Hello to everyone (I am obviously new here).
My question, although probably discussed in many threads in a more general sense is a bit more specific and I therefore hope that it is not a yaaaaaaaawn to any regulars.
I have previously owned a Liberation, a Prodigy and my mate owned a MemoryMoog — so I am familiar with the machines in general, but by no means a synth-master as such.
Now, in my opinion, when people talk about synth bass, there are quite a few “categories” that I believe they are referring to.
What I mean is, FAT BASS may be sub-bass, squelchy bass, filtered bass or perhaps even multi VCO layered bass etc etc.
I have been self-investing in a pretty well equipped studio for the past 5 years or so and one of the items I want to include in my arsenal is a Moog synth to be basically set-and-forget on a rubbery, thick, punchy bass sound that I can hear in my head — but need to make sure I buy the right machine without over or under capitalising.
What I mean is, I would love to buy (and probably will buy at some point) a Mini and a Memory, but at this point I have a few holes to fill before I can get going and I am hoping to find a cheaper solution (considering the single ended use I am expecting to get out of it).
I know this is almost an unanswerable question, but can anyone suggest a few models that may fit the bill — or am I talking Mini-or-Nothing stuff here?
I do remember getting the sound I am after from my Liberation (15 years ago!! — so I may be wrong) — but have read articles about the Source being good, as well as the Rogue and of course the Mini etc etc etc.
If I can put forward some sort of vague sound description, then I must point out that I do not want any wet squelchy filtered bass sounds, and I similarly do not want to necessarily stack 3 oscillators together and get that slightly detuned metallic power bass “electronic” sound, nor the square wave woody/hollow bass synth sound (am I making sense here??).
What I want (if I remember my Lib settings approximation), is the zero resonance, barely open filter, tiniest bit of attack (so as not to be too percussive), minimal sustain, a tad more decay than sustain and about a 500ms release type os sound that would possibly be typically used in 80’s (Yazoo, Erasure etc) and almost always with the bouncing octave riding disco tunes from that era.
A band that use the EXACT sound I want a lot, are Alphaville (on their Forever Young album).
I definately need two Oscillators (am I correct in wanting them to go down to an octave setting of at least 16 and perhaps one down to 32)??
I also need to have at least an ADR envelope, if not ADSR.
My word — I do apologise for the mammoth posting and the waffling in between — but this is a huge area to try to focus on and I hope I have made sense?
Thanks for any pointers and advice.
Regards
Schmoog.
You want a Source or LP. My Source has been my bass machine for years and you can find them for a little less than the LP, but their prices are climbing. Encore Electronics makes a decent MIDI retrofit for the Source.
I used to own a Liberation and it does not do bass. The VCOs don’t go low enough and the filter isn’t that great.
Hi and thanks for that.
I have seen many references to the Source being a contender for bass — it was just my concern relating to what different people thought a good bass sound was as such.
Hmm — that sounds a bit silly — what I mean is, I am assuming that some people may want versatility from a bass synth — or some people may be blown away by a different sound (a TB-303 does absolutely nothing for me, for example).
The round/heavy/rubber/thick bass thump that I am wanting may well be found in another synth (Odyssey, Pro One etc) for all I know, but from my time with my Moogs in the late 80’s, I am pretty sure that they are the way forward in my current quest.
Life is just far too short to be able to thouroughly research everything and this particular sound I want is really going to be a set and forget kinda thing, so I figured a post here could cast off some of the doubts.
Oh well, here I go rambling again.
Thanks again.
Schmoog.
I concour with MC and will narrow it down a bit more…go with the LP.
I have both a Source and a LP. The LP has a much better feeling keyboard, and it is easier to see what your settings are with the four wheels instead of one, plus it has presets. PLUS it is new and under warranty, not 25 years old. Plus it has MIDI built in. Plus it has an overdrive. Plus the Stage Edition will go for under $1,000 reportedly.
Too good to pass up.
i havent tried the LP, but i do have a source and a multimoog and i do have to concur that the source is incredible for bass
the oscilators on the source are really really thick and stable and the filter is really unbelivably smooth.
the lack of actual knobs isnt as bad as you would think becaues the data wheel is really solid and has some good weight to it. It kinda reminds me of those spinny knobs on the old tempest and tron video games.
its nice.. just select cutoff, and start whizzing the wheel around while playing.
the thing about the source is that it will go really really low without sounding ‘farty’
the sync feature is also pretty cool how it works with the pitch bend to make these cool chorus-y efffects.. not sure if the LP does that or not
im also not sure if the LP needs any warm-up time or not, i know my multimoog needs about 20 mins before you can play it, and the source seems to be ready right after i turn it on.
anywayas thats just my observations on the matter.
Any of the older 2-oscillator Moogs will give you good sounds. The LP will have some advantages of course in terms of convenience including built-in midi.