Vintage Synth Explorer Forums

Hello folks!

I'm a professional bass player, and I'm growing more and more enthusiastic playing a synth bass on the gigs and bands I'm involved.

Currently I own and use a Nord Lead 2 rack module, which I bought second-handed. Although I really like the Nord's sound in general, and it's work-flow is brilliant, it just gets buried in the band context as far as bass sounds are concerned. Somehow it just lacks the authority, body, punch and power that would be required, no matter how good it sounds home. It's just not powerful enough on the stage. It's a nice synth through my studio monitors, but on the stage, it's just a tad too weak. (I very often run it through my bass rig, BTW. Other equipment can't be blamed: I have a very powerful rig.)

According to the internet folklore analogue would be the way to go when powerful bass is wanted. And Novation Bass Station II is mentioned and recommended very often. As far as the specs are concerned, it feels very interesting instrument: price is nice, the sound on the clips I've heard are good, huge sound-sculpting ability... And it's even small, robust and light enough to drag along on the gigs.

But although it looks a perfect work-horse on the paper, HOW DOES IT MANAGE IN A BAND? You know, with loud drummers and on lousy stages with poor FOH? Some people on the forums wine about NBSII's mild overall character, and some are extremely convinced...

Will I feel the upgrade in "authority" and bass power, if I'll change my Nord Lead 2 to the BAss Station II? I won't miss the polyphony, if I'll gain some more power and punch!

BTW, my main genres are Jazz, Fusion, Soul, Neo-Soul, HipHop... Moog would be an obvious choice, but I just can't afford one yet.

Thank you!
finbase

Don't know what to say, since I don't know how loud things are in your band. All I know is the Bs2 has a really nice low end, probably the best bang for your buck, and it's built well enough to survive gigs. The "authority" you're looking for in the bass department would definitely be instantly attainable, compaired to the VA.

Part of what gives the BSII an edge is that there are some easily accessible parameters to give it more edge and bite: a sub-oscillator (with selectable waveform!) and a filter drive knob. They shouldn't be abused, but they add nice girth to bass patches. You can quickly design very meaty bass passes.