Great examples of synth bass, and tips on how to achieve

[rharris07]

I've always struggled to perform synth bass lines as nicely as I would like to. I thought finding really interesting synth bass examples, sharing them and discussing ideas/tips on how they achieve the quality of sound, what they used and perhaps what they did to the bass afterwards in the mix to get it to stand out so nicely.

My first example would be Enigma - Voyageur...believe me, you'll know when they bass kicks in if you're listening on headphones or some non-laptop speakers. It sounds amazing to me, and I can't quite put my finger on what he could have used for it...

[garranimal]

That's a simple but catchy bassline! It is one thing to program a nice bass, and the age-old question how to get it to fit perfectly in the mix.

Bass patch
- First impression, the bass sounds like a Roland. TB-303, SH-101, Xoxbox or that variety. Even a Novation bass-station.
- This sound could be achieved on most synths that has a nice filter. Really low filter setting w/ resonance up a bit to help accentuate the cuttoff frequency. Primary Osc is a saw wave maybe w/ some hard sync and/or ring mod. I dunno.
- Realtime modulation. Sometimes the slur/portamento is there, other times its not. Source could be mod wheel, velocity or something else.

Mix
- EQ. Cretu has chosen the bass to sit in the bottom frequencies and the kick drum transients a bit above. Also the bass probably has some shelving eq so the desirable sub-frequencies 50-60 hz are there but the mud is taken out.
- To me the bass sounds a little cooked in a good way. I've been using BBE sonic Maximizer to help add some boom w/o adding mud. Of course who knows what Cretu has in his arsenal.

What makes a good bass? I think the key is keeping things minimal like one osc, no chorus, one channel as opposed to stereo just so that it sits front/center/low in 3D mix space. The interesting bass patches have at least one realtime mod like the old funk tunes from the 70s where tremolo comes in at certain times. And a great filter is a big plus.

It takes it to the next level when there is more than one part sharing the bassline duties. I've always loved the bass stuff going on in this track that comes in around 1:30. I had programmed a nice patch back when I had my Supernova.

[b3groover]

Sounds analog to me with some sort of stereo processing done. I sometime use this plug-in to gain width and separate certain parts from the rest of the mix:

http://www.voxengo.com/product/stereotouch/

Otherwise, general rule of thumb for bass is to start with a really good source, like a nice monophonic analog synth (Moog or the SE ATC-x are my favs) and record it in mono (though he breaks that rule in the vid, obviously) and chain a good compressor to level it out and fatten it up. The pen-ultimate bass compressor, imo, is the DBX 160vu, but good luck getting one of those (they are very expensive!) The cheaper alternative is a plug-in that emulates a VCA style compressor or if you want to go hardware, the newer DBX 160x is pretty good for what it is. I use a highly modified Alesis 3630 (they are pretty bad stock, but if you replace the VCA, op-amps, and some capacitors, they become really really good). Or sometimes I just use a plug-in.

It also helps to put a high-pass filter on any tracks that are not bass tracks. Just last night I overdubbed a string part from the Andromeda and upon soloing it realized it had a ton of lower frequency stuff going on, even though I was playing strictly in the upper octaves. I put a high-pass filter on it and it instantly helped add presence to the actual bass line.

[th0mas]

Funny that someone mentions keeping the bass part centered when this track definitely has a bass track with "sample delay" on it. (IE, bass part on right channel is ~10-20 samples behind the left channel). There's VSTs that can do that.

A lot of the clarity of this bass part comes from the fact that the bass drum is highpass filtered to leave room for the bass part to take most presence. If you have a bass drum mixed with your bass part and no sidechain compression to leave room for each other, you need to be EQing them to have their own space. Otherwise you get mud. This is where I find mixing in a computer is a necessity for a hobbiest because if you're only using hardware you're either stuck with a (likely) simple 3-band EQ on your mixer to keep the low-end clean, summing the parts (creating mud), or buying more and more gear. Compare that with dragging and dropping a few filter or compressor VSTs in software to clean up the mix.

I don't think it's a 303 or x0xb0x because the start of the sound sounds like the attack time of the filter envelope is not 0. That's what's producing a part of the "weow" effect.

As for modulation it sounds like there's fingered portamento, envelope controlling the filter, envelope controlling the amplitude, 1-osc saw.

It also helps to put a high-pass filter on any tracks that are not bass tracks. Just last night I overdubbed a string part from the Andromeda and upon soloing it realized it had a ton of lower frequency stuff going on, even though I was playing strictly in the upper octaves. I put a high-pass filter on it and it instantly helped add presence to the actual bass line.

Also, this. A good way to find the parts that have unwanted bass is to put a lowpass filter on your master bus and set it to 2-400hz. That way you're only listening to your bass part and whatever else is playing in that register. Now highpass everything else so they stop clashing. Make your low end as clear as possible and then remove the LPF.

[Alphacode]

The Enigma track - bass is not a tb303 or any crazy filter stuff , it a basic 2 sync osc patch where the sync is controlled by an enveloppe and a simple filter is dimming the sound a bit ,very easy to do.

If anyone can tell me how to put a video from youtube here i'll make that sound on the Evolver and post a video.

[GuyaGuy]

The Enigma track - bass is not a tb303 or any crazy filter stuff , it a basic 2 sync osc patch where the sync is controlled by an enveloppe and a simple filter is dimming the sound a bit ,very easy to do.

If anyone can tell me how to put a video from youtube here i'll make that sound on the Evolver and post a video.

That would be cool--especially since I have an Evolver!

Above the text box in the bottom grey toolbar there is a "YouTube" icon. Click that and enter the URL of the video in the bbvideo field.

If you click on "quote" on this post you can see what the HTML should look like here:

[b3groover]

Side note: The Enigma track inspired me to put a mono synth bass track into stereo (using the Voxengo free plug-in I linked above) that wasn't sitting right in the mix. Now it sounds great and really makes an impression when it comes in. Thanks, Enigma!

[th0mas]

Side note: The Enigma track inspired me to put a mono synth bass track into stereo (using the Voxengo free plug-in I linked above) that wasn't sitting right in the mix. Now it sounds great and really makes an impression when it comes in. Thanks, Enigma!

% of people listening to your track in the club or on vinyl (Where mono bass matters) = (likely) 0%. Break some rules, stereo bass rocks.

[Automatic Gainsay]

If you want low end, you won't use f**k resonance.

[th0mas]

If you want low end, you won't use f**k resonance.

unless its on a f**k HPF

[Automatic Gainsay]

If you want low end, you won't use f**k resonance.

unless its on a f**k HPF

Agreed, 1000%... but you know that most people aren't aware of that.

[I12]

and you fkg know not all lpfs cut the low feq with res up

[Alphacode]

Well here it is did it very quickly so its 99% matching the original.Of course they probably didn't use the Evolver so it will be a tiny bit different depending of the instrument but i suppose its a good start.

[Automatic Gainsay]

and you fkg know not all lpfs cut the low feq with res up

Yes, but if we're talking about "tips," which are generalizations, it's best to be general. Generally, resonance diminishes bass content, and even when it doesn't, it often diminishes bass timbre.
Don't you roll your eyes at me, young lady.

[pflosi]

the enigma bass sounds layered to me. adding a sub can give more low end obviously