Saturday Synth Porn: Here are a few more shots, via Sweetwater, of the new Moog Taurus III bass pedals.

Synth Porn Saturday: The Moog Taurus III Bass Pedals in all their glory.

Click on the image to get the full-screen HD surround-sound photo of this droolworthy butt-shaker.

Moog’s selling these for 2K. Check the big photo and you’ll see why it’s going to be worth it.

Preliminary Specifications:

• 100% Analog Sound Engine based entirely on original TAURUS I circuits
• “Taurus I” style
• 2 VCO Oscillators, ADS Contour Generator, 1 VCF Filter, Output VCA
• PRESETS: 16 Banks x 4 presets = 48 Total Programmable Bass Sounds
• BANK 0 will contains the Original Taurus I Presets: VAR, TAURUS, TUBA, BASS
• MIDI: DIN and USB, Merging and Routing
• ARPEGGIATOR: MIDI Sync, TAP TEMPO, Internal
• CV Inputs: VOLUME, FILTER, PITCH, GATE

via Big City Music

LDaySynths has released Bass-Cruncher – a free bassline synthesizer, inspired by the Roland TB-303.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

BASSCRUNCHER

Monophonic Bassline Synthesizer mit einem Quitschigem Lowpassfilter ähnlich dem tb-303.

Features:

• Monophonic Synthesizer
• 1 OSC (saw/pulse waveform)
• 1 LP Filter mit 303 artiger Resonanz
• Drivemode (Soft/Hard sience V1.1)
• Filter Stepsequencer in 16 Stufen

You can preview Bass Cruncher below.

This music video demonstrates the synth side of Trilian.

via Hans-Jörg Scheffler:

The cool filters and envelopes allow for some very electrifying patterns.

Very inspiring.

Spectrasonics has released Trilian – their bass monster-synth.

You can get the full details on our previous Spectrasonics Trilian post, but these videos offer a very deep introduction to Trilian by Spectrasonics’ founder and sound designer Eric Persing.

More below.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Trilian Synth Demo

Click here to view the embedded video.

Trilian Acoustic Demo

Click here to view the embedded video.

Trilian Electric Demo

Description:

Trilian’s massive 34GB core library features new Acoustic, Electric and Synth basses – as well as enhanced versions of the classic Trilogy sounds. With a brand new user interface and numerous software innovations, Trilian is the first 64-bit native software based on Spectrasonics next generation STEAM Engine, and is the first virtual instrument to feature full library integration with the flagship Omnisphere synthesizer.

Trilian is available now for PC and Mac (VST/AU/RTAS) with an MSRP of $299 USD / €229 EUR. All Trilogy customers can upgrade to Trilian for $99 USD.

I saw a preview of Trillian at NAMM, and at that point, it already looked like it was an impressive bass synth.

Details below.

Performance features

• Designed for expressive, real-time performance
• Trilian’s new sounds feature:
  • Intuitive, automatic selection of dynamic legato and release articulations allows for highly realistic hammer-ons, pull-offs and trills.
  • Extensive ‘Round-Robin‘ articulations for natural sounding bass lines with repeated notes.
  • Multisampled dynamic slides – realistically slide from one note to another.
  • Multi-channel mixing between Microphone/Amplifier and Direct outputs of each bass.
• Articulations for Acoustic and Electric basses include: staccato, legato, sustain, vibrato, slide up, slide down, slide up & down, gliss up, harmonics, FX squeaks, X-notes, at multiple velocities with extensive Round-Robin.
• Pitched Release samples triggering , with up to 16x Round Robin samples for ultimate realism.
• Live Mode offers intuitive key switching approach for multiple articulations.
• Stack mode allows user configurable key/velocity/controller mapping for custom patch zones and splits.
• Custom Controls bring instant, useful and exciting synth bass patch editing attributes right to the users control.
• Arpeggiator with Groove Lock™ for instant bass line syncing to any Stylus RMX groove or MIDI file.

Sound Library features

• Vast Core Library — over 34GB with a wide variety of bass sounds, — 10-times the size of Trilogy’s library.
• Includes over sixty Electric Bass sounds – including 4, 5, 6 and 8-string Electric Basses played by 6 different bassists.
• Includes all types of playing techniques: Fingered, Picked, Fretless, Slapped, Tapped, Muted.
• Amazing new acoustic bass with extremely detailed articulations built-in to each patch – over 21,000 samples!.
• Inspiring brand new Electric Basses include: 5-string Music Man™ Studio Bass, Clean Fender Jazz Bass®, Epiphone™ Retro 60’s Bass, Hardcore Rock 5-string, Lakland™ Rock P-Bass and Chapman Stick®.
• 333 Synth soundsources include brand new sounds: Novation™ Bass Station, Yamaha® CS-80, Cwejman™ Modular, Moog Minimoog™, Little Phatty™, Voyager™, Taurus™ Pedals, Korg MS-20, Oberheim 2 voice, ARP 2600, Roland Juno 60/106, Waldorf Pulse™, DSI Mopho™ & Tetra™, Roland TB-303, SH-101, Metasonics KV-100 Assblaster, SE-1, Omega, ATC-1 and many more.
• Newly developed ‘Juicy Filter’ and ‘Power Filter’ algorithms are ideal for thick, resonant synth bass sounds.
• Enhanced, remastered versions of original Trilogy core library.
• Bonus section of remastered classic ‘Bass Legends‘ library; featuring Abraham Laboriel, John Patitucci & Marcus Miller.

System features

• Powerfully simple interface design makes key features accessible to every user.
• ‘Custom Controls’ bring the most useful editing capabilities for each patch right to the front panel.
• State of the art Browser with Searching, Attributes/Tags, Images.
• Advanced MIDI Learn and Automation parameter handling.
• High Definition streaming sample playback STEAM Engine technology.
• Integration with Omnisphere: Trilian patches open inside Omnisphere for editing & live performance stacks (Omnisphere version 1.1 or higher required for Trilian library integration).
• Edit page offers powerful sound manipulation features: dual filters, advanced envelopes and full modulation matrix.
• 8-part multitimbrality allows multiple articulations in a single plug-in with instant, seamless key-switching.
• Expandable sound architecture allows user customizable patches and unique new Bass sounds.
• Comprehensive integrated Reference Guide with search.
• Free Tutorial Videos available online to registered users.

Effects features

• Integrated, full-featured FX Racks – just like Omnisphere and Stylus RMX.
• Over 32 original FX Processors covering the full spectrum of signal processing including amp simulators and compressors, EQ and reverb and delays, unique processors and more.
• FX can be modulated, automated and MIDI Learned for powerful synthesis and real-time control options.

This is a quick demo video of the Moog Taurus bass synthesizer.

If you’ve used the Moog Taurus bass pedal synthesizer, leave a comment with your thoughts!

via zibbybone:

Quick run through of the synth’s preset sounds and the variable “user” section.

SoundsAndGear takes a look at Native Instruments‘ new Scarbee Pre-Bass:

Taking a look at this amazing sampled bass instrument from Native Instruments and Scarbee. Very well programmed to allow you to get some amazing sounds, yet it’s easy to use. Based on the Fender Precision bass. Watch the video and find out more.

Recorded with round-wound strings to get a fat and dirty sound, SCARBEE PRE-BASS also features a vast and incredibly intuitive set of playing techniques. The level of expression makes for a truly authentic and fun playing experience, and lends itself to a wide range of styles, from reggae, to pop, rock, hip-hop, R&B and much more.

SCARBEE PRE-BASS is fully playable in real time, with almost all articulations (including mutes, harmonics, hammer-ons, pull-offs, grace notes and more) available without key switches. What’s more, SCARBEE PREBASS makes exceptional use of the KONTAKT interface, displaying a fretboard overview with articulations dynamically updated as you play. With over 4,000 samples covering all four strings, nine velocity layers, and advanced scripting that makes playing both highly intuitive and stunningly authentic, it’s easy to see why the pros choose SCARBEE PRE-BASS.

Nice! Oliver Chesler, of the WireToTheEar blog, has published an interview with Klaus Suessmuth of Acidlab.

Acidlab is a boutique electronic music gear maker that’s created nice clones of the Roland TB303 & Roland TR808, along with an original synth design, the Bombass.

This is a demo of Subsonic Labs’ Low Frequency Entity, a “real-time multi-touch interface to a visualized low frequency sound”:

The various touch configurations control different parameters of the synthesized bass, including filter modulation rate, bit crush, sample and hold, feedback, oscillator phase and fm synthesis.

Subsonic Labs is the creative work of Christian Bannister, a musician & developer based out of Portland, Oregon.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Bannister explains:

I am not analyzing the audio here at all. I am only using the settings on the bass synth to drive the visuals. I broke out certain “effective” parameters from the NI Massive bass patch and worked with those to define the visual characteristics of the entity.

I am looking at an lfo modulation of the filter here, a bitcrush effect, a sample and hold effect, feedback, an oscillator phase parameter, and an fm synthesis control. This gives me a huge palette to work with. I should say I am also sending midi note information to Processing and having that vibrate the form as well.

Once the visual starts making sense then I can begin interacting with it and finding musical ways to engage it or play it like an instrument.

Check out the Bannister’s site for more details.

Check out this official demo video of the Boss SYB-5 Bass Synthesizer.

Description:

The SYB-5 reproduces the fat and sharp sound characteristic of classic analog synthesizers.

The 11 internal synth sounds are based on combinations of three oscillator waves (Saw, Square, Pulse) and filters that fluctuate according to the envelope and LFO changes. The external pedal input means that bassists can put their foot into the performance by connecting an EV-5 Expression Pedal to control the filter and LFO rate.

If you’ve used the Boss SYB-5 Bass Synthesizer, leave a comment with your thoughts/ratings!

This is a brief overview of the Roland GR-33B Analog Bass Synthesizer, played with the futuristic Roland G-77 bass guitar.

There are several more guitar synth demos at Wayne Jones YouTube page.

via WayneJoness

Rekkerd checks out Rob Papen’s SubBoomBass virtual instrument. He sums up his impressions like this:

SubBoomBass has surprised me in a positive way. Since the sound engine is based on the one in Predator (which I already have) I wasn’t sure this new synth would have that much more to offer. But as a dedicated bass instrument, SubBoomBass includes a number of features that go beyond Predator.

With a strong focus on low end bass sounds, it features an improved sub-bass generator and sub-bass boost effects. The included presets showcase some amazing deep and phat bass sounds (the video doesn’t do them justice really), great for Hip Hop, R&B, Drum & Bass, or any electronic music genre.

See the full review at Rekkerd’s site.

This is a demo of the Bassonic SYB-5 bass synth pedal, an effect pedal which lets bassists have almost as much fun as synth players.

via ColBassonic:

playing funky licks on 5-string fretless bass with SYB-5 bass synth pedal

This is a video overview of Spectrasonics Trilian from MusikMesse 2009, via soundonsoundvideo.

Spectrasonics’ Trilian is the successor to their bass software instrument Trilogy.Trilian takes the sounds from Trilogy and enhances them with Spectrasonics’ “Steam” engine.

Trilian will be available free of charge for anyone who bought Trilogy in 2009 (although shipping charges will apply). It is due to start shipping on the 29th June 2009, at a cost of $299. Upgrades for Trilogy users who purchased before 2009 will cost $99.

Musikmesse 2009: Rob Papen has announced SubBoomBass, a new virtual bass instrument for Windows and Mac.

Description:

SubBoomBass is filled with excessive amounts of low end ammunition to detonate your tracks! With presets designed by the legendary Rob Papen and other guest artists, this dedicated bass synth will supply you with huge cone-rattling sounds that will devastate any music track. This software instrument is great for Hip Hop and RnB but can also be used for Dubstep, video game music, film scores and more…

It includes unique tuned drum percussion samples which are great for Hip Hop and RnB basses but can also be used to add rhythm flavour to your tracks. Also check out the innovative ‘Wave-sequence’ feature which will open up brand new sonic possibilities for your music.

Other features included are two effects slots which can be modulated using midi from any of the synthesizer parts. SubBoomBass also features a great ‘Easy Edit’ page and the unique ‘Quick Browser’ system that will allow you to find the sounds you need quickly and easily.

If you’ve used SubBoomBass, leave a comment with your thoughts!

More details below.

SubBoomBass features

• Oscillators section
  • 2 Oscillators with Analogue types waveforms and tuned percussion waveforms.
  • Oscillator waveform Symmetry control for each oscillator.
  • Free running option for each oscillator and Oscillator Syncing of oscillator 2 to oscillator 1.
  • Extended semitone range going from -48 semitones up to +48 semitones.
  • Separate octave control and fine-tuning.
  • Keyboard tracking on/off for each oscillator.
  • Each Oscillator offers Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) using an independent LFO for each oscillator with individual speed
  • and amount controls.
  • FM and Ring modulation modes for Oscillator 2.
  • Each oscillator has a (PWM) square wave or sinus wave Sub-oscillator .
  • Volume control for each oscillator and output on/off for Oscillator 1.
• Filter section
  • Main filter is an analogue modelled stereo Multimode Filter, offering 6dB LowPass and HighPass, 12dB, 18dB and 24dB LowPass and HighPass, 12dB and 24dB BandPass,
  • 12dB and 24dB Notch, Comb and Vocal Filter
  • Pre-filtering distortion.
  • Easy Filter control by pre-defined Cutoff Frequency modulation controllers: Envelope, Velocity, Key-tracking, LFO and Modulation Wheel.
  • Built-in Filter Envelope with Attack, Decay, Sustain, Fade and Release.
  • Build in Filter LFO with various waveforms, modulation amount control and tempo sync option with speed settings between 16/1 and 1/32t.
  • LFO Poly, free or mono mode options.
• Filter2 section
  • Additional Filter with cutoff control offering 6dB, 12dB and 24dB LowPass or HighPass setting.
• Filter Path
  • Additional Filter 1 and Filter 2 path selector.
  • Serial mode, Parallel mode and Split mode (Osc1>Filter1 / Osc2>Filter2)
• Amp section
  • Built-in Amp/Volume Envelope with Attack, Decay, Sustain, Fade and Release.
  • Volume control. Velocity> Volume amount.
  • Panning control.
• Free modulation section
  • 1 Envelopes with Attack, Decay Sustain, Fade and Release.
  • Option to control the Envelopes times using “velocity” or “key played”.
  • Modulation Amount Envelope and amount control for this Envelope.
  • 48 modulation destinations.
  • 1 LFO’s with various waveforms.
  • Tempo sync option with speed settings between 16/1 and 1/32t.
  • Poly, free or mono mode options.
  • Modulation Amount and amount control for this LFO.
  • 48 modulation destinations.
  • 4 free modulation routings.
  • 32 modulation sources.
  • 48 modulation destinations.
  • Secondary modulation source & control.
• Play modes section
  • Mono/Legato/Sequencer/Poly Play modes
  • Unison2/Unison4/Unsion6/ and Octave modes with Unison detune
  • Portamento featuring constant rate/constant time or held(legato) constant rate/constant time.
  • Adjustable Analogness setting to simulate the instability of vintage analogue synthesizers.
  • Demo C2 button to preview sounds.
  • Global Tuning.
  • Decay/Release Shape. This Changes the curvature of Predator’s envelopes decay and release stages. From exponential to linear to logarithmic.
• Overall Pitch modulation section
  • Tempo sync-able global Pitch LFO. You can set the amount and also which wave is used for this LFO.
  • Pitch bend with separate settings for up and down pitch-bends.
• Sequencer
  • 16 step sequencer.
  • Sequencer patterns can be 1-16 steps long.
  • Speed setting of 1/4, 1/3, 1/2, 2/3, 1, 3/2, 2, 3 and 4x BPM.
  • Overall step length.
  • Swing amount.
  • Slide amount for sliding steps.
  • Velocity control knob which mixes between keyboard (midi) velocity input and the steps velocity settings.
  • Each step has on/off, Tie, Slide, Tune, Velocity, Free, Osc1 waveform, Osc2 waveform row.
  • Tie modes normal and special which allows Slide, Tune, Velocity and Free settings inside a step if that step is set to Tie. Toggle modes 1 and 2 which toggle between normal and special.
  • Sequencer Latch which can be controlled by the midi sustain pedal.
  • You can load, save, copy, paste and clear sequencer, so you can reuse them in different presets.
• FX section
  • HQ effects blocks in serial mode and split mode option if Filter 1/2 are in ‘Split’ mode
  • Available effects: Mono Delay, Stereo Delay, Comb, Reverb, Chorus, Chorus/Delay, Flanger, Phaser, Wah/Delay, Distort, Low-Fi, Amp Sim,WaveShaper, Stereo Widener, Auto Pan, Gator, Bass Enhancer, FX Filter, Equalizer, Compressor, Ensemble Cabinet, MultiDistort, Auto Wah.
  • Midi tempo based settings in most effects.
  • 2 FX modulation sources for connecting midi or synth controls to FX parameters.
• Preset section
  • Uses sound banks composed of 128 presets.
  • Preset handling with copy, paste, clear and compare function.
  • ‘Quick Browser’, ‘Recently Browsed’ and ‘Favorite’ functions.
  • Presets are stored in clear categories banks.
• Overall
  • 6-voice polyphony.
  • Parameter read-out field inside preset section.
  • Quick Manual build inside preset section.

SubBoomBass will be available for Windows and Mac (VST/AU/RTAS) in the 3^rd week of April, 2009, for a list price of 99 EUR (included VAT) / $119 USD.

This is a video demo of the rare PAIA 3760 Bass Synth.

If you’ve used the PAIA 3760 synthesizer, leave a comment with your thoughts!

via Baptone:

Here is a very rare polyphonic PAIA bass synth I bought on ebay a while back.

via KowToy:

This is kind of ridiculous but fun to play.

Six string bass with a Roland GK-3B midi pickup running through a Roland GI-20 interface, Roland XV-2020 synth module, and a Boss GT-6B bass effect processor.

The bass drum and chime sound are coming from a Roland SPD-20 percussion pad and the rest of the rhythm sounds are from a Roland SPD-S.

These all run through my Carvin KB1000 Keyboard amp/mixer and into a Line 6 Toneport KB37 to my iMac G5.

Recorded with iMovie ‘08.

This video is a quick tutorial on making an Electro Bassline In FL Studio.

You can find the FL project here.

via Spyrofunk

Massive – Tutorial – Experimental Bassline

via wwwJoJoGocom:

Heres a tutorial how to create a strange Bassline Sequenz, think for electro or progressive Productions.