Essentials, creating synth bass.

[Arpangel]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVx9CnUqXGM

Just found this video, he clearly covers some of the most obvious aspects of creating a good synth bass, that often get ignored, or even thought about.
Avoiding phase cancellations when using multiple oscillators, making sounds too bright, taking a bit off the initial attack, keeping decay/release times short, also, interesting his preference for the ARP2600, I’ve always thought the Odyssey and 2600 were much better bass instruments than the Moog's, the ARP's have that solidity in the fundamental that Moogs just don’t have, for some reason, it just stays there on a ARP, it’s sharp, focused, whereas Moog's can be a bit smudgy.
I always use a Moog in single oscillator mode for bass, it just sounds better to me.

[Ben Asaro]

For synth bass I usually use 2-3 VCOs with one tuned up an octave; a triangle wave in the lower octave; sub osc or subharmonic generator; filter and VCA envelopes. Sometimes I use a single VCO but I prefer having individual control over the higher and lower voices. The Subharmonicon makes a brilliant bass synth on its own, too.

[Arpangel]

For synth bass I usually use 2-3 VCOs with one tuned up an octave; a triangle wave in the lower octave; sub osc or subharmonic generator; filter and VCA envelopes. Sometimes I use a single VCO but I prefer having individual control over the higher and lower voices. The Subharmonicon makes a brilliant bass synth on its own, too.

Yes, I think getting the balance right is the key when using multiple oscillators.
I’ve heard that about the Subharmonicon too.

[tea for two]

JmJarre apart from Moog Taurus mkI, pretty much nearly always uses 2600 for Bass even if it is to supplement some other synth bass.

I myself sometimes combine acoustic bass, electric bass, synth bass to get the sound I'm after on a few of my music pieces.

[Arpangel]

I don’t know what it is about the 2600, it just does bass really well, from funk to experimental, it just does bass.

[John Stafford]

I got a Minitaur yesterday. It's possible to sync the start of bass notes, so none of them have soggy starts. It's great.

I only got it because I figured the filter/VCA combination would have the fizzy brightness of the Taurus, and I can use it when I find the Matriarch too dull. I don't know yet, because my Matriarch died and has to go back to Thomann.

[The Elf]

The MiniMoog has always been considered 'the' synth for bass. When I first acquired a Mini I thought I would be meeting my forever bass synth - nope.

For me it's the Sequential Pro-One. It has faster envelopes and a punchier sound overall - less woolly lows, more grunty mids.

I like to have some movement in my bass, so single-oscillator doesn't cut it for me. The trick to avoiding phase cancellation is to mix in the second oscillator at a lower level than the first to a point where the movement is there, but the oscillators don't completely cancel. Adding a third or fourth oscillator in a higher octave is often a good option.

For sheer thunderous, sustained power-bass... Moog Taurus Mk1 every time. Something in its design avoids a dip in power with detuning. However it works, it works. I also have a MiniTaur. It's good, but it doesn't quite recreate the magic of the Mk1 Taurus - most of all it lacks that lovely distortion in the purr of the original.

Long ago I learned not to 'chase the bass'. The more I ever tried to fatten up bass, the weaker it became. I've found that the way to get powerful bass is to keep it simple and keep it clean. And the mids play as important a role in our perception of bass as the actual low end itself.

[MarkOne]

And the mids play as important a role in our perception of bass as the actual low end itself.

I still like the Waves RBass for its psychoacoustic tricks with harmonics to trick the mind into hearing really low bass.

The other thing I’ve started to really like on synth bass is the Softube dirty tape plugin. ( though I suspect a vinyl mastering engineer would probably hate it!)

[Arpangel]

The MiniMoog has always been considered 'the' synth for bass. When I first acquired a Mini I thought I would be meeting my forever bass synth - nope.

For me it's the Sequential Pro-One. It has faster envelopes and a punchier sound overall - less woolly lows, more grunty mids.

I like to have some movement in my bass, so single-oscillator doesn't cut it for me. The trick to avoiding phase cancellation is to mix in the second oscillator at a lower level than the first to a point where the movement is there, but the oscillators don't completely cancel. Adding a third or fourth oscillator in a higher octave is often a good option.

For sheer thunderous, sustained power-bass... Moog Taurus Mk1 every time. Something in its design avoids a dip in power with detuning. However it works, it works. I also have a MiniTaur. It's good, but it doesn't quite recreate the magic of the Mk1 Taurus - most of all it lacks that lovely distortion in the purr of the original.

Long ago I learned not to 'chase the bass'. The more I ever tried to fatten up bass, the weaker it became. I've found that the way to get powerful bass is to keep it simple and keep it clean. And the mids play as important a role in our perception of bass as the actual low end itself.

The Mini is alright for droney basses, more than one oscillator movement etc, when I got an Odyssey it seemed more solid but it didn’t have that rich Moog droney thing, again that’s why we need different things.