I'm not happy with any of the bass VSTi's I have

Something really that can be really grimy or crunchy or growly.

What do you currently use that you find unsatisfactory?

I really have an awful set of VST's. Like a bunch of free ones and the AB 303, but thats different.

And whatever is in ableton.

You got some bucks on your paypal or are comfortable with ripping shit of torrents?

edit: cause i got some suggestions in either case

Go for it. Ill consider my moral stance once I research them.

NI Massive right off the bat.

Industry standard, wavetable synth basically, the traditional waveform stuff is pretty solid, once you get into the more intricate wavetables you've seriously got some insane amount of bass in some of them... basically this baby has tons of depth and you'll be fiddling with it a lot. only the filters are shit, imo, otherwise this is a beast of a quasi-modular. And shaping-wise (since you're going for crunchy and grimy) it's got some very cool inserts.

Lennar Digital Sylenth1

As phat as VSTs get. Easy to use. Insane voicing. Low CPU hit. Go for it.

Minimonsta

Moog clone. Very good clone apparently, almost as fat as it's inspiration. I've got an actual Moog, haven't tested them side by side yet, but a friend, after hearing mine, said that the minimonsta is not as off the mark as he'd imagined.

My gratitude Lube Saibot.

Also, since you're looking for crunch and grime, look beyond what just the synth can do. You're gonna want to shape, eq, shape some more, compress to fuck-all, then piss on it and set it on fire. The bit-reducer and downsampler in ableton are ok, but for every other type of shaping get some good distorsion and overdrive vsts (guitar rig, antares tube, ohmycide), some good ringmod (i have no idea, vst-wise) some good clippers (i use the t-racks one), a good waveshaper and so on. eq to perfection and compress/limit the end result heftily (sonnox & waves have good stuff out in this department). Maybe boost the lows with some Waves Maxxbass, and then boost some more till it would normally get out of hand but then multiband sidechain the sub in the bass to be ducked out by your kick so everything sits right in the end. etc.

Also look into FM synthesis. Check out NI FM8, and read up on FM ratios 'n shit and fiddle around with operators until you get it growling right with almost no need to shape afterwards.

Just seconding Lube's last post - you're probably after something post-synthesis to get that bit of grit/growl/grime. Try finding a compressor which you can tweak to overdrive slightly. That's always nice to use on bass for that effect.

1. V-Station (all your base)

2. Minimonsta (moog bass)

3. Imposcar (for more low mid growly bass)

4. JBM Subfood - add your own lp for the clicky hi noise and you're set sine/sub bass

5. Buy a Dave Smith Instruments Mopho. 300 +/- on ebay. More than enough bass, and actually analog.

Also +1 for FM8 and Asynth

massive is really good at the moment

i'm going to check out minimonsta and slyneth

trilian is the be-all and end-all of bass plugins, IMHO. i use almost nothing else anymore. the thing just sounds amazing, and the level of programmability is incredible. it's largely sample-based content, but the samples are of every possible synth you could think of for bass, not to mention phenominal acoustic and electric bass sounds. oh, and full-range chapman stick.

A+

  On 4/8/2010 at 8:25 AM, maus said:

trilian is the be-all and end-all of bass plugins, IMHO. i use almost nothing else anymore. the thing just sounds amazing, and the level of programmability is incredible. it's largely sample-based content, but the samples are of every possible synth you could think of for bass, not to mention phenominal acoustic and electric bass sounds. oh, and full-range chapman stick.

 

A+

I was just about to mention Trillian. I haven't got it myself but I've seen a bunch of presentation videos and it looks really really good. I've got Trilogy but believe it or not I've never actually used it. I've been fooling around with all the contra basses but I think the lack of really good old school analogue basses - such as the MS10 & MS20... but as far as I remember the MS10 & MS20 are both sampled in Trillian! WOoh!

I too love Massive and FM8. I also got a free copy of Novation Bass Station, which is a limited version of V-Station, but I've yet to try it out. Word is it is supposed to sound very big.

Also, Massive is just fun to look at.

Only reason I wouldn't recommend massive for bass is that it takes up a good bit of cpu real estate if you are only using it for bass and you can get great bass with a lot less cpu and stuff goin on from other progs. Otherwise +1 for massive. Great synth. One of the few that made my January "getting rid of 90% of my vsts" sweep. Free plugs are alway so tempting but man they really cluster up my menu. I also fall into that the more you have the less you do category too often, so that was my other reason for not recommending massive for bass. I think I would have a hard time just making a plain ol bass sound in massive without going all out crazy with modulations and wavetables

  On 4/8/2010 at 5:03 PM, Brandi_B said:

I think I would have a hard time just making a plain ol bass sound in massive without going all out crazy with modulations and wavetables

Plain old bass sounds? Come on, it's 2010!

use a sampler

sample the oscs of some real synths

Minimonsta is hot. I recommend. I used it for the bass on THIStrack.

Yeah also D16 Phoscyon. Hands down best vst for 303 bass, but can sound very non 303 too.

http://www.d16.pl/phoscyon

Lately I am partial to Majken's SubDuer.

Also, while you're there get all his other plugins.

Zoop

i'm a complete idiot and have no idea how vsts work.

but i suggest sampling bass notes from old king tubby tracks and sequencing yourself something from that.

there's one 90s rock song in particular which has a 2 note bass solo that i've sampled and pitch shifted for at least 6 songs of mine.

or borrow your sister's bass guitar, which is what i've been doing for the last 8 months.

There has to be a separation between bass and the midrangy fart stuff people search.

That being said these should both be two separate processes, and if you focus on each individually you will have no problems as long as you know things like what sine waves are, sub osc's, and distortion.

  On 4/12/2010 at 8:13 PM, acid1 said:

There has to be a separation between bass and the midrangy fart stuff people search.

 

That being said these should both be two separate processes, and if you focus on each individually you will have no problems as long as you know things like what sine waves are, sub osc's, and distortion.

this is good advice

massive is really great for snarly bass, i've found. and other things but it's definitely got a lot of snarl to it.

my only criticism is that it can "overpower a mix" easily it seems like. its also one of the easiest synths to program.

i have yet to find any other soft synth that is quite as good for drum and bass type basslines, but dcam synth squad by fxpansion has a really good mono synth called strobe that's worth checking out. the demo is 30 day trial with most features unlocked.