great free bass exciter/deepener for soft synths?

[BONES]

The problem with a test like yours is that whichever synth you started with, none of the others would be able to sound exactly the same. All it proves is that not all synths sound the same. Personally, I think the sound of Vacuum Pro shits all over Diva and the fact you couldn't make it sound like Diva is a good thing to me.

What kind FREE bass exciters, enhancers etc work best for your needs?
I been staring at a page full of KVR free bass fixers, but no clue what to try.
To equate, I feel DIVA nails that ROUND full analog bass thing, what can help the others out?

Have you tried a simple EQ? That usually does the trick for me. If you want something more, I'd try the $2 versions of Sphene and Peridot, from Audified.

anyone else hear a quality difference between Diva and freeware? Maybe it's just me. Thinking there was a reason Diva keeps topping the charts

A few years go I thought Diva was amazing and when it went on sale a year ago for half-price I was sure I was going to buy it. But after I downloaded the demo and listened to it again, I was less impressed. Other products these days sound at least as good, some better. I ended up buying the RePros instead and don't regret my choice.

To snigger and sneer at freeware is unbelievably pompous. You spend your oodles of money how you wish but some of us are happy with freeware for the time being and a lot of it is actually extremely useable - it just takes a little more effort. You can make a masterpiece with children's toys if you have the patience and imagination.

A little bit touchy, aren't we? Yes, there is some good freeware out there and 15 years ago I'd have said the best of it was every bit as good as the commercial stuff but in 2021 I don't think that holds true for much of it. There are still a few rare gems, like TRK-01 Bass or Vital, but they are the exceptions these days.

[wwjd]

I don't have Diva anymore, do you think the same of Repro's bass? I still have that demo version. If you have Repro 5, is there a bass in the factory presets that shows what you mean?

downloading R5 to see. just did tests of Diva against a couple other modern freeware synths - listening, watching spectrums, still cant put my finger on it... even adding more bass or using the enhancers increased the bass, but didn't make the same ROUND tone. Just u-he magic I guess.

R5: AZ BOUNCE BASS. I pulled up Diva, Repro5, Odin2, Surrealistic MG-1 and, I'm not a good programmer, but kinda dialed them in similar - not scientific at all, just ball park. Tried SURGE too but I don't know how to program it and it sounded too different.
Both Diva and Repro5 offered a more real tone than Odin and MG - granted they would ALL WORK PERFECT in any song. Will see if I can attach an audio file... ...nope... maybe drop box?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yl444l28liarg ... s.mp3?dl=0

Sound: 1- Diva, 2 - Repro5, 3 - Odin2, 4 - Surrealistic MG-1

That got me curious, so I loaded up 'AZ_Bounce_Bass' in Repro5 and listened to that nice bass tone, which is basically one Repro5 saw oscillator run through a low pass filter. I turned off all effects and listened carefully and played with it a bit.

Thanks for messing about. It is interesting stuff I think

[zzz00m]

I don't have Diva anymore, do you think the same of Repro's bass? I still have that demo version. If you have Repro 5, is there a bass in the factory presets that shows what you mean?

downloading R5 to see. just did tests of Diva against a couple other modern freeware synths - listening, watching spectrums, still cant put my finger on it... even adding more bass or using the enhancers increased the bass, but didn't make the same ROUND tone. Just u-he magic I guess.

R5: AZ BOUNCE BASS. I pulled up Diva, Repro5, Odin2, Surrealistic MG-1 and, I'm not a good programmer, but kinda dialed them in similar - not scientific at all, just ball park. Tried SURGE too but I don't know how to program it and it sounded too different.
Both Diva and Repro5 offered a more real tone than Odin and MG - granted they would ALL WORK PERFECT in any song. Will see if I can attach an audio file... ...nope... maybe drop box?
https://www.dropbox.com/s/yl444l28liarg ... s.mp3?dl=0

Sound: 1- Diva, 2 - Repro5, 3 - Odin2, 4 - Surrealistic MG-1

That got me curious, so I loaded up 'AZ_Bounce_Bass' in Repro5 and listened to that nice bass tone, which is basically one Repro5 saw oscillator run through a low pass filter. I turned off all effects and listened carefully and played with it a bit.

Thanks for messing about. It is interesting stuff I think

It is interesting, I do appreciate the inspiration to compare. And I have even more respect for the Repros, especially after realizing that I only have one other synth in my stable with a really fat virtual analog tone even close to that!

I'm really glad that I took advantage of the recent u-he sale to acquire Repro, after having it on my wish list for the past couple of years.

[Passing Bye]

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/tls_sa ... ver_by_tbt

[wwjd]

It is interesting, I do appreciate the inspiration to compare. And I have even more respect for the Repros, especially after realizing that I only have one other synth in my stable with a really fat virtual analog tone even close to that!

I'm really glad that I took advantage of the recent u-he sale to acquire Repro, after having it on my wish list for the past couple of years.

You get what I am talking about... have you noticed any FREEWARE that comes close to achieving the bass compliment I'm talking about? I use EQ (kinda obviously) but it just boosts what is there. Still needs harmonic excitement additions and or saturation, although I feel saturation is not the same pure tone. I lack the skill and tools to really examine the waves other than basic freq graph and my decent ears.

[wwjd]

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/tls_sa ... ver_by_tbt

will give this a whirl after work. thanks!

[Passing Bye]

https://www.kvraudio.com/product/tls_sa ... ver_by_tbt

will give this a whirl after work. thanks!

Sure, try this one too
https://www.kvraudio.com/product/sga156 ... lass-audio

[zzz00m]

You get what I am talking about... have you noticed any FREEWARE that comes close to achieving the bass compliment I'm talking about? I use EQ (kinda obviously) but it just boosts what is there. Still needs harmonic excitement additions and or saturation, although I feel saturation is not the same pure tone. I lack the skill and tools to really examine the waves other than basic freq graph and my decent ears.

No freeware that I'm aware of even comes close. Every synth that I compared was payware, except for one I forgot to mention, which was u-he TyrellN6 which is freeware, and nope.

If you think about the many years and amount of effort that went into u-he's analog circuit modeling, I doubt many others would give that away for free.
https://urs.silvrback.com/analogue-modeling
https://urs.silvrback.com/zero-delay-feedback

As far as shaping the sound with EQ and other FX, I love the sound design potential of using excellent 3rd party FX to enhance the original sound, or to create completely new sounds.

But if the source sound is not the very best, it's sort of like putting lipstick on a pig. Sure, it's dressed up, but it's still a pig. You cannot put back what is not there in the original signal to begin with, no matter what you use after the fact.

And I generally use my ears too. Haven't bothered with a scope in a while.

[wwjd]

Some of the newest freeware synths are doing really good: Odin, MG-1, PG-8X, maybe some others.

Try that free X-cita I mentioned. I feel it does more than simply bass boost or tone twist. I think it does harmonic excitement - adding RELEVENT harmonics above or below, so it feels like some bass increase but from harmonics instead of simple boost. I find it pleasing - different, not equal to UHE stuff - but very helpful in beefing up freebies. Or I could be wrong and listening through "FREE VST" colored glasses