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alright its time to do some gear shopping again..

we run a midi rig with a variety of racks, and so far we've gotten some nice push on our PAs 18's with the sine waves we make in the Akai s5000


but basically we are looking for something that will dominate that box, other things we've tried are too plinky and clean, and seem to almost have built in frequency cutoffs, we have pads and atmospheres for days, but tear out low-end still evades us, so it seems like a gear issue


so if u had a $1000 spending ceiling, say, where would you look for meanness and versatility?

virus C-B-A? novation bass station? nord clavia? something else that is alluding me?

looking for some outside input for this newest gear quest, thanks

Roland JP 8000? Must admit though i am a big fan of all things access, plus there's the sh101...

oof definitely NOT the novation bass station. it's fun for little triangle waves an' ting, and definitely comes to life thru guitar pedals, etc-- but i sold mine after a year or so. it'll give you everything but bass.

tbh i still love my microkorg and use it on almost everything.

maybe snap up some old planet phatt (or mo'phatt) modules, or other emu rompler bits? dirt cheap these days.

1k is a tough cutoff point because while there's definitely some great inexpensive modeling synths out there (micorkorg, juno, etc), the real beef costs quite a bit more-- moog voyager and lil' phatty both sound well large.

for a huge control over bass textures, the nord modular is always sexy. plus you gotta love that swiss red.

for instance massive bass... lil phatty...


for tom'd out bass - mbase 01


i would suggest something analog if you want the girth.

Virus, no question. Good for bass. Good for super deep sound design. Novation would be my distant second choice out of those.

ironic name choice for novation then.. kinda figured that was a weaker choice



we've definitly been scrounging up lots of the dirt cheap racks and plundering them for all they're worth... kinda just want to cut to the chase now and get into the beef as terekete said - something deep that we can get into with time


might come down to availability at this point, wish there was somewhere to go to try these products out... and right 1000 is a tough cutoff, but if we were talking 3-5000 we'd probably cop a synth and start a paint stripping company instead of making music with it


thanks for the input all!

FSTZ where u @ - tell me more about the virus!

TeReKeTe wrote:oof definitely NOT the novation bass station. it's fun for little triangle waves an' ting, and definitely comes to life thru guitar pedals, etc-- but i sold mine after a year or so. it'll give you everything but bass.

Funny thing is-- I dig my Bass Station vsti. But there definitely is a price differential between software vs hardware. For the £25 I paid for the vsti... it definitely was worth it. But yeah, it was £25 and I can automate the shit out of it.

I don't know how much the hardware is/was... but can certainly understand being underwhelmed with it.

casio vl-tone

Not sure what sort of kit you have but since you mentioned racks.

Emu Romplers (as someone else mentioned) can be had fairly cheap and tweaked to generate serious bass. MoPhat or XL particularly. I use the ROMs from these two for a considerable portion of my bread and butter low-end.

A couple of classics...
Yamaha tx81z = PITA interface but some clean/deep bass potentials
Oberheim Matrix 6r = PITA interface but allows you to create some unreal bass tones if you tweak it right

The if I had $1k list...
DSI Mopho + Waldorf blofeld = Both can be had for a grand total and would give you sick analog monophonic joy and unreal complexity/flexibility in two tiny boxes.

You beat me to the punch in recommending the DSI Mopho. that thing is aptly named for thick analog bass. Another one people might not know about is the MFB Synth II. Its an all analog signal path, with the same voice structure as the Mini Moog. Its more flexible than the Mopho, but easier to edit and perform with. It also sounds retardedly good.
http://www.analoguehaven.com/mfb/synthII/

ehcsztein wrote: Yamaha tx81z = PITA interface but some clean/deep bass potentials

plus it's got that surprisingly-huge pullout card.

the tx81z is definitely a fun little box, but it's about as dx-style FM as you can get. so a lot more human league, a lot less squelchy low end.

run anything you already have through a subharmonic synth

Analog synthesiser modules. To get a simple sub you need two oscillators (with sine outputs and fine tuning), a filter with low-pass 12dB/octave capability, envelope generator and voltage controlled amp. I reckon you can get that for about $600, less (maybe $300) if you buy self-assembly. Next purchase would be an LFO module or indeed anything you feel suitable but those 1st 5 are the key

I'm really diggin my Nord Rack 2, though I get the best sounds from running through ableton to add a little bit of processing and EQs. I would love to get some proper analog synths though. Spent all my cash on a mixer though...

go semi-vintage imo..


older roland, and the like, gear is on the low right now. For example there's a jv880 locally for <150$ and a D20 for <350.. hit up Craigslist or Ebay and grab some 80s-90s gear for CHEAP, especially if all you need is some bass from it

Check out Muph sounds some of those tracks are made entirely in clavia.

easily the Moog Little Phatty. go to your local guitar center or equivalent and test it out. blows any VA away...and if you have the cash and are ready to spend Musicians Friend have a great deal until Monday 4th May. 20% off everything Thats worthy of its own thread tbh

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/giftcertificate