Having recently taken in our seven tips and techniques for making better synth basslines, you might be wondering which plugin instruments you should be looking into for their implementation. Well, the good news is that there are a great many excellent bass-minded synthesisers out there to be discovered – and the even better news is that we’ve done some of the legwork for you by rounding up five of our favourites.
Roland TB-303
Available through their Cloud subscription service or as a one-off buy, Roland’s physically modelled software take on their own classic TB-303 BassLine box puts an exacting emulation of one of the most historic synths of all time at your virtual fingertips. Famously, the 303 specialises in screaming acid house and filter-modulated techno lines, but it’s also at home in contemporary house styles, whether used as a primary source of bass tones or layered in over a deeper element.
The onboard step sequencer is a big part of what makes the 303 so inspirational to use, and the plugin version thankfully breaks the fiddly one-note-at-a-time interface of the hardware out into a more intuitive screen, complete with a comprehensive randomisation system for generating patterns at a click. The brilliantly succinct parameter set (triangle or square waveform selection, pitch, filter cutoff, resonance and modulation, and decay) keeps the workflow fast and on track, while the addition of simple distortion and delay effects is a nice touch, and the Condition knob enables faux ‘ageing’ of the circuitry.
There are a few great software TB-303 emulations out there – and it must be borne in mind that every hardware 303 had its own sonic quirks – but to our ears, Roland’s plugin is the closest sounding to the real thing.
Native Instruments Monark
With its ear-hugging warmth and floor-shaking fatness, the legendary Minimoog will always be among the first-call synths for electronic basslines, and some consider NI’s plugin emulation of it to be the best that money can buy. Running as a Reaktor Player Ensemble (totally frictionless, don’t worry), Monark sounds absolutely stunning, and even incorporates oscillator drift for heightened realism – anyone would be hard pushed to tell the difference between it and the hardware.
With the only significant additions to the original feature set being a trio of extra filter modes (6 and12dB/octave low-pass, and 12dB band-pass), and some new glide and legato modes, that adherence to the original spec is all-encompassing. Crucially, this means that Monark, like the actual Minimoog, is strictly monophonic – although for bass purposes, of course, that’s not an issue.
Everyone should have a Mini in their low-end arsenal, and Monark is a superb virtual option, delivering fabulously authentic analogue basslines.
Xfer Records Serum
Since its launch in 2015, Xfer Records’ monster synth has become massively ubiquitous in EDM and bass music of all kinds, but is a wholly viable virtual instrument for any production that demands a spectacular, visceral, larger-than-life electronic bassline. Serum’s brilliantly conceived (and readily expandable) library of manipulable (via the real-time Warp knob and comprehensive onboard editing system) wavetables gives it vast sonic range right out of the gate, and a wealth of filter types, modulation sources and built-in effects provide everything you could possibly need to realise even your wildest bass design ambitions.
Unarguably one of the most powerful, versatile synths ever made, Serum can make noises at the bottom of the mix that few other plugins can match – it’s nothing short of essential.
Rob Papen SubBoomBass 2
The name makes its sonic intentions clear, and the keys to SubBoomBass 2’s bottom-end specificity are its huge library of oscillator waveforms – which takes in all the analogue standards, as well as 32 modulation-friendly Spectral waves and a smorgasbord of bass and percussion samples – and the sub oscillators that track each of the two main oscillators. There’s also physical modelling onboard in the shape of a Karplus-Strong String emulation, and a superb sequencer for note pattern creation and step-based switching of oscillator waveform selection, amongst other things.
Modulation and effects are supplied in abundance, too, with two slots each hosting any from a list of 28 of the latter, and assignable mod sources taking in three envelopes, three LFOs and Rob Papen’s wicked proprietary XY pad, with which intricate freeform parameter movements can be recorded and played back – awesome for bass-minded filter, Symmetry and pulse width modulation.
It wouldn’t be completely unreasonable to describe SubBoomBass 2 as a bass synthesis workhorse of sorts, but that wouldn’t do justice to its unique specification or the multitude of tonal colours opened up by its waveform library. Sure, it can blast out staple bass tones all day long, but go deeper into that cleverly focused architecture and you’ll find it to be a highly characterful synth with a voice all its own.
u-he Diva
Urs Heckmann’s staggeringly convincing semi-modular analogue synth plugin lets you build your own hybrid architectures by freely combining oscillators, filters and envelopes physically modelled on those of an array of vintage hardware, including the Minimoog, Korg MS20 and various Roland Junos and Jupiters. As the voluminous preset library demonstrates, Diva is a beast when it comes to basslines, with the painstakingly recreated oscillators and zero delay feedback filters providing plenty in the way of warmth and oomph, and a dedicated control panel (Trimmers) for dialling in as much drift and analogue wobble as you like.
Modulation goes beyond the usual LFOs and envelopes, with the Modifications panel enabling a number of maths-based processes to be exploited for parameter control; and of the five onboard effects, the Chorus module proves particularly useful for self-contained bass programming.
So ‘analogue’ it hurts, Diva’s amazing synthesis toy box is bursting with low-frequency possibilities.
That’s just five of what we think are the tastiest synths around for bass design, but there are loads of other equally strong contenders to be considered, including – and by no means limited to – Native Instrument FM-8, Vengeance Sound VPS-Avenger, Lennar Digital Sylenth1, Sugar Bytes Cyclop and the Roland TR-808 kick drum. Let us in on your favourites in the comments.