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

[musikmachine]

I have Trilian and kinda know what you're saying for raw analog bass but there's an expansion by Plughugger that's worth checking out. http://www.plughugger.com/spectrasonics ... r-bob.html

NI Monark is a monster for analog basses (and leads) and becoming a bit of a goto but requires Reaktor. I've owned Synth Squad for a while and can get some really nice basses with that using Fusor to stack instances, you have to play around with the drive and amp levels to get a cleaner sound but very versatile.

I also love Diva but my cpu, he say no.

[Mike / Matrix Lab]

Diva is great for synth basses. It's possible to lower the quality while you're composing. You can set it to
the highest quality when you render the file. Then cpu usage is not really an issue.

Monark as mentioned above is really good, as well. NI Massiv is also worth a try.
Depends on what you're looking for, but with those 4 tools you should have
everything you need.

Mike

[BBFG#]

Download the Alchemy Player, AAS Player and Synthmaster Player.
Even if you decide they don't fit your needs for bass,
you will have added great synths and sounds to your arsenal for free.

[xalama qo]

If Diva nails the sound you're after it would seem the obvious choice. It's great for a lot more than just bass, no one-trick-pony, that's for sure.
You could do yourself a favour and check out the often overlooked Loomer Aspect. Extremely low CPU, beautiful bass...and a v2 is in the pipeline too. Its oscillators are characterful...dark sawtooth, grunty pulsewave, smooth sine. It's become my go-to for bass because the osc's are dark to start off with and that allows you to use the filter/env a bit differently too. Even the initialization patch is great for bass! (And somewhat virusy in character)

All depends what kind of bass you're looking for though, so ymmv

[digitalboytn]

Well - there's always arranging 101....

Layering things together can often create the best sounds and give your work something unique...

The instruments that sound great on their own can sound bloody horrible in the mix for so many reasons...

And don't forget the other important aspects of the whole equation - EQ and compression...

A good engineer is going to make anything that's mediocre sound like a winner...

So don't just follow the fans boys around like a sheep.....

Use your imagination and be creative with something different...

And don't forget to check out Charlatan as one of the bass layers...

It's a hidden gem

[vespesian]

DCam (esp. Strobe, using Fusor's arp & note sequencer) & LuSH101.

[ThePresent]

Try the free OBXD and get some presets here on KVR, instant Oberheim punch
Or some other great (almost) free ones: TAL Bassline or TAL 101

[ghettosynth]

If you're up for the programming challenge, I think that Bazille is my current synth-bass leader. You do have to think a bit differently than just subtractive analogue though.

[4damind]

Arturia Minimoog (still very good for all kind of Moog (Bass) sounds also if it has not the best reputation to be the most accurate emulation), FXPansion Strobe for the SH type of bass sounds (my favorite).
But often it needs layering and a bit additional FX (delay, chorus, sometimes micro pitch-shifting)

[pdxindy]

If you're up for the programming challenge, I think that Bazille is my current synth-bass leader. You do have to think a bit differently than just subtractive analogue though.

One of the things I like about Bazille for bass is that the sound can be heavily modulated and still get a massive low end...

[Lotuzia]

Maybe give a try to Xils-Lab OXIUM ?. Capable of all kinds of standard busty and deep analog basses, as well as some more hybrid models. Here are a few Oxium basses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX_Dn2zbHAA

Also Worth a try : Xils 4, the monstruous analog modular synthesizer. Standard, and crazy, analog basses.

LtZ

[Lotuzia]

Maybe give a try to Xils-Lab OXIUM ?. Capable of all kinds of standard busty and deep analog basses, as well as some more hybrid models. Here are a few Oxium basses.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VX_Dn2zbHAA

Also Worth a try : Xils 4, the monstruous analog modular synthesizer. Standard, and crazy, analog basses.

Edit : A few nice basses in this video too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Csd8nFW5udU


LtZ

[alligatorlizard]

Thanks guys, lots of cool sounding stuff to check out, really appreciated! Quite a few plugins I hadn't heard of. Not got round to checking all these out yet (have been busy demoing Diva, and trying to coax similar sounds out of my existing synths so I don't actually have to buy it!), but I did look at the plughugger expansion for Omnisphere - this sounds incredible, but tbh it's actually not quite what I'm after.

I think I maybe wasn't totally clear, I'm not after necessarily aggressive bass sounds - I agree Trilian has these - it probably is the rich analogue sound that I'm liking, and just not describing it well. It's not just the sort of bass sound you hear on The Prodigy records, but the sort of warm yet powerful bass sounds that the Human League used. In fact I saw the Human League live a while back (I got free tickets, OK!) and though they're not a band I'm a huge fan of, I was blown away by their live sound - especially the basses, and I think Diva is the first time since then I feel like I've got that sort of sound at my fingertips.

I have been surprised too that Trilian doesn't seem to cover it 100% of the time - until now haven't even considered getting any other synths for bass because it is so good, and has such variety. However I still say there's something I'm hearing in Diva that I'm not getting from Trilian in certain situations. I know this sounds vague, and if no-one knows what I mean, then maybe it is just my ears! However, Diva does seem to have a reputation for basses, and I guess this comes from somewhere.

I'm going to keep demoing it for a while though and keep doing my best to get the sounds I want out of Trilian and Zebra first - if I still keep coming back to the Diva demo, then I guess I will have to buy it. I'd certainly rather not have to spend money un-necessarily!!

One thing's for sure, Diva's presets are a lot better than Zebra's (more playable instruments, less clever fx patches) so I do need to be convinced I'm not just preferring the presets - this is the only reason I'm not buying instantly. I do also have a bunch of add on patch banks for Zebra with tons of great basses in those - but still I'm finding in Diva sounds I've been unable to find, or create, in Zebra. Thing is, while I do know how to program a synth fairly competently (especially Zebra where I've spent a lot of time working thru tutorial vids), I'm far from being an expert in this, so am not confident I'm going to program a better bass patch than someone who knows synths inside out.

btw, I am generally putting Trilian/Zebra sounds thru comp/eq/dist etc (and usually mono-ing in the low region) - these are good tips, but I'm already doing it. Since buying FabFilter's Saturn recently, very few sounds escape without some (or lots!) of saturation.

I guess an auxiliary question would be, does anyone know of any patch banks (whether free or not) for Trilian or Zebra which focus on analogue basses? The Bob Moog one for Omnisphere, does look interesting, as does Stratospheres for Zebra.

[fluffy_little_something]

Can't you post a little audio demo of what you are looking for? I still have no clue...

[Bubbamusic]

Trillian, Diva & Absynth. I can't think of three better virtual synths for bass. All three have very good sound engines that do lower freqs as good as any other virtual synths. Each of these has great bass patches as presets. If you can't find what you want among the presets, each of these will certainly give you an incredible amount of range in programming them. Maybe my tastes are just too dated.