Stylon Pilson Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 I'm looking for a VST plugin that will give me an effect similar to a bass synth pedal. I'm just experimenting at this stage, so I'm not looking to spend money if I can help it. Does anyone have anything they can recommend? Thanks, S.P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 Surely any decent synth plug-in with the correct oscillator footage settings and played in the appropriate octave will do the job? Depending on your DAW you should have something suitable already. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 (edited) I find that bass synth sounds vary to an extent also. Some might sound off putting , and some great . A lot may depend if you have a certain sound that you are after . Edited March 19, 2021 by RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stylon Pilson Posted March 19, 2021 Author Share Posted March 19, 2021 1 hour ago, RAY AGAINST THE MACHINE said: I find that bass synth sounds vary to an extent also. Some might sound off putting , and some great . A lot may depend if you have a certain sound that you are after . I'm working on a video of Don't You Want Me with my 80s band. I'm not looking for something that exactly matches the sound of the bass on the original song, as I think that will look a bit weird when juxtaposed with video of me playing, but something that leans in that sort of cheesy direction would be great. S.P. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 The bass on the recording of "Don't You Want Me" is likely to be either Roland Jupiter 8 or Roland System 100. If you are looking for a plug-in the process your bass guitar sound rather than a simple synth (which would be easier) have a look for anything with a Roland 80s style filter on it. Does the Roland Cloud version of the JP8 allow an external sound source? You will need to add something before this to fatten up the sound of the bass as an alternative to the dual oscillators that would have been used. Try a bit of distortion and chorus and then the JP8 type LPF. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted March 19, 2021 Share Posted March 19, 2021 (edited) 1 hour ago, Stylon Pilson said: I'm working on a video of Don't You Want Me with my 80s band. I'm not looking for something that exactly matches the sound of the bass on the original song, as I think that will look a bit weird when juxtaposed with video of me playing, but something that leans in that sort of cheesy direction would be great. S.P. In your first post, you say a 'Free Synth VST', so I'm guessing you are using a DAW for the Audio playback to your Video, or maybe considering it? If so, and your DAW doesn't have any Synth VSTi's, just Google for free VST Synth's etc... Like these: Best 20 Free Synth VST/AU Plugins of 2021! - The Home Recordings The best free VST synth plugins 2021: wavetable, FM, virtual analogue and more | MusicRadar If you don't want it to sound totally synthy and lean more towards Bass Guitar sounding, you can double up. Try Recording the Bass line in question as a midi Bass Synth part on one track, and then, record another track with just a dry Electric Bass part doubling the Synth. (You could even move the Synth part up an Octave). Then mix in the Synth track just under the Bass Guitar track. Buss them together if needed (including a Comp on the buss track to glue both parts together). There are plenty of YouTube tutorial videos demonstrating this technique. EDIT: Out of interest, are you going to be miming to playback for your video? If not, and you are playing live, ignore all that I said.... Edited March 19, 2021 by lowdown Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicko Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Air Xpand!2 includes a Jupiter 8 preset, but although I got this free but not sure if it still is. You could probably create the sound you want in Dexed (a free Yamaha DX7 emulator) but it's hugely complex and you might never work out how to get what you are after. Alternatively TAL make a number of Roland emulators - some are available free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted March 20, 2021 Share Posted March 20, 2021 Try here..? PG8X, by Martin Lüders ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 Among various nice noises the Podolski free VST synth by U-he has a slab of bass pre-sets which might be of interest. The first minute or so of this demo vid plays some of them: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 20 hours ago, Nicko said: You could probably create the sound you want in Dexed (a free Yamaha DX7 emulator) but it's hugely complex and you might never work out how to get what you are after. You will never get the big fat analogue sounds of a JP8 out of a DX7 emulator. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleat Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 (edited) How about this Juno -60 VST? TAL Software (tal-software.com) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyxrhdWeiE8 Edited March 21, 2021 by Bleat juno -"60" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 (edited) 18 hours ago, skankdelvar said: Among various nice noises the Podolski free VST synth by U-he has a slab of bass pre-sets which might be of interest. The first minute or so of this demo vid plays some of them: I downloaded this yesterday. I must say, it's terrific..!! There are loads of very usable presets and it's an interesting Synth for carving out your own sounds. The arpeggiater has plenty of options as well. It's also pretty CPU efficient. Thanks for the link. 👍 Edited March 21, 2021 by lowdown 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleat Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 Here you go I downloaded, created this sound and recorded bassline with TAL U-NO 62 in about 10mins. Don't You Want Me - Bass - TAL U-NO 62 by User 549051091 (soundcloud.com) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bassassin Posted March 21, 2021 Share Posted March 21, 2021 It's probably more Cygnus X-1 than Don't You Want Me Baby, but I've been having a lot of fun with this: https://www.kvraudio.com/product/taurus_by_smart_electronix Can't have too many free synths. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 15 hours ago, Bleat said: Here you go I downloaded, created this sound and recorded bassline with TAL U-NO 62 in about 10mins. Don't You Want Me - Bass - TAL U-NO 62 by User 549051091 (soundcloud.com) Nicely played, but the sound is really weedy compared with the original. It shows that you really need an synth with 2 VCOs and separate ADSRs for the filter and the amp to get close to the original sound. I've never understood the value of having a Juno 6/60 clone or VST. Back in the day no-one bought these synths out of choice. We bought them because we wanted to be able to play chords but couldn't afford a JP8, Prophet 5 or OBXA. If you really want that weedy Juno 6 sound just turn off one of the oscillators. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicko Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 OK so I've been playing around with some 80s synth pop this weekend and took 5 minutes out to have a go in Xpand!2. The first time around is a Jupiter Unison, slightly tweaked parameters, and the second is the same thickened up using the multitimbal function. The balance of the various elements could be tweaked a bit further. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleat Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 (edited) 2 hours ago, BigRedX said: Nicely played, but the sound is really weedy compared with the original. It shows that you really need an synth with 2 VCOs and separate ADSRs for the filter and the amp to get close to the original sound. I've never understood the value of having a Juno 6/60 clone or VST. Back in the day no-one bought these synths out of choice. We bought them because we wanted to be able to play chords but couldn't afford a JP8, Prophet 5 or OBXA. If you really want that weedy Juno 6 sound just turn off one of the oscillators. We aren't back in the day though dreaming about owning a Jupiter 8 or to achieve the exact sound of the original song? The guy asked about any free vst's available that he could approximate a "synth bass-like" sound. I made a suggestion for one that is quick and free to download, with an easy to use interface, also providing a quick demo of it. There you go , a suggestion as asked for? And there are always solutions, for example: 1) Play the bassline on a real bass and mix in a synth sound underneath. 2) Open up another instance of VST, create another bass sound, play octave lower, detune and layer up the sound. 3) Spend a bit of money and get a Boss SYB pedal to get a true "bass synth" sound, then re sell it after project is finished. 4) Sell house, wait around for a "Jupiter 8" to become available (good luck) , and use proceeds to purchase. If the project involves other musicians and therefore will be a mix of instruments, what point is there in creating a speaker-blowing bass sound that may seem great in isolation, but devastating to a band mix? Edited March 22, 2021 by Bleat Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 For me that bass part - especially in the intro - is such an important part of the song that it really needs the correct sound otherwise the OP might as well use a plain bass guitar. And these days there are plenty of plug-in synths with the required features - 2 oscillators and two envelope generators per voice that you don't need to be using a crap emulation of a second-rate synth. If you really wanted hardware there's no need for a real Jupiter 8 - Roland's very own System 8 synth will nail the sounds you want. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nicko Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 28 minutes ago, BigRedX said: For me that bass part - especially in the intro - is such an important part of the song that it really needs the correct sound otherwise the OP might as well use a plain bass guitar. And these days there are plenty of plug-in synths with the required features - 2 oscillators and two envelope generators per voice that you don't need to be using a crap emulation of a second-rate synth. If you really wanted hardware there's no need for a real Jupiter 8 - Roland's very own System 8 synth will nail the sounds you want. From your description this might do the job https://plugins4free.com/plugin/2285/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad3353 Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 Out of curiosity, I listened to the original track (yes, I dimly remember having heard it somewhere before, decades ago...), and thought absolutely nothing of the 'bass' synth sound. The lower register of a Casio or any other keys would do the job, as far as I could judge. OK, maybe not a Stylophone, but it's nowt 'special'. Still, if boats are floated with stuff like that... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleat Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 It doesn't look like a Jupiter 8 though. 🤨 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bleat Posted March 22, 2021 Share Posted March 22, 2021 4 minutes ago, Dad3353 said: Out of curiosity, I listened to the original track (yes, I dimly remember having heard it somewhere before, decades ago...), and thought absolutely nothing of the 'bass' synth sound. The lower register of a Casio or any other keys would do the job, as far as I could judge. OK, maybe not a Stylophone, but it's nowt 'special'. Still, if boats are floated with stuff like that... It is the actual bass line that is iconic and as the op already stated, he's not even looking to replicate particularly "that" sound. I agree that certainly in this case, any number of vst synths could provide what the op is looking to achieve. The original song is *not* massively bass heavy, and as I already stated above, if this is to form part of a band project, you most definitely don't want to be wrecking a mix with speaker blowing levels of low end anyway. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stylon Pilson Posted March 27, 2021 Author Share Posted March 27, 2021 (edited) I apologise if I'm being a bit thick, but what I'm looking for is a VST that I can apply to an already-recorded bass part to give it the feeling of having been played through a EHX Bass Mono Synth pedal or something like that. I'm not looking to create an entirely-synthesised bassline from scratch. As lowdown hit upon above, this is going to go into a video, and the end result needs to at least bear some resemblance to how we look and sound at a gig. From looking at most of the plugins linked above, they don't seem to have the facility to operate in this way? S.P. Edited March 27, 2021 by Stylon Pilson Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skankdelvar Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 (edited) 49 minutes ago, Stylon Pilson said: From looking at most of the plugins linked above, they don't seem to have the facility to operate in this way? Correct. They're just modules that accept a midi note and spit out audio. You can't just apply them to an audio track. Two approaches suggest themselves: * Copy the audio track, put it in another channel and convert the audio to midi then send into one of the synths above then combine the two channels via a buss and render as a single audio track - doable but fiddly, also note tracking issues. * Apply a dedicated 'bass synth' VST effect to the audio - basically like running your bass through a 'bass synth' effects pedal. Probably won't be as authentic sounding but it would get you there. PS: I've got an old Synth Bass VST lurking somewhere on an external drive - let me have a poke around and get back to you. Edited March 27, 2021 by skankdelvar Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lowdown Posted March 27, 2021 Share Posted March 27, 2021 33 minutes ago, Stylon Pilson said: I apologise if I'm being a bit thick, but what I'm looking for is a VST that I can apply to an already-recorded bass part to give it the feeling of having been played through a EHX Bass Mono Synth pedal or something like that. I'm not looking to create an entirely-synthesised bassline from scratch. As lowdown hit upon above, this is going to go into a video, and the end result needs to at least bear some resemblance to how we look and sound at a gig. From looking at most of the plugins linked above, they don't seem to have the facility to operate in this way? S.P. Ah, okay. You are after a modulation FX plug in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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