BEATSURFING 'LOW' Bass Synth

[idoru97214]

It's a really good 808 generator. The thing I can't get it to do is not have a thump attack - thus my saying it's an 808 machine. But sounds darn good with lots of variety in sound.

Have you tried turning the pitch attack envelope at the top off? I assume by turning the pitch knob all the way down, flattening the curve, or both?

I had kind of the opposite thought, that it was generally too soft on the attack. I don't love the sound of the pitch attack envelope but I was mostly able to make it work. I wish it had some kind of sample-based transient shaper, in addition to the pitch envelope.

Ah yes. When pitch impact is disabled completely, no thump. Nice. Yes, this one sounds really great. $37 no brain purchase.

[m-ac]

What makes this synth different to any other? What results are you getting that you don't get with other synths? Serious question, as I'm interested in purchasing.

[Gamma-UT]

I doubt anyone is going to get massively different results using it: this looks more like it's useful if you do wub-wub bass design in a certain way and want to quickly step through a lot of alternative sounds – much like their other randomy plugins.

[billinder33]

What makes this synth different to any other? What results are you getting that you don't get with other synths? Serious question, as I'm interested in purchasing.

While technically a 'synth', it's definitely more of a special-purpose instrument to make interesting subs and mid bass. Primarily targeted at modern EDM styles (dubstep, bass music, trap, etc.) so very edgy and modern sounding. I could also see some use in general sound design and dark ambient styles as well. It probably has some secondary utility beyond subs and bass like leads or edgy pads, but I've not tried it for that purpose and that doesn't appear to be the intent.

The oscillators/wavetables are very unique sounding. Not your typical sin/saw/tri/square setup. The LFO and filtering set up is prebuilt into the process, so there are is no assigning of LFOs and envelopes to deal with, though you can 'turn them off' in various ways if you want. It's very prescriptive in its approach. That said, there is a lot available to tweak. All the LFOs you see on the screen will start at the note trigger, move to a loop point, and then loop. You can adjust the speed of the loop and various other aspects of how it cycles (attack, release, speed, etc.). So it inherently lets you quickly create interesting bass sounds with lots of movement.

It doesn't have tons of presets and no init patch, so the best approach is to find a preset you like and start tweaking from there. You won't likely be able to just rely on the presets without actually learning how the instrument works, but it's not that hard to learn if you know your way around a typical synth. I was able to figure the basic sound design flow out the manual, but there are some aspects of it where I'd potentially use the manual to understand what's going on under the hood.

If you've ever used Sublab, it's like a way different version of that with more unique sounding output. You'd spend a lot of time getting a synth like Serum or Phaseplant to create the kind of sounds that LOW naturally creates, though they could probably get in the ballpark with a lot of configuration work. It sort of resembles Dawsome's synth design approach in that it's an instrument that does a very specific thing in a very unique way.

It's too bad they don't offer a trial. IMO its the kind of device you really need to try to see if it fits your style and workflow. Target audience being people who like designing their own subs and mid bass, like edgy sounds, and have a general understanding of synthesis, and are not afraid to tweak parameters to get the desired output.

[oobesan]

They don’t have a demo, but they do give you a 14-day full refund return policy. So, feel free to check it out with no restrictions for two weeks and if you don’t like it, return it.

[kraster]

I find it weird. There's a hell of a lot of saminess in the sound and then one particular point will yield something really interesting.

It's way more subtle than random and overall I think that's a good thing particularly given its stated use case. Also Random can just yield a lot of pretty unusable things where as Low never strays that far.

There are some really cool features like the absolutely brilliant dynamic crossover system. ie. The crossover points move with the selected note. And you can also mix it in with the other non dynamic system.

In other way it's not as responsive as I'd like it to be but to be fair there's going to be less variety given that it's very much focused on the low end.

It's an odd system. Having separate envelopes for transient and sustain seems like overkill but maybe I'm not used to it yet.

definitely intriguing.

[oobesan]

It’s pretty easy to stumble your way into something that sounds pretty cool, and it’s what is going with modulation during the loop points that makes things interesting and more than just another 808 synth.

But there are some really good suggestions in this thread to make this thing better, and I’m hoping Beatsurfing is paying attention and will update it. I really like this company.

[billinder33]

There's a hell of a lot of saminess in the sound and then one particular point will yield something really interesting.

It took me a while to realize most of the the sound variation resides within the 10 oscillators and the oscillator seed (wavetable position?). And that for some of the osc types, the seed will create drastic differences, but for others, not so much.

While there's a certainly lot of variation you can extract from the 10 osc types, I feel like they should have included at least 20, ideally more.

[m-ac]

Cheers, I'll give it a whirl.

[parma]

hmmmm even taking the pitch attack envelope "off" there is still a pretty noticeable click on the attack (its more noticeable with some DNA engines than others). I wish there was the option to soften the attack more (like a simple adsr) so it would be more usable as a total bass machine and not just a 808 machine. They eventually added a simple envelope to RANDOM so maybe they will do it for LOW if enough people want it.

[PsYAuM]

Hi
In the hold portion is there a way to modulate between octaves & Key ranges?
If not can I suggest it for a future update please?
It would be really cool to be able to jump about the sonic field and choose lock to key, which keys & octaves are used etc etc
Thank you

[Headlands7]

hmmmm even taking the pitch attack envelope "off" there is still a pretty noticeable click on the attack (its more noticeable with some DNA engines than others). I wish there was the option to soften the attack more (like a simple adsr) so it would be more usable as a total bass machine and not just a 808 machine. They eventually added a simple envelope to RANDOM so maybe they will do it for LOW if enough people want it.

Yep, this is a major issue with it for me, and it strongly limits the places you can go with it. It's a shame because it's got a lot going for it otherwise, IMO.

I highly recommend anyone who wants to be able have a regular attack control for the entire sound write them since they often update things when enough users write.

[parma]

hmmmm even taking the pitch attack envelope "off" there is still a pretty noticeable click on the attack (its more noticeable with some DNA engines than others). I wish there was the option to soften the attack more (like a simple adsr) so it would be more usable as a total bass machine and not just a 808 machine. They eventually added a simple envelope to RANDOM so maybe they will do it for LOW if enough people want it.

Yep, this is a major issue with it for me, and it strongly limits the places you can go with it. It's a shame because it's got a lot going for it otherwise, IMO.

I highly recommend anyone who wants to be able have a regular attack control for the entire sound write them since they often update things when enough users write.

Yep. I emailed them last week.

[pekbro]

They are pretty good about that I think, unless it's somehow a major overhaul, which is hard to imagine...

[polarity-dnb]

Isn't this not just also just a sample pack/rompler with an Interface like all the other plugins of them?