KVR Audio

alligatorlizard · Post by **alligatorlizard** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 2:40 pm

Not for the first time, I've been unable to find a bass sound I'm happy with among my current VSTs. My available VSTs for bass are Trilian, Zebra, Absynth.

For soundtrack work & fx (and of course electric/acoustic basses) Trilian is great - but for dance/big beat style productions (eg the sort of bass sounds you'll hear on The Prodigy or Crystal Method CD's) I've noticed I'm often struggling to find a really solid playable synth bass patch. Zebra is of course an awesome synth, but again, I've often felt unable to find a bass sound I'm happy with (either searching thru many banks of presets, or what I've been able to program). As for Abysnth, well that's a strange one anyway, sometimes it has had just the right bass patch, but generally it's more for fx for me that one.

So, I did some research, and kept seeing Diva mentioned in regard to bass sounds - I'd sort of forgotten about Diva as Zebra seemed more versatile when I initially compared them. However, I've just spent a while demo-ing Diva, and wow!! It really does have a fantastic sound (you can really hear the difference when using "Divine" mode) and the bass sounds I've always been after do seem to be there!

Almost instantly I found a preset that was exactly what I'd been looking for in a track I'm currently working on. Then compared it to the patches from Trilian etc. that I'd previously auditioned for the same track (some of which I'd already extensively tweaked and added fx to try and get them sounding how I wanted), and the suitable-ish patches I'd found in Zebra/Absynth - no doubt the un-tweaked Diva patch sounded best.

So, before I go ahead and buy Diva, and hopefully solve all my previous synth bass frustrations, just wondering if there's anything else I should consider for big analogue synth basses?

Also, is there any chance I'm just being seduced by the presets? ie would anyone argue that I ought to be able to program just as good a bass sound in Trilian or Zebra (ie if I was a better synth programmer...) - or am I right in concluding that Diva, and it's analogue modelling, just going to be better for dance/electro/big-beat basses?

DHR53 · Post by **DHR53** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 2:53 pm

Hmmm... if you can't find some good basses in Trillian maybe your just frustrated or searching? Have you tried the demo for Diva? And did the basses appear that much better... I don't own Diva but I do own Zebra. I would say for myself, that some of my favorite bass patches are in fact, in Zebra. And a couple other plugins such as Ultra Analog. I have yet to fall under the spell of Diva but it appears to be some sort of "mind control" here at KVR.

filter303 · Post by **filter303** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 2:54 pm

I don't like absynth for bass sounds either.
Two very good free synths that you could try out are Tyrell Nexus 6 (for analog bass) and Dexed (for fm bass). Both of them have zillion of patches available on internet. You don't necessarily need to spend any money to get good bass sounds.

Waza · Post by **Waza** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 3:07 pm

what style of basslines are you looking for? as Zebra is a very capable synth

kbaccki · Post by **kbaccki** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 3:20 pm

That's like saying "I really want a fast car, so I test drove a F12berlinetta, and it was very fast indeed!"... Yes, diva is made for what you're looking for.

Sure, there's a lot of hype around it, but it delivers, IMO. As they say: "look at the scoreboard".

Maybe also give dune2 a spin, which I absolutely love, lush-101, maybe nexus2 if u need some quick Radio Ready presets for ur workflow.

fluffy_little_something · Thu Jul 24, 2014 3:21 pm

I don't know which bass sounds you are talking about, but it seems like you should get Diva when you are so happy with its sound... Whether or not others share your view is irrelevant, you and you alone have to be happy with the sound.

blackflag · Post by **blackflag** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 3:32 pm

Zebra can do anything If you're a pretty good sound designer..in my opinion the difference between Zebra and Diva isn't worth the cpu hit for most sounds. Diva does have a lot more old school analog style preset patches it comes with though.

Echoes in the Attic · Post by **Echoes in the Attic** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 3:46 pm

Diva and Corona are my favourites for Bass (and Trillian but through Omnisphere)

fluffy_little_something · Thu Jul 24, 2014 3:52 pm

Element can also go quite deep thanks to the powerful equalizer.
My favorite bass sounds are from UA, though, I hope they will do the GUI update soon...

pdxindy · Post by **pdxindy** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 4:49 pm

alligatorlizard wrote:or am I right in concluding that Diva, and it's analogue modelling, just going to be better for dance/electro/big-beat basses?

I wouldn't say better... but maybe better for you... Diva has its own character and if it pleases you, that means something. No one synth fits everyone.

Zebra can do solid basses. Very diverse. Being semi-modular and with a huge range of tools, it will take more time to learn well.

liquidsound · Post by **liquidsound** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 5:11 pm

Curve 2? (unison mode!)

blackflag · Post by **blackflag** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 5:14 pm

Also for modern bass sounds NI Massive is still hard to beat...99% of my bass sounds are made using it or Zebra.

Robmobius · Post by **Robmobius** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 5:15 pm

Echoes in the Attic wrote:Diva and Corona are my favourites for Bass (and Trillian but through Omnisphere)

Funny you should say that. I bought Corona recently, and I was really surprised just how weighty the bass is. It's a great synth.

Diva delivers if you want good analog bass. The Prodigy often used the DX-7. So you could also try T2's Nemesis. That does really nice bass in a similar fashion to the DX-7.

Diversion is a beast too. More modern sounding than Diva, but has a good low end. It's a CPU hog so be warned.

Check out Xil's lab. All their stuff is class.

BBFG# · Post by **BBFG#** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 5:18 pm

Ironically, I like the basses in Absynth for their'smoothness' and body. FM8 is great for the classic FM basses (which are closer to real basses, but not exact). For me, Alchemy has some of the best and punchiest basses, although not fitting my type of music as much. Synthmaster and AAS UltraAnalog VA-2 are very good in the synth bass departments. The added extra with VA-2 is the low CPU usage while giving a tone very similar to Diva (although not exact). But all three of those are CPU friendly compared to Diva.

You might want to download the players/demos for Alchemy, AAS VA-2, and SynthMaster and give them a run through though.

And yes, there is also Tone2 to give a try.
Nothing beats downloading the demos to make your own well informed decision.

MFXxx · Post by **MFXxx** » Thu Jul 24, 2014 5:24 pm

very surprised re trillian, I do have omnisphere as we as expansion packs. its my goto for bass if im struggling elsewhrre. diva is alwys worth getting..amazing synth.
its really down to the bass sound you after. as suggestex kontakt/alchemy players worth looking into.

Unsatisfied with Trilian for synth basses - is Diva the best?