acoustic and EBass stuff on Trilogy blows you away. I mean if youre there playing it with your headphones on, it sounds just like one of those beautifully recorded acoustic CD's, where you can hear every slide and fingermovement of the bassist - but it's you doing it on the controller....

A midi AcBass sounds like a ridiculous joke after playing this....

Iblit...all the way.
It's an incredible free mono synth.
Some of the best basses I've heard, and Bones...do you really think that it hasn't got a big bottom end?
Well..when you enable the 3 oscillators and play with the cutoff and Q, the thing gets extremely dangerous!


Rere

hey reddwarf, what type of music are you looking to make with these basslines?

Hi Redwarf, I didn't read your post too well so if you don't like Stylus you may not like Trilogy. Basically very similar. Personally I think the sounds in all three of Specs stuff are the best I've ever heard on a soft synth. If you don't like the sound of Stylus I am really surprised but everyone likes different things. I would guess they all fit very well together, each has a truly full phat in your face sound (not that it has to be) but I suppose it depends on the type of music you make although from you post it sounds like all of these would be perfect for you. Since there is no demo it's hard to judge I guess but there are definitely no others, especially free that can even hold it's jock so to speak. Iblit is nice, I like the sound but truly it's not even close. But then it is free so there you go. Good luck whatever you choose.

Arturia Moog Modular V. The bass sounds are fat and sit perfectly in the mix without fuss. Sometimes I layer it with samples I already have and it brings new life. Untouchable for analog bass sounds.

Quote:

TAU PRO slainte rob

I agree, the best monosynth form the best softsynth company

Quote:

iblit. punchy as hell.

Also, very good, and very free

A nil-cost solution is mda's sub synth effect.

It lets you specify the type of wave you want, and the frequency you want it to kick in at (anywhere between 10hz and 320hz), and a few other things.

PSP's MixBass can make a pretty big noise too, though it does tend to colour the tone of the original.

But something I've noticed when I go for a v low fat bass, is that it tends to make make other parts of the mix sound small ... which is okay for a d'n'b type tune, but not so good maybe if there's an interesting warm sound living near the bass area.

Hi reddwarf,

I suggest it would be worth a go trying out our own CamelPhat effect. I originally wrote version 1 for fattening up my basslines. There are bunch of presets so you could go through the two bass ones and see if you like it. (BTW. its recieved very good reviews in Sound on Sound, Keyboard, Keyboards ...) You can get a demo of our website at www.camelaudio.com. I'd be interested to know if it helps you.

Thanks
Ben